EA buys BioWare

[Azure Prower]

http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20071011006083&newsLang=en


EA To Acquire BioWare Corp. and Pandemic Studios
Leaders in RPG, Action and Adventure Genres; Ten Franchises in Development - Six Wholly Owned
REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) today announced an agreement with Elevation Partners to acquire VG Holding Corp. -- the owner of both BioWare Corp. and Pandemic Studios. This acquisition gives EA a strong competitive position in key genres in interactive entertainment: action, adventure and role-playing games. The two studios have been recognized for creating some of the highest-quality games in the industry.
BioWare Corp. and Pandemic Studios have ten franchises under development, including six wholly owned games. BioWare Corp. is currently developing the highly anticipated Mass Effect, which will be published by Microsoft in November, and is in the early development stages of a massively multiplayer online game. Pandemic Studios is redefining open-world games with its upcoming Mercenaries 2: World in Flames™ and Saboteur™, in addition to several unannounced projects.
Pandemic Studios and BioWare Corp. employ roughly 800 people across four studios located in Edmonton, Canada; Los Angeles; Austin; and Brisbane, Australia.
“These are two of the most respected studios in the industry and I’m glad to be working with them again. They’ll make a strong contribution to our strategic growth initiatives on quality, online gaming and developing new intellectual properties,” said John Riccitiello, EA’s Chief Executive Officer. “We also expect this will drive long-term value for our shareholders.”
Pandemic Studios is led by Andrew Goldman, Josh Resnick and Greg Borrud. BioWare Corp. is jointly led by Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka. These teams will join the EA™ Games Label run by Frank Gibeau, President of EA Games.
“Pandemic Studios remains focused on attracting the best talent and creating blockbuster action games,” said Josh Resnick, President and Co-founder of Pandemic Studios. “As a worldwide publishing leader, EA represents the ideal partner to bring our titles to market as global entertainment events.”
“We are truly excited by John Riccitiello’s new vision for EA,” said Ray Muzyka, Co-founder and CEO of BioWare Corp. “This vision is consistent with BioWare’s focus on crafting the highest quality story-driven games in the world. It will enable us to further the careers of the passionate, creative and hard working teams at BioWare Edmonton and BioWare Austin.”
EA will pay up to $620 million in cash to the stockholders of VG Holding Corp. and will issue up to an additional $155 million in equity to certain employees of VG Holding Corp., which will be subject to time-based or performance-based vesting criteria. EA will also assume outstanding VG Holding Corp. stock options. In addition, EA has agreed to lend VG Holding Corp. up to $35 million through the closing of the acquisition.


Yet another company bought out to fuel the mass production gaming giant.

[Cecilff2]

http://www.aimface.com/smiles/IKON066ec6abdcebb704676b6164cd41bf1864b1403643.gif NNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooo

[djpretzel]

EAMix: It's in the Mix! (tm)

[Sir_NutS]

I lol'd
___

[megadave]

I can see them making their own console in a few years.

[Cecilff2]

EAMix: It's in the Mix! (tm)
I can already see the multitudes of sports game remix projects.

[Upthorn]

EA Buys Bioware
Goddammit.

[Skummel Maske]

This is beyond sad. It's a worldwide tragedy.

[Tensei]

NOOOO, EA, stop shitting on my fond memories of Planescape: Torment and Baldur's Gate 2 :(

[Strike911]

Seriously, no worries.

The people that started the company get a load of cash, EA gets the "name." It's okay. Pretty soon the good developers from the company will leave because of EA, start another company (free from the mighty hand of EA) and release killer titles from there. BioWare will go under with EA manning it. Once the new EA-free company is profitable, EA will buy that company (again). Lather, rinse, repeat.

[Brushfire]

EAMix: It's in the Mix! (tm)


Is the old page of that still around djp?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Also in Knights of the Old Republic 3, John Madden is a playble charactor :razz:

[The Damned]

My cousin Tracy is married to one of the writers there, Luke.

Just sayin'.

And I've been in their offices a few times, and the first time I went, they gave me free stuff, like a MDK2 shirt and game, and some comics, and other cool stuff. And I know where they eat, it's downstairs from their new office on the south side of Edmonton, and...

[The Pezman]

EA attached to a potential Sonic RPG? I won't have it.

[megadave]

Bad news always follows after good news.

Yesterday we found out Sonic is in brawl and that Mario Kart will have motorcycles. Now today Brawl is delayed and EA just won a battle in its war of taking over the gaming industry.

A shame indeed.

[SwordBreaker]

This seriously sucks. I HATE how EA operates anyway, and now buying out BioWare and Pandemic means that both those studios will get eaten slowly.

Trust me when I say this...but in time fans will start to compare between the old and new BioWare.

Oh well, we can look forward to the independent spiritual sequel of BioWare. I'm 99% sure that a lot of people quit because of that buy-out.

Let's hope Ubisoft doesn't come next...

[Liontamer]

What does The Wingless have to say about these developments?

[JJT]

EA To Acquire BioWare Corp. and Pandemic Studios Leaders in RPG, Action and Adventure Genres; Ten Franchises in Development - Six Wholly Pwned

Corrected.

[The Coop]

So I guess this means we'll be playing Mercenaries V, MDK VII and Neverwinter Nights IX in 2010?

