Neil Young heads to EALA

He packs his bags and moves again. Neil Young, the executive producer of EA's Lord of the Rings games and former head of Maxis has taken the reins of EA's Playa Vista studio in Los Angeles. Young has spent the last three months making the transition between studios (the Maxis operation is located in Redwood Shores) and the move is now official. Young will be in charge of supervising the studio and the franchises being developed there, including Medal of Honor and Command & Conquer. Before his eight-month stint at Maxis, Young was based at the EA subsidiary Origin Systems, in Austin, TX, creators of Ultima Online, among other titles. A statement from EA stressed that one of Young's first objectives is "to build improved processes that ensure high quality games are built on workable schedules." EA has recently run into trouble with some of its employees on the subject of proper working conditions.