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EA buys BioWare

Queasy

Queasy

Moderator<br>Console Gaming
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REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Oct 11, 2007 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Electronic Arts Inc. (ERTS:
Electronic Arts Inc 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(TM) and Saboteur(TM), 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(TM) 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.
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Their going to pull an Origin on BioWare....I can feel it.
 
Well, let's at least hope that they go out on a high note and make Mass Effect as epic as they're promising.

Oh, and :thumbsdown:
 
There goes the KOTOR franchise ... hopefully LA will have some say if EA tries to overpublish it, and stop that. Probably won't be able to say the same for NWN and BG franchises.

We == f***ed hardcore.
 
"Before the dark times, before the EA"
-- Obi-wan

"Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
-- Seymour Skinner and that annie guy


Time to re-think preordering ME and buying a Falcon 360 🙁
 
Say goodbye to two great studios. I bet Mass Effect and Mercenaries 2 will be the last games they ever develop.

Look what they did to Westwood.
 
Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
"Before the dark times, before the EA"
-- Obi-wan

"Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
-- Seymour Skinner and that annie guy


Time to re-think preordering ME and buying a Falcon 360 🙁
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why would you need to rethink?

mass effect is so far into the development cycle that they aren't gonna pull it. Plus it be a a month or two before everything is finalized. EA sees money anyhow. If ME makes good money, 2 and 3 willl be made.

Honestly I was surprised Microsoft didn't snatch these guys up first. What happen to that microsoft that bought up people left and right.
 
so theoretically, whats to stop X number of employees from quitting and reforming as a new studio? Who is required to stay?
 
Originally posted by: Eghck
so theoretically, whats to stop X number of employees from quitting and reforming as a new studio? Who is required to stay?
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Good point. Maybe if all the employees got a significant portion of that 155 million, they'd stay. I'm pretty sure that won't happen though.

The headline of this thread sent chills through me. It's a sad state of affairs that i'm completely convinced that the quality of their games will suffer. EA has the reverse midas touch. The best case scenario is that EA doesn't meddle too much.
 
while it sucks, I'm honestly not too worried. I think this time around, EA may do it like how 2K Games did with Irrational Games and converted them into 2K Boston and 2K Australia. I think EA will just slap their name on the studios, and let them be on their way. Other than forcing the company to make sequels to certain games based on sales, I think EA will let the creative process stay in the hands of BioWare, due to the quality and success of their titles.

Or maybe this is just my wishful thinking. EA sucks but here's to hoping.

And maybe Mass Effect ported to PS3 and the future Mass Effect titles released on all systems, or at least 360/PS3 at same time. 🙂
Unless, unless Microsoft has any kind of property tied up in Mass Effect. They are the publishers, and knowing Microsoft they might own the name and whatnot. Hopefully not. 🙁
 
Originally posted by: lupi
Guess you can kiss that MMO they were making goodbye.
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yeah, especially because EA Mythic is making Warhammer. no reason for EA to have 2 MMOs out.
 
Dammit... Every one is making a big deal about BioWare, which is warranted, but I really loved Mercenaries and am looking forward to Mercenaries 2. So I'm not too happy to see Pandemic a part of this too.
 
Originally posted by: gizbug
Too bad this didn't happen after we got a bioshock patch =/
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Dude, Bioshock was made by Irrational Games... not Bioware.
And this sucks. Hopefully they don't eff up Mercs 2.
 
Originally posted by: 40sTheme
Originally posted by: gizbug
Too bad this didn't happen after we got a bioshock patch =/
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Dude, Bioshock was made by Irrational Games... not Bioware.
And this sucks. Hopefully they don't eff up Mercs 2.
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Yea, sorry for starting that misinformation. Bioshock is safe...for now!
 
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