 This article is written from areal world point of view. |
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For the parent company, publisher, and the company that acquired this developer, see Electronic Arts. |
| Electronic Arts Los Angeles | |
|---|---|
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| Industry |
Video game developer |
| Products |
Medal of Honor series |
| Headquarters |
Los Angeles, California |
| Parent company | |
Electronic Arts Los Angeles (abbreviated EALA) was a game development studio that created Command & Conquer games from 2003 to 2010, as well as the Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-Earth franchise.
History[]
As DreamWorks Interactive[]
The company started as DreamWorks Interactive in 1995 as a subsidiary of DreamWorks SKG. Thier earliest titles included Someone's In The Kitchen!, The Neverhood, T'ai Fu: Wrath of the Tiger, BoomBots, and several licensed games from IPs owned by DreamWorks (Goosebumps: Escape from Horrorland, several Jurassic Park games, and Small Soldiers). In 1998, DreamWorks Interactive signed a partnership with Electronic Arts, for whom they have developed the first Medal of Honor game for the Sony PlayStation in 1999. In February 2000, Electronic Arts bought DreamWorks Interactive entirely, having the studio further develop Medal of Honor titles and Clive Barker's Undying (2001).
As Electronic Arts Los Angeles[]
The release of Medal of Honor: Frontlines in 29 May 2002 was the first to be published under the studio's new name, Electronic Arts Los Angeles. In January 2003, Electronic Arts Pacific and the remaining assets of the now-closed Westwood Studios were merged into Electronic Arts Los Angeles.
The EALA building, as seen in Red Alert 3
The first move of the reinforced studio was finishing creating the Zero Hour expansion for the 2003 Command & Conquer: Generals, the last game released by EA Pacific independently. From then on, the credits for games released under the Electronic Arts Los Angeles label hinted at the RTS team (directly referred to as such) working separately from the FPS team.
One part of the studio continued developing Medal of Honor titles and the 2004 GoldenEye: Rogue Agent, while the RTS team made use of the newly acquired Lord of the Rings license, releasing The Battle for Middle-earth in December 2004, despite an announcement of Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 sent by Mark Skaggs to Command & Conquer fansites earlier that year. In 2006, the RTS team released The Battle for Middle-earth II for Windows and Xbox 360, as well as the compilation Command & Conquer: The First Decade, which hinted at a new Command & Conquer title being in development in the bonus DVD shipped with every copy of the compilation.
At E3 2006, a new Command & Conquer game was announced - Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars. At the same time, an expansion for The Battle for Middle-earth II, titled The Rise of the Witch-king was outsourced to BreakAway Games with few members of the EALA RTS team supervising its development, while the rest were working on Tiberium Wars, which was ultimately released in late March 2007 for Windows, and a few months later for the Mac and Xbox 360, further evolving the way RTS games were controlled with an Xbox 360 Controller.
At the same time, Electronic Arts Los Angeles was working on Medal of Honor: Vanguard, Medal of Honor: Airborne and Smarty Pants. The year 2008 was opened with the expansion for Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, called Kane's Wrath, also outsourced to BreakAway Games. Before its launch, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 was announced to have already been in development since the latter half of 2007, and a beta key was included in all Windows copies of Kane's Wrath. The game was ultimately released in late October 2008. A first-person shooter set in the Command & Conquer universe, called TIBERIUM, was well in development in 2008, but was ultimately cancelled by order of higher branches of Electronic Arts, with the official reason being that the game was not meeting the company's standards. The rest of Electronic Arts Los Angeles was working on Boom Blox, two Brain Quest titles, and Lord of the Rings: Conquest (the latter being released in 2009).
In 2009, the company started doing additional programming for titles developed by other Electronic Arts' subsidiaries, such as The Saboteur and The Godfather II, but also kept its own production with Boom Blox Bash Party and Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3: Uprising/Commander's Challenge.
