EA Pacific

EA Pacific

Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Video game development
Predecessor	Mastertronic, Virgin Games, Burst Studios, Westwood Pacific
Founded	1986
Defunct	2003
Fate	Merged into EA Los Angeles
Headquarters	Irvine, California , United States
Parent	Electronic Arts

EA Pacific originated as the American development branches of Mastertronic and Virgin Games, later evolving into Burst Studios and subsequently Westwood Pacific. This game development company was located in Irvine, California and operated under the North American division of Virgin Interactive.

Established in 1986 as a subsidiary of Mastertronic, the initial team featured notable members such as Randall Masteller, followed by industry veterans including Darren Bartlett, David Perry, and John Botti. Many of these individuals went on to create their own game studios. In 1995, following advice from producer Neil Young, the division adopted the name Burst Studios.

Burst Studios encountered difficulties with project delivery; Brett W. Sperry, Virgin Interactive's global publishing president, remarked in 1997 that although the studio was logically organized, it struggled to meet deadlines consistently. In August 1998, Electronic Arts acquired Burst Studios alongside Westwood Studios and Virgin’s North American publishing division. The studio was then renamed Westwood Pacific and contributed to games such as Nox and Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2.

The studio later took on the name EA Pacific, retaining several former Westwood Studios employees who worked on significant titles like Command & Conquer: Generals (2003). In 2003, EA Pacific was merged into EA Los Angeles, with some team members transitioning to Petroglyph Games.

Technology

In 2001, EA initiated development of a new 3D engine called the Strategy Action Game Engine (SAGE). This engine was derived from Westwood Studios’ W3D engine, itself a heavily modified version of the SurRender 3D engine created by Hybrid Graphics Ltd.. Westwood initially implemented W3D in games such as Command & Conquer: Renegade and Earth & Beyond.

The debut title utilizing SAGE was Command & Conquer: Generals, developed by EA Pacific and finalized by EA Los Angeles. This enhanced engine supported features like dynamic lighting with realistic shadows and reflections, improved visual effects, and a stop-motion camera system. SAGE continued to power EA Los Angeles’s Command & Conquer franchise as well as the real-time strategy games The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth series.

Subsequent Command & Conquer releases starting with Command & Conquer 3 incorporated significant engine enhancements including PlayStation 3 compatibility, an upgraded RNA rendering system, dynamic environmental music, along with various internal upgrades. The RNA label pertained exclusively to the renderer component rather than the entire engine. The final game employing SAGE technology was Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight.

Games

Year	Title	Platform(s)
Under Mastertronic International/Virgin Mastertronic International
1986	Las Vegas Video Poker	Commodore 64
		Atari 8-bit
		DOS
	The Slugger	PC Booter
1987	Venom	PC Booter
	Metropolis	PC Booter
	Shard of Inovar	DOS
	Five-a-Side Indoor Soccer	PC Booter
	Storm	PC Booter
	Prowler	PC Booter
	Kobayashi Naru	PC Booter
	Trilogy	PC Booter
1988	Quarterback	PC Booter
	Rasterscan	PC Booter
	Jonah Barrington's Squash	PC Booter
	Double Dragon	DOS
1989	Turbo Champions	DOS
	House of Cards	DOS
	Barbarian	DOS
	Artura	DOS
	Strike Zone Baseball	DOS
1990	'Caesars Palace'	'DOS'
	'Scrabble: The Deluxe Computer Edition'	'DOS'
	'Spot: The Video Game'	'DOS'
	'Spot: The Video Game'	'NES'
	'Spot: The Video Game'	'Amiga'
'1991'	'Caesars Palace'	'Game Boy'
As Virgin Games/Virgin Interactive'
'1991'	'Risk'	'Macintosh'
1992'	'Caesars Palace'	'Macintosh'
	'Deluxe Scrabble'	'Microsoft Windows'
	'M.C. Kids'	'NES'
	'Monopoly Deluxe'	'DOS'
	'Monopoly Deluxe'	'Microsoft Windows'
	'Prince of Persia'	'Game Boy'
	'Mick & Mack as the Global Gladiators'	'Sega Genesis'
	'Club Racquetball'	'Macintosh'
1993'	'Cool Spot'	'Sega Genesis'
	'Cool Spot'	'SNES'
	'RoboCop vs. The Terminator'	'Sega Genesis'
	'Color a Dinosaur'	'NES'
	'Double Dragon'	'Game Gear'
	'The Terminator'	'Sega CD'
	'Disney's Aladdin'	'Sega Genesis'
1994'	'Disney's The Jungle Book'	'Sega Genesis'
	'Disney's The Jungle Book'	'SNES'
	'Demolition Man'	'3DO'
Under Burst Studios'
1996'	"Spot Goes to Hollywood"	"PlayStation"
	"Spot Goes to Hollywood"	"Sega Saturn"
	"Toonstruck"	"DOS"
1997'	"Grand Slam"	"Microsoft Windows"
	"Grand Slam"	"PlayStation"
	"Grand Slam"	"Sega Saturn"
	"SubSpace"	"Microsoft Windows"
As Westwood Pacific'
"1998'	"Golden Nugget 64"	"Nintendo 64"
"2000'	"Nox"	"Microsoft Windows"
"2000'	"Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2"	"Microsoft Windows"
Operating as EA Pacific'
"2003'	"Command & Conquer: Generals"	"Microsoft Windows"

Cancelled Projects

• Freak Boy