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EA Vancouver

video game developer based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 6, 2026
Entity authorityQ752317
Source-derived summary

EA Vancouver (formerly known as EA Burnaby, then EA Canada) is a Canadian video game developer located in Burnaby, British Columbia. The development studio opened as Distinctive Software in January 1983, and is also Electronic Arts's largest and oldest studio. EA Vancouver employs approximately 1,300 people, and houses the world's largest video game test operation. It is best known for developing a lot of EA Sports and EA Sports BIG titles, including EA Sports FC (formerly FIFA), NHL, SSX, NBA Street, NFL Street, EA Sports UFC, and FIFA Street titles, as well as a number of NBA Live and NCAA Basketball titles between 1994 and 2009.

Premises

The campus consists of a motion-capture studio, twenty-two rooms for composing, fourteen video editing suites, three production studios, a wing for audio compositions, and a quality assurance department. There are also facilities such as fitness rooms, two theatres, a cafeteria, coffee bars, a soccer field, and several arcades.

History

Electronic Arts (EA), based in Redwood City, California, acquired Distinctive Software in 1991 for $11 million and renamed Distinctive Software to EA Canada. At the time of the business acquisition, Distinctive Software was noted for developing a number of racing and sporting games published under the Accolade brand.

Distinctive Software

Distinctive Software, Inc. was a Canadian video game developer established in Burnaby, British Columbia, by Don Mattrick and Jeff Sember after their success with the game Evolution.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “EA Vancouver” as video game developer based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Vancouver, video and game.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1983, 1994, 2009, 1991—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—1983-01-01, 1982—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Vancouver, video and game providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “EA Vancouver”, the useful work is to connect “video game developer based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q752317. VIAF identifies the subject as 159726296. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1983, 1994, 2009 and 1991.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “EA Vancouver”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow EA Vancouver primary sources, EA Vancouver archive and Vancouver research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “EA Vancouver”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from EA Vancouver” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.