Electronic Arts rents entire office building in Bucharest, pledges to pay EUR 2.1 mln lease a year

Electronic game producer Electronic Arts has leased an entire office building in Bucharest. The company, which produces games such as FIFA, Need for Speed, The Sims, and Medal of Honor, fully leased the AFI Park 2 office building, which is still under construction. The game producer will move its staff to the 11,700 sqm building which is expected to be ready in April 2014. Thus EA Romania will bring staff currently working in the Riverplace office compound, as well as in other buildings on the Semanatoarea platform in Bucharest. EA was given legal assistance by Romanian law firm Tuca, Zbarcea & Asociatii. The value of the lease is of EUR 2.1 million a year, according to the developer of the building, AFI Europe. With 329 employees in Romania last year, EA had a turnover of some EUR 15.6 million, according to data from the Finance Ministry. The office building developer has fully leased the first two buildings in the project, and has started work on the third building, which should be done by the end of 2014. EA Romania is home to one of EA’s most successful sports franchise development teams - that behind the FIFA title - as well as corporate functions including Finance, IT and HR and a game testing team. In Bucharest, the company has a team of software engineers, artists and game designers developing FIFA games for multiple platforms. Its other Europe locations are London, UK, Ingelheim, Germany, Stockholm, Sweden, Dublin, Ireland, Geneva, Switzerland, Guildford, UK, Macclesfield, UK and Tromso, Norway. editor@romania-insider.com