Electronic Arts just decided to split it's production houses into four big categories, based on the type of games developed.
- EA's Sims division team will now operate under The Sims label. With Nancy Smith in charge, The Sims label will encompass all of EA's Sim projects, including EA Redwood Shores' MySim (Wii, DS), Tilted Mill's SimCity Societies (PC), and Maxis' The Sims Castaway Stories (PC).
- EA Games label will be lead by Frank Gibeau and handle franchises such as Need for Speed, Medal of Honor, Spore, Battlefield, Burnout, Command & Conquer, and The Simpsons, as well as the EA Partners business.
- Kathy Vrabeck will lead the EA Casual Entertainment label, in charge with titles like Harry Potter and EA Montreal's Boogie (Wii) along with EA Mobile and the online games service Pogo.com.
- EA Sports label will be temporarily directed by EA executive VP Joel Linzer until a president is announced. EA Sports will handle all of EA's sports franchises, including Madden NFL, NBA Live, FIFA Soccer, Tiger Woods PGA Tour, NHL Hockey, and NASCAR.
In addition to the four labels, EA will create two new divisions - Central Development Services and Global Publishing - to assist the labels in technical, marketing, and publishing matters.
"This transition will be implemented over the course of the coming months," detailed EA CEO John Riccitiello. "EA is privileged to have a deep bench of proven talent and our new structure encourages people to bring great ideas into the market more quickly. There will be more games and services for core consumers and new gamers and better focus on operational efficiency."