Electronic Arts is developing an open-world American football game under the codename Project Gridiron, two senior company officials have confirmed. The project is intended to introduce a new social concept to the publisher’s sports lineup, although many details remain unclear, including whether Project Gridiron will be a standalone game or merely a more ambitious “experience,” a term EA used several times when describing it.
The first mention of Project Gridiron surfaced in an October 21 letter to EA’s employees outlining the group’s first major portfolio reset since the company’s $55 billion acquisition by a consortium led by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners was completed in early August 2026. The changes include the closure of BioWare and cancellation of Mass Effect 5, a plan to run fewer simultaneous large-scale action-adventure projects, and a pause on The Sims project codenamed Project Lotus. EA is also shrinking the team behind Skate, while devoting more resources to a separate The Sims project codenamed Project Evergreen.
The October 21 letter, penned by C-suite executives Cam Weber and David Tinson, describes Project Gridiron as a “brand-new, social-first open-world experience” being developed by its American football team. The company announced no platforms, release window, business model, or gameplay structure, and its use of “experience” rather than “game” leaves the question of the mysterious project’s distribution wide open.
