EA began in 1982, not 1987. If I google 'c64 electronic arts', the entire first page of results is about games. Same with 'atari 800 electronic arts'; 'apple ii electronic arts' brings up mention of a few of their various 'something construction kit' titles, about half of which were really just games with level editors.
From the wikipedia page on DPaint:
DPaint began as an in-house art development tool called Prism. As author Dan Silva added features to Prism, it was developed as a showcase product to coincide with the Amiga's debut in 1985. [...] Deluxe Paint was first in a series of products from the Electronic Arts Tools group, which included such Amiga programs as Deluxe Music, Deluxe Video, and the Studio series of paint programs for the Macintosh.
I was there. EA optioned one of my games in 1989. Even the Wiki article gets it right: "In the late 1980s, the company began developing games in-house and supported consoles by the early 1990s."
They were a publisher and sort of a crappy one. And the reason EA exists today is because the tools/creativity group helped it weather the wacky games market.
The retro movement largely ignores all the amazing apps that were made back then. Old games are fun to play. Old apps? Not so much. Though you kids should. Now get off my lawn.
From the wikipedia page on DPaint: DPaint began as an in-house art development tool called Prism. As author Dan Silva added features to Prism, it was developed as a showcase product to coincide with the Amiga's debut in 1985. [...] Deluxe Paint was first in a series of products from the Electronic Arts Tools group, which included such Amiga programs as Deluxe Music, Deluxe Video, and the Studio series of paint programs for the Macintosh.