EA SPORTS ENTERPRISE CASE STUDY

IDEASCALE IdeaScale Case Studies 2

EA SPORTS A Fully Integrated Community

Electronic Arts Inc. is a leading global interactive entertainment software company. EA SPORTS is a division of their company that creates connected experiences that the emotion of sports with games like Madden NFL and FIFA. These games are available across multiple interactive platforms on a worldwide stage, from mobile phones to gaming consoles.

Over the years, EA SPORTS has cultivated an active community of super fans called Game Changers. Game Changers use their expert game knowledge to inform EA’s game development and assist other gamers. EA wanted to offer their community members a forum to collaborate and communicate with the whole EA SPORTS community, a place where new ideas could be generated and new customers could become engaged.

Against a hard deadline, IdeaScale and EA SPORTS collaborated to create an ideas forum that was fully integrated into the EA SPORTS web experience and drew on IdeaScale’s API for cross-login so that EA SPORTS users did not have to make a separate account (further lowering the barriers to participation). The team also used CSS integration to skin the community to appear completely in unison with EA’s look and feel.

IdeaScale and EA met their deadline and the new Game Changers Ideas Forum has resulted in: • More than 7,800 ideas. Some of those ideas have been included in new versions of the game, including Madden NFL 13 player editing in franchise mode or custom rosters for connected careers. • Over 175,000 votes. EA SPORTS has been able to improve engagement by flagging which ideas have been reviewed and stewarded through to completion. For example, when the site went live, the community rallied behind the idea of including fantasy draft in Madden NFL 13 with more than 2,000 votes. When EA moved that idea to the completed tab, users were able to see how their ideas and votes made a real impact on the product and were more likely to engage in the community in the future. • Nearly 12,000 active users. Users include Game Changers, but also a broader community and the Ideas Forum has been a great place for the EA SPORTS team to gather information for development, design, marketing initiatives, and more. IdeaScale Case Studies 3

“IdeaScale was an incredible partner to work with,” says Steve Kwan, User Experience Designer for EA SPORTS, “they helped us develop a community under a tight time crunch and we now have a way for our Game Changers to unify in a very visible way that helps numerous internal departments as well as our fans.” IdeaScale’s API offering uniquely suited EA’s community and will be a key part of the Game Changer’s Idea Forum in the future. To learn more about EA SPORTS, visit easports.com.