An internal experiment in the RTS team, called Command & Conquer: Arena, was under development in late 2008 and early 2009, with a beta key for it included in the Premier Edition copies of Red Alert 3. While it was originally intended as a multiplayer-based spin-off for the Asian market, higher EA branches ordered the project to form an entire Command & Conquer sequel. Despite internal protests from the developers, including the departure of multiplayer designer Greg Black, Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight was developed in around eight months and released in March 2010 to a negative response from both critics and fans. A month prior to the game's release, certain staff members from the studio were fired.
Closure and aftermath[]
Shortly after the release of Tiberian Twilight, Electronic Arts Los Angeles was closed as such, and its assets were split to two separate studios: first-person shooters were to be developed by Danger Close, while real-time strategies were assigned to Victory Games.
Danger Close released the Medal of Honor reboot in October 2010, while Victory Games only formed around that time and publicly announced itself as the successor of the Command & Conquer IP in February 2011. Danger Close is attributed to additional development on Bulletstorm, Battlefield 3, and Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel. However, after the release of the 2012 Medal of Honor: Warfighter was also unfavourably received, the studio ceased its existence as a separate entity and was renamed to DICE LA, becoming a full subsidiary of Digital Illusions CE, and has since worked on their titles such as Battlefield: Hardline (2014), Star Wars: Battlefront (2015), and Battlefield 1 (2016).
Victory Games, however, was only working on Command & Conquer (2013) (originally announced as a separate game, Command & Conquer: Generals 2) and re-releasing most Command & Conquer titles in the compilation called The Ultimate Collection. After nearly three years of developing the game, the studio was closed on 29 October 2013 amid internal corporate issues.
Games[]
As DreamWorks Interactive[]
- Goosebumps: Escape from Horrorland (1996)
- The Neverhood (1996)
- Someone's in the Kitchen! (1996)
- Goosebumps: Attack of the Mutant (1997)
- The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
- Chaos Island: The Lost World - Jurassic Park (1997)
- Dilbert's Desktop Games (1997)
- Small Soldiers (1998)
- Small Soldiers: Squad Commander (1998)
- Trespasser: Jurassic Park (1998)
- T'ai Fu: Wrath of the Tiger (1999)
- Warpath: Jurassic Park (1999)
- Medal of Honor (1999)
- BoomBots (1999)
- Medal of Honor: Underground (2000)
- Clive Barker's Undying (2001)
As Electronic Arts Los Angeles[]
- Medal of Honor: Frontline (2002)
- Medal of Honor: Allied Assault - Spearhead (2002)
- Command & Conquer: Generals: Zero Hour (2003)
- Medal of Honor: Rising Sun (2003)
- GoldenEye: Rogue Agent (2004)
- Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault (2004)
- The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth (2004)
- Medal of Honor: European Assault (2005)
- The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II (2006)
- The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II: The Rise of the Witch-king (2006) (with BreakAway Games)
- Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars (2007)
- Medal of Honor: Vanguard (2007)
- Medal of Honor: Airborne (2007)
- Smarty Pants (2007) (production for Planet Moon Studios)
- Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath (2008) (with BreakAway Games)
- Boom Blox (2008)
- Brain Quest: Grades 3 & 4 (2008) (production for Planet Moon Studios)
- Brain Quest: Grades 5 & 6 (2008) (production for Planet Moon Studios)
- Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 (2008)
- Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3: Ultimate Edition (2009)
- Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3: Uprising (2009)
- Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3: Commander's Challenge (2009)
- Boom Blox Bash Party (2009)
- The Lord of the Rings: Conquest (2009) (additional development for Pandemic)
- The Godfather II (2009) (additional development for EA Redwood Shores)
- The Saboteur (2009) (additional development for Pandemic)
- Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight (2010)
As Danger Close[]
- Medal of Honor (2010)
- Bulletstorm (2011) (additional development for Visceral Games and Epic Games)
- Battlefield 3 (2011) (additional development for DICE)
- Medal of Honor: Warfighter (2012)
- Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel (2013) (additional development for EA Montreal and Visceral Games Montreal)
As DICE LA[]
- Battlefield: Hardline (2014) (additional development for DICE)
- Star Wars: Battlefront (2015) (additional development for DICE)
- Battlefield 1 (2016) (additional development for DICE)