Foundation EA Mobile was founded in 2004 by a group of EA company veterans. The group was formed/led by John Batter (General Manager) and included Linda Chaplin (head of US sales), Lincoln Wallen (CTO), John Burn (head of European sales), Jay Miller (US sales) and Mike McCabe (head of Asian sales). EA Mobile launched the division and products simultaneously in the US, Europe and Asia.
JAMDAT acquisition In 2006, EA Mobile expanded its footprint by acquiring JAMDAT Mobile. JAMDAT was founded by Scott Lahman and Zack Norman, two ex-
Activision executives, and Austin Murray in March 2000. They were joined in November of that year by
Mitch Lasky, who had also worked at Activision, who became the
CEO of JAMDAT. JAMDAT
went public in late 2003 and gained immediate success after the release of several
The Lord of the Rings tie-in mobile games. JAMDAT acquired
Montreal game studio Hexacto in May 2003, increasing its game portfolio. On December 9, 2005, EA announced their purchase of JAMDAT for $680 million. The acquisition closed on February 14, 2006, and the JAMDAT name was retired.
Further expansion On August 8, 2007, it was announced that Barry Cottle will join EA Mobile as the new Senior Vice President and General Manager. In October 2010, EA Mobile announced the acquisition of UK-based iPhone and iPad games publisher Chillingo for US$20 million in cash. While Chillingo publishes the popular
Cut the Rope game, the deal did not include those properties. In July 2015, Samantha Ryan became the new SVP and General Manager of EA Mobile replacing Frank Gibeau. And the following year in a restructuring across parent company EA, she also added oversight of
Maxis and
BioWare. As of 2017, EA Mobile have an annual revenue topping almost $700 million and employees around 800 people. In May 2022, it was announced that EA Mobile along with
EA Capital Games will partner with
Middle-earth Enterprises to release a new mobile RPG titled
The Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-earth. The game was eventually released on 10 May 2023. It received mixed to positive reviews generally, but was forced to shut down prematurely just more than a year after worldwide launch, amidst the turmoil of the
2023–2024 video game industry layoffs that affected Electronic Arts' development projects. Months after shutting down
Heroes of Middle Earth, Electronic Arts then announced the shutdown of
The Simpsons: Tapped Out after twelve years of operation. The game shut down on January 24, 2025. ==See also==