Electronic Arts reorganizes into four development units

Electronic Arts' new chief executive officer, John Riccitiello, said Friday it will reorganize the world's biggest video game publisher into four units, in an effort to simplify decision making, save money, improve the company's global focus and make it faster for it to get new products ready for sale.

The units will be EA Games, EA Casual Entertainment, The Sims, and EA Sports. EA Games unit is aimed mostly at hardcore gamers and is responsible for titles including the popular Battlefield series, the Medal of Honor series, and the Command & Conquer series.

EA Sports unit, of course, will handle the sport game titles including the popular FIFA Soccer, Madden, Tiger Woods PGA Tour and NASCAR series. The Sims will be getting their own division given the huge popularity of the game, they will be responsible for sequels and expansion packs for the game series. The fourth division, EA Casual Entertainment, will be cover 'casual' titles on consoles, PCs, handhelds, and mobile phones.

The decision comes after successfully running an organizational pilot program that placed games based on Sims franchise into their own unit. The transition will be completed over the coming months.