Electronic Arts to create a further 300 jobs in Ireland

Electronic Arts is to continue investment in Ireland, creating a further 300 jobs in the region.

The publisher is adding staff to its support centre in Galway, announced in 2010 and opened last year, with a goal of recruiting 200 staff, but has since grown to 400 workers.

"We're adding 300 jobs to our existing consumer experience centre in Galway, to support not only what we've been doing with Star Wars: The Old Republic, but also a broader base of games such as FIFA, which launches next week," Peter Moore, chief operating officer, told GamesIndustry International this morning.

"Of all the places in the world that have been aggressively seeking our business for putting roots down and adding employees, Ireland has won out primarily because of the support from the government"

Peter Moore, EA

"We're currently at about 400 and we're making this commitment to add another 300 over a period of time. We have no time limit on it, it's just a question for us of identifying all the roles and going through the interviewing process. We're making that commitment to hiring an extra 300 people."

EA has had support from the Irish government and the Irish Development Agency, which is backing the growth of clusters in the region along with financial assistance. Last year a report suggested as many as 4500 games jobs could be created in Ireland by 2015.

Moore continued: "They recognise the power of our industry and what interactive entertainment brings to a particular area.

"These are technical jobs that we're talking about here. This is not just a call centre, this is support for connecting games, looking for content, making sure entitlements are right, logging on, all the stuff that we're all very familiar with now in this direct-to-consumer digital world."

Peter Moore made the announcement today alongside Ireland's prime minister Enda Kenny. "He in particular recognises these are attractive jobs, these are technical jobs, they love the idea of the games industry putting real roots down here and being able grow around these jobs," said Moore.

"It's clustering, the more companies that come in to the area, the more companies will move in around them. It's a good day for Ireland."

It's this special relationship with Ireland that kept EA in the country despite other regions offering their own incentives, claimed Moore.

"In today's world we could have put this anywhere in the world and a lot of cities and countries vied for this business but we're delighted to be able to continue our growth and investment in Europe and in particular Ireland. Of all the places in the world that have been aggressively seeking our business for putting roots down and adding employees, Ireland has won out primarily because of the support from the government and in particular the IDA."

The Irish PM added: "It is less than a year since I attended the opening of the EA facility in Galway, and I am delighted to announce today that EA has made the decision to invest further in Ireland by locating their strategically important customer experience centre here.

"This decision is a real endorsement of Ireland's ability to meet the needs of leading multinational companies in the digital media space. I wish EA every success with this new centre and offer the continued support of the Irish Government as the company continues to develop here."