Overview
EA Canada officially opened on 21 October 1999. Spread across three buildings, it houses a motion-capture facility, audio mixing studios, video editing suits, an art department and a quality assurance department. Amenities include a cafeteria, coffee bars, an outdoor soccer field and beach volleyball court, an indoor basketball court and fitness centre that is open 24 hours a day.
Prior to being acquired by Electronic Arts in 1991 for $11 million, EA Canada was known as Distinctive Software which was known for a number of racing and sports games under the Accolade brand. It was located at 4400 Dominion Street, Burnaby.
In June 2002, Electronic Arts acquired Black Box Games. It was renamed EA Black Box and became a wholly-owned subsidiary of EA Canada. Electronic Arts dedicated the top four floors of its downtown Vancouver office—located in the PricewaterhouseCoopers building at 250 Howe Street—to EA Black Box and turned it into another development studio. On 19 December 2008, it was announced EA would close the Vancouver studio and move all development to the Burnaby complex. The move was completed in June 2009.
Games
With the closure of EA Chicago, EA Canada is the studio that develops numerous bestselling EA Sports franchises, which in recent years have included Fight Night, FIFA, FIFA Street, NHL, and SSX. On 18 July 2012, it was announced the new EA Sports UFC game will be developed at EAC. EA Black Box has previously developed games for the Need for Speed franchise, as well as skate.
After numerous delays, it was announced on 3 November 2010 that development of the NBA Live franchise would be moved to EA Tiburon in Florida, USA.
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