[Brushfire]

So I guess this means we'll be playing Mercenaries V, MDK VII and Neverwinter Nights IX in 2010?

Seems that way Coop. But fear not for they will just be roster updates for thier respective predecessors.

[IamtheAlieo01]

well Bioware will now go to Shait. EA doesnt care that much about good games, all they care about is how much money they can get from it, my broke copies of command and conquer is proof of that. Bye, Bye Bioware, i barely knew ye.

[Kiyosuki]

Its sad to say but becoming a part of a larger corperation seems to be the only real way for the smaller studios to survive at this point. It seems like an inevitability, though I don't like the idea of it anymore than anyone else here.

[I-n-j-i-n]

I doubt it has to do with the costs for smaller companies other than that BioWare has long since become a development group for blockbusters and they are making the biggest projects now. They put themselves in that position and they consolidate. This is almost a non issue. More gamers demand the more ambitious games, companies consolidate to deal with it. Smaller companies are still out there and it is not BioWare.

[Alpine Flame]

Madden 2012! Now With Awesome Dance Scenes!!!!

[Arek the Absolute]

Ouch.
Tis a dark day in the gaming world.

[The wingless]

As part of the EA deal, I'll give you my two cents.

You know what bothers me MOST about the deal? That nobody fucking CARES that we're (Pandemic) are even involved in the deal. Nothing crushes morale when you're part of a $800+ million dollar deal (the biggest in industry history) and you are less than a footnote in the great shitstorm of internet reprisal.

Regardless, all of you going, oooh woe betide my beloved Mass Effect that isn't even out. What are you upset about? Seriously, what is terrorizing you so much? That EA will somehow befoul it? How? They bought the company(s) because they are doing well by themselves. EA is in it to make money, and this particular regime of EA rule knows that you leave well enough alone, especially when it's generating revenue. The only time they'll step in is when we, the game developer, fail to deliver.

In essence, we get more money, more backing, probably the biggest Marketing powerhouse in the industry and alot more press.

And for those of you horrified by sequelitis... seriously, why the fuck do you care?

Three years in the industry have no made me loathe everyone who ISN'T in the industry. It's a hell of a thing.

[Wintermute]

Hm...am I the only one who thinks this might not be so bad? Bioware gets tons of money, support from a huge publisher...
Course if EA starts to butt in on development, that could make for a nasty headache for the Bioware guys, but with any luck they're just looking to make profits off of Bioware's hugely successful products.
Not to mention that Pandemic, who I am not entirely familiar with, could probably use the money and marketing push as well.

[Azure Prower]

As part of the EA deal, I'll give you my two cents.

You know what bothers me MOST about the deal? That nobody fucking CARES that we're (Pandemic) are even involved in the deal. Nothing crushes morale when you're part of a $800+ million dollar deal (the biggest in industry history) and you are less than a footnote in the great shitstorm of internet reprisal.


Because we all know and love BioWare. We don't know who or what Pandemic is...

...Well, I know they developed the awesome game Star Wars Battle Front II. But that's about it. They're not really as famous as BioWare.

Sorry. :(

[anosou]

I change my mind, I don't care

[Ramaniscence]

EAMix: It's in the Mix! (tm)

http://earemix.thasauce.net/

(Once we get the DBs fixed >_>)

[Liontamer]

I have blogged about the Wingless today! (http://oc.ormgas.com/links.php?18) I am a better man because of it.

[The wingless]

I love how the headline makes me seem like such a political lightning rod.

Now... if you ask me whether or not the EA acquisition is good in the short or the long term... you will get some wildly different answers from me...

...


...


...ellipses

[Brushfire]

I don't think it's so bad that EA bought Bioware and Pandemic. Sure EA is a huge company but they are so huge because they generally (excluding sports titles) have pretty good games. They are after all the biggest video game producing company on the planet. But time has shown that bigger companies taking smaller companies is overall a good thing (i.e. Bungie and Microsoft).

Now let the grilling of me begin!!

[friendlyHunter]

I can see them making their own console in a few years.

Yes, I can see it already:
Every console we've ever seen has games to put in it. But with EA's, you literally put the console in the game. You buy games titled "Madden" and "NHL", each with a big square-shaped hole in it. The box-shaped "EA-Hole" fits inside, allowing you to play games with the motion-sensing "EA-mote controller". Instead of releasing new games every year, all your games are automatically updated when you buy the annually-released "EA-Hole 20XX" console. But don't worry, you can still go back and play the previous year's versions, assuming your year-old console still works. Due to the sheer power and versatility of this console, it tends to contain a lot of bugs. Fortunately for us, EA has already bought 55% of all extermination companies across the world, now operating under the name "EA Bugs" 'There's Bugs In The Game'(tm). Now trained professionals can come to your home and apply patches to your console, so some of the bugs don't crawl out. But even if patches are not applied, there's no need to worry about permanent infestation, as each year's new console contains bugs that prey on the previous year's bugs.


No offense to EA by the way ;-)

[Xelebes]

My cousin Tracy is married to one of the writers there, Luke.

Just sayin'.

And I've been in their offices a few times, and the first time I went, they gave me free stuff, like a MDK2 shirt and game, and some comics, and other cool stuff. And I know where they eat, it's downstairs from their new office on the south side of Edmonton, and...

Bioware's office used to right above Whyte, where is it now?