EA Orlando is a video game company in Orlando, Florida. It was started in 1994 and was previously called Tiburon Entertainment. In 1998, Tiburon was bought by Electronic Arts, and the company became known as EA Tiburon. Earlier, in May 1996, Electronic Arts had purchased part ownership in Tiburon. As part of this agreement, Tiburon agreed to make games only for Electronic Arts.
The studio is most famous for creating the Madden NFL game series. Other games made by EA Tiburon include NCAA Football, NFL Street, NASCAR, and NFL Head Coach. In late 2006, Tiburon released a game called Superman Returns, which was based on the movie of the same name. Starting with the 2008 version of the game, EA Tiburon took over development of the Tiger Woods PGA Tour series from another Electronic Arts studio called EA Salt Lake.
History
Tiburon Entertainment was started by John Schappert, Jason Andersen, and Steve Chiang. They were all engineers who worked for a company called Visual Concepts in Cincinnati, Ohio. After leaving Visual Concepts, Schappert and Andersen moved to Florida to start a new video game software development studio. In 1994, Tiburon Entertainment was established in Orlando, Florida, by Schappert and Andersen, with Steve Chiang joining as an investor. The name "Tiburon" comes from the Spanish word "tiburón," which means shark. At first, the company had only three employees and 900 square feet of office space. However, it found a special place in the video game industry by creating programs for large gaming companies like EA.
Tiburon developed its own video game ideas and software. It also made games based on the ideas of Electronic Arts and other companies. EA first hired Tiburon to create Madden NFL '96 for the Super NES and Genesis systems. Tiburon later made Madden games for newer systems, adding a three-dimensional look to the players and stadiums. This continued until newer systems, like Sony's PlayStation, were introduced. Tiburon eventually began developing the Madden video game series, starting with Madden NFL '96 and NCAA Football.
Other games Tiburon created include College Football USA 97, Madden NFL 97, Soviet Strike, and Slam: Shaq vs. the Legends. These games were released on consoles such as the Genesis, Super NES, Sega Saturn, and PlayStation.
Electronic Arts (EA) has been connected to Tiburon since the company was founded. Tiburon made programs for large gaming companies, but it had a strong relationship with EA because of the work done on the Madden series by Schappert, Andersen, and Chiang. These three had worked with EA before when they were at Visual Concepts.
In April 1996, EA became a minority investor in Tiburon, owning about 19.9 percent of the company. On May 7, 1996, EA purchased a minority equity interest in Tiburon. As part of this deal, Tiburon became an exclusive developer for EA's entertainment software on the PlayStation, Sega Saturn, and other systems. In 1996, Tiburon signed a contract with EA to help create a new college football game, which became NCAA Football 98 (released in 1997). With this investment, Tiburon moved from its 4,000-square-foot office in Longwood to an 8,600-square-foot site in Maitland Center.
The partnership between EA and Tiburon grew stronger as Tiburon continued to create popular interactive games for EA. This led to EA buying Tiburon on April 2, 1998. After the purchase, Tiburon was rebranded as EA Tiburon and became a fully owned part of Electronic Arts. The studio continued to manage the Madden franchise, which it still does today. In 2005, EA acquired another game developer called Hypnotix and combined its operations with Tiburon. EA also built a new 25,000-square-foot creative center to house Tiburon's designers, programmers, and artists. At first, EA Tiburon was part of EA Sports, but after some changes in the company's structure, it became its own independent division.
Today, EA Tiburon is still one of the largest video game studios in Florida, employing over 500 people. In recent years, other development teams have been added to EA Tiburon, including Hypnotix, after EA bought smaller game studios. The Maitland headquarters continues to be renovated and expanded to improve employee movement and collaboration. Updates include better infrastructure and video-game themed artwork on the walls.
In late 2019, it was announced that EA Tiburon would move its headquarters from the Maitland Center to the Creative Village in Downtown Orlando. The new headquarters opened in March 2022.