EA to Acquire BioWare/Pandemic [October 11, 2007, 4:30 pm ET] - Viewing Comments
EA To Acquire BioWare Corp. and Pandemic Studios (thanks Nick) has word that EA has entered into an agreement to acquire BioWare/Pandemic in a deal that will involve up to $620 million in cash and $155 million in equity, as well as a loan of some pocket change totaling $35 million. Here's a bit:
REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS - News) 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.
Merged. Took me a minute to figure out.
WTF? WTF WTF WTF?
Although the implication is that the BioWare MMORPG is an original IP, [EA's CEO John] Riccitiello and his associates steered clear of saying so specifically. He did say that the deal will make EA the owner of the Mass Effect, Jade Empire, Mercenaries, Full Spectrum Warrior, and Saboteur properties. The executive also said that EA "expects to bring 10 franchises to market in the next few years; six of which are wholly owned." No mention was made of Dragon Age, BioWare's little-seen fantasy title.So, now EA owns The Jade Empire IP and Mass Effect IP?
Mass Effect could change that and I'd be pretty let down that they're now evil, but I'll wait and see on that.
NWN: OC was their major flop, if you ask me.
One of the best selling PC games of all time. It was a big hit among newer fans, but not those who were expecting BG2 style gameplay.I didn't mind having a smaller party -- party of 2 is fine. Worked well in Beyond Divinity. But, I think the NWN problem was the NPC AI wasn't that great; very wonky. You couldn't really upgrade your NPC party characters too much. The whole "Ancient alien race" storyline was so rushed and half-baked. Many quests, you didn't have more than one way to finish them, unfortunately....zzzzzzzzz....
But yes, this news is really depressing.The whole NWN2: MOTB fiasco w/ the patching process is sad. Especially since I really want to play this thing like...NOW.
Now why did I have to read those threads...
why?
EA, LucasArts, and Bioware all in bed for an MMO to make tons of money off of like it would be the next WoW.
Why an MMO on KOTOR?From a business stand-point, KOTOR was a cash-cow.
Why not just shoot for another Star Wars MMO?There was already SW: Galaxies.
Yes but this isn't really a sequel. It is a spin off.Point taken in the game-style regard, since we'd be going from SP games -> now a MMO.
Well I guess it involves the same thought process, so you are right.Okay, to be technical, KOTOR MMO would still be under the KOTOR brand. :P
I'm guessing they'd do it because it would get around the whole thing with Galaxies being overrun with Jedi when it really wasn't susposed to be. They probably also figure more people will pick it up if you can just be a Jedi right off the bat.
That said, I personally think doing so kind of takes away from the only really cool thing in starwars; the fact that there are very very few jedi and everyone else is basically just normal.
Initially didn't they make it really really difficult to become a Jedi?