EA Vancouver, which was previously called EA Burnaby and then EA Canada, is a Canadian company that creates video games. It is located in Burnaby, British Columbia. The studio began as Distinctive Software in January 1983 and is now the largest and oldest studio owned by Electronic Arts. EA Vancouver has about 1,300 employees and includes the world's largest team for testing video games. The studio is most famous for creating many EA Sports and EA Sports BIG games, such as EA Sports FC (formerly FIFA), NHL, SSX, NBA Street, NFL Street, EA Sports UFC, and FIFA Street. It also developed several NBA Live and NCAA Basketball games between 1994 and 2009.

Premises

The campus has a motion-capture studio, 22 rooms for creating music, 14 video editing rooms, 3 production studios, an area for making audio compositions, and a team that checks quality. There are also places like fitness rooms, two theaters, a cafeteria, coffee shops, a soccer field, and many arcades.

History

In 1991, Electronic Arts (EA) bought Distinctive Software for $11 million. EA changed the company's name to EA Canada. At the time, Distinctive Software was known for creating racing and sports games published by Accolade.

Distinctive Software, Inc. was a Canadian video game company started in Burnaby, British Columbia, by Don Mattrick and Jeff Sember after they made a successful game called Evolution. In 1982, Mattrick and Sember asked Sydney Development Corporation to publish Evolution. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Distinctive Software was famous for making racing and sports games, including Test Drive, Stunts, 4D Boxing, and Hardball II. In 1991, Distinctive Software was bought by Electronic Arts for $10 million and became EA Canada, where many EA Sports games are developed.

In 1989, programmers Pete Gardner and Amory Wong of Distinctive Software, using the name USI (Unlimited Software, Inc.), adapted Sega’s arcade game Out Run for MS-DOS. They used software tools they had created for Test Drive II. Accolade claimed Distinctive Software broke their agreement and took them to court. Accolade asked the court to stop the sale of Out Run. Distinctive Software argued that they only used code for basic functions, like clearing the screen, which Accolade did not own. Accolade said their contract for Test Drive II gave them ownership of the game and its code. The court ruled that Accolade owned the game’s design and idea but not the code used to create it. The court also said Accolade did not prove that stopping the sale of Out Run was fair.

Since becoming EA Canada, the company has developed many EA Games, EA Sports, and EA Sports BIG titles.

In 2002, EA Seattle, which was once called Manley & Associates, closed. Half of its workers moved to EA Vancouver.

In 2002, EA bought Black Box Games. The company became part of EA Canada and was renamed EA Black Box. In 2005, EA Black Box became an independent studio. It was home to games like Need for Speed and Skate. The studio closed in 2013 after EA restructured and cut jobs.

In 2011, EA Canada bought Bight Games, a company that makes free-to-play games.