Black day for gamers: EA buys Bioware and Pandemic

[Hard core Rikki]

Story + comments HERE

Electronic Arts just announced that they have "acquired" both BioWare and Pandemic Studios. EA cut a deal with Elevation Partners to buy up VG Holding Corp, which owns both companies.

"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 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 paid up to $620 million in cash to the stockholders of VG Holding to get their hands on the companies, They also gave $155 million in equity to "certain employees of VG Holding" and is lending the company up to $35 million.

I suppose this news isn't exactly shocking since John Riccitello headed up Elevation Partners, along with Apple's Fred Anderson and Bono.

Sure Riccitiello likened VG Holdings to Pixar, saying that the company would have the ability to cut bigger deals with the likes of... EA, but I guess they made an offer too good to refuse.



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.

Transaction and Financial Information

* The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals.
* The transaction is expected to close in January 2008.
* On a GAAP basis, the acquisition is expected to be dilutive to EA's fiscal 2008 results by approximately $0.30 to $0.40 due to non-recurring acquisition-related charges, stock-based compensation and amortization of intangible assets. This amount is a preliminary estimate based on currently-available information and is subject to change.
* On a non-GAAP basis, the acquisition is expected to be dilutive to EA's fiscal 2008 fourth quarter results by approximately $0.05. This amount is a preliminary estimate based on currently-available information and is subject to change.

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[Thanakil]

Black day for gamers? Oh come on now, don't be a drama queen.

They BOUGHT Bioware and Pande, they didnt close the studio or fire everyone and replace them with monkeys.

The fact that they bought them only means they'll be publishing the titles made by them and that they'll have to approve what they will let the studios do, it doesnt mean every titles they make is gonna sucks. And they wouldnt buy the studios if they were planning to refuse them to do the games they wanna do.

Don't over-react, the studios are still intact, and being under EA guidance means more money to create games.

Worst case scenario? Games MAY be rushed to meet a deadline... But guess what, Bioware was ALREADY rushing games (Kotor 2 anyone?) to meet deadlines, so it's not a big change.

I'm gonna wait for EA to fire half of the studios before I freak out.

[Solid_Snake]

The Next news we can hear is that EA will shut both companies down and take off the original franchises to EA itself!

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[sigmax]

Originally Posted by Solid_Snake

The Next news we can hear is that EA will shut both companies down and take off the original franchises to EA itself!

maybe true

anyway from the title i was thinking EA buy square enix

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[ChankastRules]

R.I.P. Bioware
R.I.P. Pandemic

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[Thanakil]

Originally Posted by Solid_Snake

The Next news we can hear is that EA will shut both companies down and take off the original franchises to EA itself!

Highly unlikely, it would cost less to EA to buy the franchises only than to buy the studios.
And honestly, I dont understand all the pessimism around the new...

Do I like EA? No, I think THEY make sucky games.

Does EA buying those studios mean they will start making sucky games? Nope. EA buying the studios means that EA BOUGHT THE STUDIOS.

Just because EA sucks doesnt mean the studios will start sucking, the studios are still making the same games they used to make, the studios are still employing the same workers than they did before, the only difference is that now instead of being under "VG Holding Corp" they are under EA.

As long as EA doesnt shut down the studios (which would be stupid, what would be the point to buy the studios to shut them down?) or fire the employees (which would be stupid, what would be the point to buy the studios if you are gonna methaporically delete them?) then nothing bad is gonna happen.

So now that EA own them, maybe instead of making Mass Effect 1&2&3 for the 360 only they will be PS3/360/PC, like how EA usually does it.

Oh jeez, that would be SO HORRIBLE...

[Linktothepast]

Well, they are buying every good competition there is out there. I hope that it won't become a monopoly one day. They even have some shares of Ubisoft if i recall correctly, but the French government doesn't want to sell the company.

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[cel123]

Originally Posted by sigmax

maybe true

anyway from the title i was thinking EA buy square enix

if that happens then square rpgs will start to suck because of western style influence

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[RedLion]

Originally Posted by ChankastRules

R.I.P. Bioware
R.I.P. Pandemic

I think it will be better to see where all this will lead the two studios. As said Thanakil,there is no valid reasons this purchase make Bioware and Pandemic starting to make bad games.Unless they start to go Fifa style...(Argh.... Morrowind and FSW 2009).

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[Hard core Rikki]

Originally Posted by Thanakil

Does EA buying those studios mean they will start making sucky games?

As long as EA doesnt shut down the studios or fire the employees then nothing bad is gonna happen

Quite the resolutely optimistic lad, aren't you
Rushing games to market under unrealisticly short schedules isn't doing gamers justice anyway. We pay enough on the yearly EA tax already

Also, it makes sense to buy the entire studios (with all its portfolio) rather than franchises separately (remember, the back catalogue is worth much more than the studio itself, so its a cheap way to get the series you want for ridiculous amounts). Also makes sense for them to shut them after that. Westwood anyone? These didn't suck at all either, and yet...

Another EA sucky attitude explained here

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[ChankastRules]

I think it will be better to see where all this will lead the two studios. As said Thanakil,there is no valid reasons this purchase make Bioware and Pandemic starting to make bad games.Unless they start to go Fifa style...(Argh.... Morrowind and FSW 2009).

Hello young lad, know your history. EA bought Westwood, EA bought Origin, EA bought Bullfrog EA bought a lot of other companies that made great and innovative games. EA forced them to make crappy games. Their purpose is not to make good games! They just want to take the studio and bleed them to death, milk all the money you can until none buys the games anymore, finally fire all the employees who haven't already left in despair and shut down the studio.. it'll give EA the right to all their titles and shut down the competition. Richard Garriot maker of the Ultima games ( One of the best RPG series in history ) was thrown away like a used condom because he didn't want to do Exactly as EA told him.... the story goes on and on. It is a certain death for these developers!

