20 people from my school were choosen, we had to write an essay type thing on why we deserve to go and I was one of the people choosen =)

This is basically the main EA, located in Burnaby, B.C. just outside Vancouver in Canada. I must say, it is VERY nice. First thing you notice outside is the huge well-done soccer field where a few members of the staff were playing, along with a basketball court and a volleyball court on the sides. They also had a long paved area where they started playing roller hockey as we were leaving. Inside the lobby are a few TV's with PS3's and 360's set up, along with an EA shop (Some Boom Blox game was very popular today, the staff/special guests bought almost all copies on display).

Anyway, the whole place looks sweet, glass everything, very modern. They have different large sections for each game they work on, we went to the NHL section where a couple guys were playing NHL 08 and there were retro and new jerseys all along the top, and almost every employee was e-mailing someone. On another floor we visited, they have another enormous in-door basketball court, full weightroom gym, special room for yoga and such, the spa rooms where they can get messages and accupunctures - It's sweet stuff there.

Apparently the place is open for them 24/7, and they are allowed to come in to work at any time they want as long as it gets done. They also have a "restaurant", more like a very good cafeteria, which is also open at all times (EDIT: NOPE, closes 5:30 =( ) so they can order food. Along the walls they have plaques for platnium titles, posters, special signed things, etc. Oh, and they also have a pretty big arcade.

Anywho, we had a presentation from one of their main animation guys and a couple programmers who works mostly on the FIFA games, although he was talking about some "FaceBreaker" game. Skipping out all the talk about how they work on making the game, I'll tell you some notable things that he told us during Q&A:

- They work on getting PS3/360 versions of games done, then work on Wii/PC, etc. if they are even making a version for those (Throughout the whole day, they rarly mentioned Wii and PC, and never mentioned DS/PSP once. It was almost always Sony Playstation and Microsoft Xbox)

- Said PS3 is a very difficult machine to really understand

- Added that last year was very rough with working on PS3, but now they are getting better with it, and they have really high hopes and are excited for it to show it's true potential in 2 - 3 years

- Some guy from GameTrailers I think came by, he was interviewing something he said, said something about look for Gears of War 2 interview or something tomorow (Sorry, some guy recognized him and asked if he was from GameTrailers (I think...) and he said yes, so then he jokingly asked for his autograph and people's laughter kind of drowned out his voice)

- Somebody asked if Will Wright was still around there, the guy said yes

- Also said they were all really excited about Spore, although they really want to get it perfect so it may not make its September release (Although they are hopeful and think it will)

- American Thanksgiving is their goal date to have every game released, they have tight schedule on sports game

- They wern't that impressed with FIFA Street 3, saying how it lacked depth and such, although while they knew that, they had to meet a deadline and felt it was good enough.

- Added that he wants all games to be near the high 80's area, and regrets that a game like FIFA Street 3 could average around high 6's and be sold to customers

- Started making a new SSX game, expect it out a bit later next year

- Everybody there is blown away by GTA IV and amazed by how well done that game was made

- He then asked some trivia questions and gave away 360/Wii games.

- Lennox Lewis, Sugar Ray Lenard, etc. were there yesterday, said it was great.

- They were interviewing some soccer/football star for FIFA 09, sorry I am not too familiar with that sport so I couldn't tell if he was actually famous or not, but he did have an english accent so I assume they flew him down, which means he is somebody

And after that everybody got to choose 2 PC games for free to have. (I choose Sims and Medal of Honor: Airborne, the selection wasn't the greatest but it was free, so what the hell).

Yup, it's defenitly a great place to work, I will tell you that much.

Did you ask why they are screwing PC gamers. lol

well you had fun at least.

You could of a got a job to work as a EA developer. I heard they pick up anyone up from the street to work for them. lol.

Actually, most people there had a different job before starting this, the guy we toured/talked with was in radio for like 10 years, the lady was in film for like 15. He said you only need a year or two of university then you will get hired fairly easily, because they hire lots (Something around 1500 people that this location), especially when a new console is releasing.

if i was there iw ouved asked every single person i saw and in a sad puppy dog face say


*pleasse pleasse stay away from take two pleasse dont fuck them up pleasse dont buy them out*


lol :D

LOL, I work there as QA. I probably saw you walking around. A bunch of reviewers were there on Tuesday interviewing Peter Moore as well.

Funny, huh? :p

Haha, but that is really a sweet job to have, you are really lucky!

(Oh, was there anything wrong or a bit off I should edit?)

Sounds like you had a fun time.

EA Vancouver made MoH:H2, which is basically the best FPS on the Wii so far, so some good stuff comes out of there. If that Facebreaker game makes an improvement on Wii Boxing's controls, I might pick it up.

I'm also hoping that new SSX game makes it to Wii and supports the balance board. How could that not be awesome?

Pretty much everything you said was spot on. Except the cafeteria. It closes at around 5:30 :p

Should have told them to quit working on the rest of their crap and just focus on Spore.