EA chooses Bucharest for mobile game development in Europe

World”s largest video games developer and publisher, US-based Electronic Arts (EA) has chosen Bucharest as its European location for the development of games for mobile phones, investing at least 2.2 million dollars (1.73 million euros) this year. The development studio in Romania was opened last July as Jamdat Mobile, a branch of the company by the same name, headquartered in Los Angeles. Bucharest has joined other Jamdat offices in London, Tokyo, Honolulu or Montreal. This February, Jamdat was acquired by Electronic Arts for 680 million dollars, the largest transaction ever conducted in the mobile phone content industry. When it was opened ten months ago, the Electronic Arts Mobile branch in Bucharest started with three people but now numbers over 70 programmers, designers, artists and testers. “We will have approximately 130 employees by the end of the year,” general manager Mihai Pahontu, 27, told ZIAURL FINANCIAR. Pahontu worked as a journalist in Romania and got his degree in political sciences from the University of California in 2003. He worked as a game tester for Jamdat during his time at the University, moved up the ladder in the company and finally got tasked with developing the business in Romania. The Americans chose Romania as a location for development because the Romanian programmers are more creative than their counterparts from India, who were an alternative option, although development costs in Romania are higher than in India, says Pahontu. ZF