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EA Sports partners with UCF to create Innovation Lab program
EA Sports partnered with the University of Central Florida's FIEA (Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy) to create an "innovation lab" for students to work on projects in the games industry. EA Sports will offer additional internships for students, in which they will work on "the latest products for the latest platforms, using the latest tools and technologies." "By establishing pipelines directly into existing Orlando-based digital media businesses, including our local EA SPORTS studio, EA-Tiburon, we can keep creating jobs in the state of Florida," EA Sports VP and COO Daryl Holt said in the announcement. Florida Governor Rick Scott echoed Holt's sentiments. "Preparing Florida students for high-tech jobs, along with our state's competitive economic incentives, gives Florida an advantage over other states and ensures high-value businesses open their doors in our state, instead of somewhere else," he said. The relationship between EA Sports and FIEA dates back to March 2005, when former EA VP and COO Ben Noel became the executive director of the academic program.
Report: EA Sports opening studio in Austin, TX
Those displaced Ignition Games employees in Austin may have a new prospect. IGN reports that, according to an internal EA memo, the company is looking to expand with an EA Sports studio in the Texas capital, adding a third internal studio to its current lineup of British Columbia and Florida-based operations. "We have aggressive plans for expansion, and I will be visiting Austin, Texas, this week to assess potential space for a new EA Sports studio location," EA Sports COO Daryl Holt reportedly said in the memo. "Our goal is to attract, hire and retain the industry's best talent." This will be the perfect location to develop games based on college football ... and really slow races run by people in costumes. We just hope that, if EA does choose to open a studio there, it learns from the past and actually gives its employees time to explore their environs.
