Level Up has just learned that Electronic Arts veteran Neil Young has left the company for an unspecified "new project," on which EA Games label president Frank Gibeau wishes him the best of luck. During his 11 year tenure at EA, the affable Brit captained such projects as the ahead-of-its-time alternate reality game Majestic and the well-received licensed game The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Following that, Young was put in charge of Maxis during the production of Sims 2 before being promoted to vice president and general manager of EA Los Angeles, where he supervised Medal of Honor Airborne and Boom Blox. Before his departure from EA, Young was heading up EA Blueprint, which was exploring the creation of adventurous new intellectual properties with smaller teams and budgets. We're working the phones to find out where Young will land next; as soon as we find out more, we'll update you.

In the wake of Young's departure, EALA bigwig and Westwood Studios founder Louis Castle will take over EA Blueprint.

To read the the full text of the email from Frank Gibeau to the team at EA Games announcing Young's departure, see below.

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From: Gibeau, Frank
Sent: Wednesday, June 18, 2008 11:37 AM
To: EA Games Label All @ EAHQ
Subject: EAGL Announcement

I want to share an organizational announcement about the leadership in our California studios.

Neil Young has decided to leave EA to manage his own company. Neil is an 11-year EA veteran who has created a lot of great games and many good friendships at EA.  We wish him the very best on his new project. Neil will always be welcome at EA.

Responsibility for Blueprint, Maxis and the EAGL operations at EALA and EARS is now consolidated under a group of creative leaders reporting to EA Games Group General Manager and Senior Vice President Nick Earl. This includes:

Louis Castle is stepping up to run the EA/Blueprint, based in Los Angeles. Louis – a 23-year industry veteran and a founder of the Westwood Studio – will oversee the innovative projects at Blueprint including LMNO – the second game in our series with Steven Spielberg.

Lucy Bradshaw heads up the Maxis Studio, based in Emeryville. Lucy is an 11-year EA veteran who has overseen development on some of EA’s most popular franchises, including The Sims and SimCity. For the past three years, she has been providing leadership on SPORE.

Mike Verdu is running EALA with oversight on highly anticipated real-time strategy games like Red Alert 3 and shooter games like Tiberium and Medal of Honor.

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