EA to buy Pandemic Studios and BioWare
by Richard Mitchell 
{ Oct 11th 2007 at 5:30PM }
Electronic Arts has announced today that it will acquire VG Holding Corp. from Elevation Partners. VG Holding owns both Pandemic Studios and BioWare, which means the deal nabs both developers for EA. Electronic Arts will be paying up to $650 million in cash to the stockholders of VG Holding, with up to $155 million being paid in equity to specific employees. Pandemic is currently hard at work on the excessively violent sandbox title, Mercenaries 2, which is being published by EA. The deal raises questions about BioWare, as the company is currently developing the galaxy hopping RPG Mass Effect for Microsoft Game Studios. As the game is set to be a trilogy, we have to wonder what this deal means for the next two installments.We'd love to make some sort of Madden RPG joke here (Madden Effect, perhaps?), but we just don't have the energy. Hit the "read" link for the full press release.
[Via Joystiq]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Elliot J @ Oct 11th 2007 5:37PM
Frickin' EA
sisedi @ Oct 11th 2007 5:42PM
Bust out your bibles, qurans, torahs, buddha bellies because it's time to start praying EA doesn't fuck their shit up.
Jesus was here @ Oct 11th 2007 5:42PM
Crap, now we are gonna have more shitty games from EA
Hockle @ Oct 11th 2007 5:42PM
This news leaves me non-plussed
SadisticHam @ Oct 11th 2007 5:43PM
Bloody EA. Die already. Stick to making bad Simpson's games, i truly hope they let bioware run on it's own and there's very little difference otherwise it's going to go to crap.
Jonah Falcon @ Oct 11th 2007 5:44PM
I just threw out in my mouth. Thankfully, MS owns the Mass Effect IP.
Yuccadude @ Oct 11th 2007 5:54PM
It's a trap!!!
Like Jonah said, luckily MS owns the IP of Mass Effect and they can't really do much besides profit from owning Bioware(hopefully).
Jared @ Oct 11th 2007 5:55PM
Why does EA feel the need to gobble up all these companies? It's really starting to piss me off.
itsburnsie @ Oct 11th 2007 5:56PM
Bioware? No. Just... no. C'mon EA, Really? Aren't you content ruining sports franchises, racing games, and FPS's? Now you have to scoop up my favorite RPG maker too?
/sigh
Resistance is futile, it would seem.
intRvenous @ Oct 11th 2007 6:09PM
It means that Mass Effect 2 & 3 will have hot cars, bikini-clad aliens and a dope techno soundtrack! woooot!
mirage @ Oct 11th 2007 6:35PM
At ^
You mean EA Traxxxxxxxxx!
The next mass effect will have crappy tunes from crapy indie bands with one crappy tune from a crappy big name band. That is the amazing EA Traxxxxx formula.
Xion @ Oct 11th 2007 6:44PM
EA owns Mass Effect now actually...so this is bad news.
Token White Guy @ Oct 11th 2007 6:47PM
Can you people be more ignorant. EA is a publisher, not a developer. They don't create the games, period. All they do is publish them and slap a big EA sticker on it. All of the "shitty" games you buy are from shitty dev teams.
a.j. @ Oct 11th 2007 6:49PM
oh well, at least Mass Effect 1 will be great. and then Mass Effect 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 will come out yearly and suck balls. EA sucks.
a.j. @ Oct 11th 2007 6:49PM
@13, but their lack of attention to things like..oh i don't know, online problems with like every sports game they "slap their name on" is their fault. fuck em.
Michael @ Oct 11th 2007 7:18PM
^ Bzzzt wrong. EA does develop its own games and then publish them.
Tony @ Oct 12th 2007 8:40AM
Fuck EA
stirlo @ Oct 11th 2007 7:54PM
:'( can't we get EA busted for monopolization or something? They're my least favourite publisher, They have so many decent IP's but they always find a way to screw them up... :'(
They act just like MS in the PC world, gobble up all competition and smaller devs, then make them mundane...
I'm boycotting them, but still have to buy Skate and Burnout, it's just like "I boycott MS but still need windows and office" :'(
jimy @ Oct 11th 2007 8:26PM
love it.
ChewyDogg @ Oct 11th 2007 8:37PM
EA console in 2010?!!?!
Jonah Falcon @ Oct 11th 2007 9:29PM
Mass Effect is published by Microsoft Game Studios. So while EA "owns" the IP, Mass Effect is going to be published by Microsoft for the 3 games.
Look up the Wiki.
DjDATZ @ Oct 11th 2007 9:53PM
NOOOOOOOOOO! BIOWARE! NOOOOOOOO! MASS EFFECT! NOOOOOOOO!
okay i'm done.
Jerah @ Oct 12th 2007 12:06AM
i stop buying burnout and now no mass effect. i wont say anything bad just hope EA reading these posts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
acreyman @ Oct 12th 2007 12:32AM
Where are those Gov Anti-Trust dudes when you need them. These guys cant compete so they just buy people out. There is only one NFL game because of thier dumb azzes, and now this!
GuiltyDragon @ Oct 12th 2007 5:00AM
@ 13.
You lack a view on the larger picture. Publishers, although they don't construct games directly, CAN and DO walk into their dev's offices, take a look at something and say "no, we don't like that, change it. You don't like that idea? Fine, we'll can your project or fire you".
BioWare will be pandering to EA's nice, safe, statistical demographic studies and profit/loss charts rather than beeing creative and original.
Halonut1 @ Oct 12th 2007 7:47AM
Well you know what this means...
"Unlock the true ending!, pay 4000 MSpoints to get a code for the TRUE mass effect ending!"
Or some other crap like "Unlock 30 more face options for 200 MSpoints!"
this is why i dont play sports games. because EA owns most of them and EA sucks.
Halonut1 @ Oct 12th 2007 7:48AM
@ 24
Damn right, its a shame, something tells me this also means mercenaries 2 is gonna go to the shithole.
xenocidic @ Oct 12th 2007 8:44AM
Maybe a Full Spectrum Warrior revival ?
Gemini Ace @ Oct 12th 2007 8:55AM
It's easy to hate on EA, but when I really think about it, I don't hate them. Their marketplace strategy notwithstanding, I love the NFS franchise and Burnout. Fight Night and Def Jam Icon were good and so was NBA Street Homecourt. I'm not a Madden player, but what I do play of theirs is solid.
Mark @ Oct 12th 2007 11:54AM
So, when is EA going to rename Bioware to "EA Canada East"?