Electronic Arts
As General Manager of Electronic Arts Redwood Shores Studio, Nick Earl is responsible for the management of EA's Redwood Shores and Maxis studio operations. This includes overseeing programming, artwork, audio, research and development, quality assurance and strategy for top EA GAMES franchises as well as EA SPORTS franchises including: The Godfather, The Lord of The Rings, James Bond, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR, and the highly- acclaimed Sims franchise, as well as new titles under development. Prior to his current position, Nick was Chief Operating Officer of the Redwood Shores Studio, responsible for day-to-day operations of the studio at corporate headquarters. Among other games, Nick produced the first Army Men games on PC and PlayStation. He holds a B.A. degree in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley.
Related Links: www.ea.com
Last Updated: Tue, Jul 25, 2006
| Category | Title | Author/Speaker | Organization | Length | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Video | Game Design: James Bond | Nick Earl · Arcadia Kim · Erin Turner | EA | 01:25 | 11/2003 |
| Video | Competition | Nick Earl · Arcadia Kim · Erin Turner | EA | 01:46 | 11/2003 |
| Video | Innovation and Growth Post-IPO | Erin Turner · Arcadia Kim · Nick Earl | EA | 02:23 | 11/2003 |
| Video | Making an Interactive Game Successful | Nick Earl · Arcadia Kim · Erin Turner | EA | 00:57 | 11/2003 |
| Video | Flexibility: Recognizing Growth Sectors | Nick Earl · Arcadia Kim · Erin Turner | EA | 01:45 | 11/2003 |
| Video | The Future of Online Games | Nick Earl · Arcadia Kim · Erin Turner | EA | 01:59 | 11/2003 |
| Video | The EA Creative Process | Erin Turner · Arcadia Kim · Nick Earl | EA | 03:47 | 11/2003 |
Turner talks about how the James Bond character was done in the third person in the game and his style and control comes from the mechanics of how he moves. He is always the master of his environment, she says.
Earl and Kim respond to the question: How has the competition from Grand Theft Auto influenced EA? Vice City is brilliant in its open world design, says Earl, you can go in any direction and interact with the environment. Grand Theft Auto was a little bit of a wake up call for EA suggesting that they should be doing something like it and watching out for the competition, he adds.
Earl and Kim respond to the question: How do you increase innovation when a lot of the game development relies on established brands and sequels? A lot of efforts are going onto create new intellectual property, says Earl. Though risky, the new products will ultimately be the core component of the company's future.
Earl talks about how EA is good at figuring out early on if a game is not going to be successful and starting over before it is too late. EA brings a compliment of distribution, marketing, resources, larger teams, better technology, and high caliber designers, artists, and engineers to help increase the chances of creating a successful game, he says.
Earl explains that EA was previously focused mainly on sports games, but they found that they could not grow fast enough without expanding into other areas, namely entertainment. Games are continually becoming more mainstream and a lot of people can relate to movies making them a popular choice a game topic, he says. EA is now divided into three brands, EA Big (sports), EA Games, and EA Online.
The PC market has not been growing as much as was hoped, says Earl. Creating games that can be played against other players from a TV set is an important goal, but the commercial side about how to make money is still under development.
Earl and Kim respond to the question: How do you manage the business imperatives versus the creative imperatives when developing a game? The decision makers at EA are people who really understand the creative side and have generally worked on the production side as well, says Earl, and are therefore able to make more informed decisions.