By 1991, Distinctive boasted an annual revenue of more than $5 million and a staff of 77. It worked with publishers like Accolade, Konami and Brøderbund until another publisher came along with an offer Mattrick couldn't refuse. Electronic Arts, at the time a California-based production and distribution company of about 200 employees with no real internal development capabilities, paid Mattrick $11 million in cash and shares for Distinctive, which then became EA Canada. Its current office in Burnaby, a Vancouver suburb, now employs more than 1,000 people, making it EA's largest studio.
Mattrick's leadership helped EA Canada become the dominant developer of sports and racing games in the 1990s. The studio produced the NBA Live, NHL, Triple Play, SSX, MVP Baseball, Fight Night and FIFA Soccer franchises and created the Need for Speed series in 1994, which went on to become one of the highest grossing Canadian-born intellectual properties ever. Mattrick served as producer for many of these titles, climbing the corporate ladder to eventually become President of EA's worldwide studios.
During Mattrick's tenure, former Distinctive Software employees filled other important positions at EA Canada. Dave Warfield started as a game tester at Distinctive before becoming the Lead Designer for EA's NHL series for 11 years, working alongside Distinctive programmers Jay MacDonald and Victoria Wong. Hanno Lemke was a designer and programmer with Distinctive since 1987's Power at Sea and went on to produce many of the NHL titles, plus 11 Need for Speed games. Allan Johanson programmed Distinctive's Accolade Comics and was lead programmer for most of the NBA Live titles, produced by other Distinctive alumni Wil Mozell and Stanley Chow, who also produced the Street series of NBA and FIFA games and Def Jam Vendetta. The list goes on longer than a Hideo Kojima cut scene.
But not all of the growth in Vancouver's game development scene happened under EA Canada's roof. When Mattrick sold Distinctive in 1991, employees Rory Armes and Ian Wilkinson took the opportunity to start their own studio, Radical Entertainment. Armes later returned to EA Canada in 1998, producing games like NHL 2000 and NBA Street and eventually becoming the studio's General Manager. Meanwhile, Wilkinson presided over Radical's rise from small-time NES developer to major studio, pumping out games featuring the Simpsons, Crash Bandicoot, the Hulk and Scarface. Earlier this year, Wilkinson left Radical to become the new president and CEO of three-year-old Vancouver start-up Hothead Games (of Penny Arcade Adventures fame).
