EA's Frank Gibeau Leaves Company

Electronic Arts loses Frank Gibeau, an executive who has been with the company for more than 20 years and oversaw key EA titles.

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After more than 20 years with Electronic Arts, Frank Gibeau has parted ways with the gaming giant. Gibeau served as the executive vice president of EA Mobile and led the teams responsible for titles such as The Simpsons: Tapped Out, Plants vs. Zombies, Real Racing, and Bejeweled. Before heading EA Mobile, Gibeau acted as president of EA Games and EA Labels where he oversaw some of the company’s key franchises including Battlefield, FIFA, Madden, Need for Speed, Star Wars: The Old Republic, and The Sims.

Gibeau was considered a strong contender for the vacant chief executive position in March 2013. Six months later, EA awarded Andrew Wilson the position, who was head of the EA sports division. Gibeau had made a reputation as an outspoken frontman at EA, with public comments on subjects ranging from DRM as a failed strategy to the irrelevance of the NPDs. He was also very frank about EA's decision to abandon online passes, saying the profits weren't worth the damage they were doing to the reputation of the company.

Although EA reported a strong 2015 fiscal year with a Q4 total of 165 million active monthly users, an undisclosed number of EA Mobile employees were laid off earlier this year. EA said only a small number of employees were affected.

In a statement released by Gibeau, he said he’s proud of the games he’s worked with and is ready for new challenges. “It’s been a really great ride, the best job ever, jam-packed with incredible life experiences and filled with many great friends," he said.

“Throughout a more than 20-year career, Frank’s made many significant contributions to the company, our people and our games,” EA CEO Andrew Wilson said. “We thank Frank for his achievements at EA, and we wish him all the best in his next chapter.”

The CEO said mobile games will continue to be a core focus for EA and that the EA Mobile team will report directly to Wilson while long-term solutions are explored.

Freelance Writer
From The Chatty
  • reply
    May 19, 2015 3:15 PM

    Tad Huempfner posted a new article, EA's Frank Gibeau Leaves Company

    • reply
      May 19, 2015 4:07 PM

      Woah, that guy has been there forever.

      http://media.giphy.com/media/hEwkspP1OllJK/giphy.gif

    • reply
      May 20, 2015 4:53 AM

      BYE!
      Oh and thanks for fucking up most of my favorite titles prick.

    • reply
      May 20, 2015 4:57 AM

      Who is Tad?

      • reply
        May 20, 2015 7:07 AM

        He is the littlest Heumpfner

      • reply
        May 20, 2015 8:00 AM

        Tad is our brand new summer intern. We are training him up in the ways of the Shack.

        • reply
          May 20, 2015 9:04 AM

          If he doesn't accept the job offer at the end they give him an Incomplete.

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      May 20, 2015 5:02 AM

      I got a fun story about him. We were doing a special playtest for him for Bad Company 2 back in the day and he's a pretty avid and good FPS player. Even so we were told to hold off on him and sort of let him win at times. That was easier said than done as we had no nametags over soldiers at that point so if you were on the other team you had to constantly take a guess if the dude you were fighting was him or not.

      Well, I was on the other team and I managed to kill him 4 or 5 times in a row by sheer happenstance.
      My boss came by my desk later and said that at some point Gibeau had yelled "Who the fuck is this -efx- guy". All in good fun though but it was a bit strange haha.

      He was a good guy though, liked working with him the few times I got a chance to.

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        May 20, 2015 5:12 AM

        haha this is awesome.

        BC2 was awesome too.

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        May 20, 2015 5:17 AM

        He sounds like a dbag. All of his public comments regarding his involvement with BF over the years were appalling.

        Good riddance.

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          May 20, 2015 5:19 AM

          He really wasn't. And his quote in my post was all in good fun.

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            May 20, 2015 6:02 AM

            Sorry, I was referencing his public comments, at least those I was aware of. Granted I've been out of the loop the last few years, fwiw.

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