PLAYA VISTA, Calif.-A visit to the Electronic Arts Inc. campus in Playa Vista, Calif., is like walking into another land-a world where gaming trumps all, and the lap of luxury seems to beckon around every corner. Hoodies and beanies handily outnumber suits, a full-scale coffee bar awaits in the main lobby and all the latest and greatest gaming consoles, including cellphones, are on hand for instant gratification.
The campus creates an idyllic setting on EA Way, with Loyola Marymount University to its west, looking down from above. Even if it looks more like fun and games, the EA Mobile Inc. team is plenty busy.
Take Barry Cottle, for example. He just came on board about a month ago as senior VP and general manager of EA Mobile, and is already brimming with excitement.
“Coming back here is like coming back to what I originally wanted to do,” he said, emphasizing EA Mobile’s top market position and a market share of at least triple its closest competitor.
“I’m extremely excited,” Cottle said with a huge smile. “My passion’s always been about marrying content and technology.”
He believes there are still plenty of disruptive technologies to be encountered in the space, and that will bring more compelling things to do with the mobile gaming platform. “I think there’s a lot of upside here,” he said.
Leveraging position
Despite his relative newcomer status, Cottle seems clear on what he will be charged with in the months to come.
“How do we leverage our success and be a leader in the evolution of where mobile gaming is going to go?”
“There is just such amazing talent and passion here. They’re here because they love it,” Cottle said. “It’s been refreshing to be around.”
It’s a sentiment that runs deep at EA Mobile.
“It’s fun, but it’s really challenging,” said Scott Humphries, a producer at EA Mobile. “This platform is an exciting platform.”
EA is unique among its competitors in that it has created (and absorbed through its Jamdat acquisition in 2006) a standalone mobile division. Most other publishers don’t have separate teams working exclusively on mobile; EA Mobile boasts a global staff of more than 600.
EA Mobile counts about 20 producers worldwide that help to develop and launch anywhere from 20 to 30 games every year. Some of those games can cost $100,000 to develop, while the most feature-rich mobile games can near $1 million in development costs.
“Whenever we design a game, we’re always trying to think ‘what’s the core mechanic?'” Humphries said.
“The phone is a phone first, that being said the games that we make are specific to that device,” he said. “I think it has to be the right kind of game that will work on this platform.”
Risk takers
The team still takes some considerable innovative risk, said Travis Boatman, VP of worldwide studios at EA Mobile. However, what sells and what gets accolades often come from entirely different ends of 200-plus mobile game portfolio.
EA Mobile has capitalized on the intellectual property rights it holds with major affinity brands like Tetris and Madden NFL. On the other end of the spectrum is Orcs & Elves. The game that got heaps of praise from the gaming community, but brought in nowhere near the numbers Tetris continues to bring in. The team is now working on a sequel to the game while the console division is developing a version of the game for the more immersive experience.
“You can spearhead new intellectual property in mobile,” Boatman said. For EA, this marks the first time a game that began on mobile has made its way to consoles.
“I’m such a believer in the mobile space,” Boatman said. “I really think this platform is just a phenomenal platform.”