Bioware are sellouts, they should've learned from history how stupid it is.. greedy bastards!

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WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO THE SONIC RPG FOR DS

The HORROR

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[Thanakil]

Originally Posted by Hard core Rikki

Quite the resolutely optimistic lad, aren't you
Rushing games to market under unrealisticly short schedules isn't doing gamers justice anyway. We pay enough on the yearly EA tax already

Also, it makes sense to buy the entire studios (with all its portfolio) rather than franchises separately (remember, the back catalogue is worth much more than the studio itself, so its a cheap way to get the series you want for ridiculous amounts). Also makes sense for them to shut them after that. Westwood anyone? These didn't suck at all either, and yet...

Another EA sucky attitude explained here

There's no reason that EA will rush those two studios, they only rush small/short games, not long/full rpg games.

And yeah EA attitude isnt awesome, but I don't see how EA closing the online for SOME games (they dont close the online for ALL of their game, look at the battlefield serie) will influence what they do with studios.

Closing their servers for short/sucky games after one year doesnt really relate to ''WE'LL KILL BIOWARE AND PANDEMONIC MWAHAHAHA''.

Originally Posted by ChankastRules

Hello young lad, know your history. EA bought Westwood, EA bought Origin, EA bought Bullfrog EA bought a lot of other companies that made great and innovative games. EA forced them to make crappy games. Their purpose is not to make good games! They just want to take the studio and bleed them to death, milk all the money you can until none buys the games anymore, finally fire all the employees who haven't already left in despair and shut down the studio.. it'll give EA the right to all their titles and shut down the competition. Richard Garriot maker of the Ultima games ( One of the best RPG series in history ) was thrown away like a used condom because he didn't want to do Exactly as EA told him.... the story goes on and on. It is a certain death for these developers!

Bioware are sellouts, they should've learned from history how stupid it is.. greedy bastards!

Bioware didnt sell out, the company who own Bioware sold out, the CEO of bioware is simply saying that we shouldnt have to worry.

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Last edited by Thanakil; October 12th, 2007 at 15:28.. Reason: Automerged Doublepost

[Hard core Rikki]

Originally Posted by Thanakil

Closing their servers for short/sucky games after one year doesnt really relate to ''WE'LL KLL BIOWARE AND PANDEMONIC MWAHAHAHA''

The latest FIFAs, NFS games, and other ones didn't suck, and weren't short either
Xbox Live existed to prevent such scenarios. EA insisted to have its forceful server shutdown attitude allowed (using EA's OWN suckyly slow servers, not even MS's ones reserved for Live + plus rushing new versions no matter how buggy or incomplete + server shutdowns as soon as the latest version is out = does the general picture look clearer now? )

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[P_RePTiLe]

"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,"

Online gaming, anyone?.
My biggest concern would be if they, as it sounds, want to make bioware focus soley on _online games_ from here on forward.. making the biowares stated whish of making kickass _story-drive_ games a bit tricky

EA's idea is based on the most mainstream gaming for most of it's series, game-types which fit a larger spectrum of presumed gamers.. like the sorts who mostly likes the easily played sports-games a.s.o..

What will be lost guys?.. =/

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[RedLion]

Originally Posted by ChankastRules

Bioware are sellouts, they should've learned from history how stupid it is.. greedy bastards!

I say let's see what happen.Meaby you're right meaby not.

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[Hard core Rikki]

Been a while already, redlion

At least EA didn't buy counterstrike. AMEN to that

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[Thanakil]

Originally Posted by P_RePTiLe

Online gaming, anyone?.
My biggest concern would be if they, as it sounds, want to make bioware focus soley on _online games_ from here on forward.. making the biowares stated whish of making kickass _story-drive_ games a bit tricky

EA's idea is based on the most mainstream gaming for most of it's series, game-types which fit a larger spectrum of presumed gamers.. like the sorts who mostly likes the easily played sports-games a.s.o..

What will be lost guys?.. =/

Bioware ALREADY wanted to go toward online gaming BEFORE EA bought them.

You never heard about how they were thinking about making a MMO? Makes a while already, but anyway, going toward online games doesnt mean Bioware won't make offline games.

Don't forget Bioware are constantly working on MANY games at the same time, they are working on Mass Effect right now, but it's far from being the only game they are making... Arent they working on dragon-something-something too? And other less-known games, + a MMO that they were talking about (possibly a KoToR MMO).

[Noja87]

Originally Posted by Thanakil

But guess what, Bioware was ALREADY rushing games (Kotor 2 anyone?) to meet deadlines, so it's not a big change.

I'm gonna wait for EA to fire half of the studios before I freak out.

uuuhhh..im pretty sure KOTOR 2 was made by Obsidian and not Bioware...

[Cid Highwind]

Originally Posted by P_RePTiLe

Online gaming, anyone?.
My biggest concern would be if they, as it sounds, want to make bioware focus soley on _online games_ from here on forward.. making the biowares stated whish of making kickass _story-drive_ games a bit tricky

EA's idea is based on the most mainstream gaming for most of it's series, game-types which fit a larger spectrum of presumed gamers.. like the sorts who mostly likes the easily played sports-games a.s.o..

What will be lost guys?.. =/

Agreed. Although Dragonage was supposed to be online as well, I can't help but worry about EA forcing them to move away from the niche market they have been delivering great titles throughout the years. I wouldn't be surprised to have EA tell them to make another Baldur's Gate, regardless of the fact that the saga has been completed anyway.

The only thing I hope for right now is EA to buy the Dungeons and Dragons license and pass it on to Bioware to do something good with it. Then again, most of Black Isle's people are at Obsidian, which is part of Atari. So there's another problem, because the only company I rate as worse than EA is Atari.

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