May 20th 1983 EA Shipped Their First Game

30 years and 4 days ago, EA shipped their first batch of games. Pretty sweet milestone. 30 years later EA is still shipping games, both physically and digitally.

Why was the whole company needed in the warehouse? Nancy reflected, “It was the only way we could have made it—we only had a couple of warehouse employees at the time. It was a great team bonding experience.” She added, “It was hard, but we had fun. The average age of workers at the time was around 25-26.” Once they finished packing, the tight-knit team at EA continued team-bonding over a BBQ, and commemorated that day with shirts sporting the slogan: “I survived: May 20th 1983.” When the day was over, Nancy recalled, “everyone was so happy, that was the culmination of so much hard work.”

M.U.L.E was a classic four player game and one of the first to utilize the supply-and-demand economic model during multiplayer. While it may not be as pretty as StarCraft II, it laid down the foundation for the “harvesting crystals and gas strategically” mechanic. Fun Fact: M.U.L.E. takes place in Irata—which happens to be “Atari” backwards..

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