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EA Starts Casual Entertainment Division

by Steven Rodriguez - June 6, 2007, 9:36 am EDT
Total comments: 7 Source: Press Release

A former Activision executive will head EA's venture into the world of "highly accessible games."

EA Appoints Kathy Vrabeck to Lead EA Casual Entertainment

New Group to Focus on Lighter Games for Family and New Consumers

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) today announced the formation of EA Casual Entertainment, dedicated to developing and publishing games for consoles, PCs, handheld devices and mobile phones. Kathy Vrabeck has been appointed to lead the group as President of EA Casual Entertainment.

“All over the world, consumers are playing games that don’t require hours of intense concentration," said Kathy Vrabeck, President of EA Casual Entertainment. “The common denominator is casual fun. Whether it will be playing Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix™ on the Wii™ with the family or downloading Madden NFL 08 on a phone, quick-to-the-fun games are bringing new players and new demographics to interactive entertainment."

“EA is aligning talent and resources to focus on the growing market for highly accessible games," said EA CEO John Riccitiello. “We’re fortunate to have recruited a dynamic executive like Kathy Vrabeck to lead this team. She’s got a proven success record in our industry and the ability to help EA lead this fast-growing genre of entertainment."

Kathy Vrabeck has a distinguished background in management, marketing, sales and development. She served as President of Activision Publishing, a position which included oversight of that company’s worldwide studios. She has also held management positions in marketing and sales for Pillsbury Company, Quaker Oats and ConAgra.

New games, franchises and licenses to be developed and published by EA Casual Games will be announced in the future.

Talkback

Ian SaneJune 06, 2007

Focus on casual gamers? This is different then what EA already does in what way again? face-icon-small-wink.gif

CericJune 06, 2007

Come on Ian. Those sports games are really no longer casual.

Smash_BrotherJune 06, 2007

Ian was right! It's the end of the world! AAAAAAAAAA!

By casual, they mean "casual games" instead of "casual gamers." When not paired with the "gamer" label, casual = non-games.

that Baby guyJune 06, 2007

What is Pogo? Isn't that their casual games division?

That's their casual ONLINE PORTAL division. This sounds like more traditional expanded market retail casual thingies...

denjet78June 06, 2007

Ooo... So EA is setting up ANOTHER Wii specific development house?

I know they said they were going to focus on making games for every platform but come on, the "casual games" market that they're aiming this at only really exists on Wii.

Well, they do list cell phones too but does anyone actually believe that they're going to focus any real kind of effort on cell games?

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