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Electronic Arts Purchases BioWare, Pandemic

Posted by Zonk on from the depths-of-horror dept.

Kotaku is reporting that EA has purchased BioWare and Pandemic Studios, having offered some $620 million in cash to the Elevation Partners group to buy up VG Holding Corp. From the press release: "'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.'"

16 of 232 comments (clear)

  1. Let me be the first to say... by bigstrat2003 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Shit. This ain't good.

    (Pardon me for being cynical, but I can't help but be afraid that a company like EA, known for mediocrity, is going to drag down Bioware, known for excellence)

    --
    "16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
    1. Re:Let me be the first to say... by JonTurner · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Agreed, it may be a money-maker, but it's not good for those who love great games and look forward to more being created in the future. Can anyone here name just one company that got better in terms of product quality and service AFTER a merger? I certainly cannot, and am not aware of any.

      So, to summarize this business deal: EA= Big Daddies, Bioware = Little Sisters, and if history is any guide to how EA treats their people, bioware's programmers/artists = corpses being robbed of their mana. And where do the customers factor in? We're the fellow passengers on the airplane that crashed during the Bioshock opening scene -- literary filler which exists only because it can't be logically avoided.

    2. Re:Let me be the first to say... by Oliver+Wendell+Jones · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Now, they're a shambling zombie force that sucks the life out of anything they touch, and causes their newly assimilated zombie-children to spew foul darkness onto the marketplace.

      I tend to think of EA more like "The Borg" - they are out to assimilate every other game company, suck the individuality out of them and turn them into themselves - lifeless automatons.

      --
      A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing -- Emo Phillips
    3. Re:Let me be the first to say... by Jiles · · Score: 4, Informative

      Bioware didn't develop KOTOR2. Knights of the Old Republic 2 was Obsidian's doing.

  2. Anybody at Bioware-Austin by the_skywise · · Score: 4, Funny

    Still have your Resistance is Futile shirt? :D

  3. EA Games... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny



    Purchase Everything

    </whisper>

  4. Game over! by decipher_saint · · Score: 5, Funny

    Game over man, GAME OVER!

    --
    crazy dynamite monkey
  5. It's not the first of april by eddy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And this joke isn't funny even if it were.

    --
    Belief is the currency of delusion.
  6. This sums things up nicely: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Fuck

  7. Terrible news... by vorpal22 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I, for one, have never seen anything *good* come of an EA acquisition. Anyone remember the Ultima games? EA bought Origin Systems, and the series promptly went from the brilliance of Ultimas III through VII Part 2 to the flops and incredible series ending disappointments that were Ultima VIII and IX. Both were buggy, lacking in plot, and virtually unplayable. It was terrible to have such a wonderful, complex continuing story terminate with a muffled whimper.

  8. EA: We Ruin Games by RichPowers · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Some of EA's finer moments:

    Imagine SimCity, only take out the simulation elements, dumb it down, give it a lame 3d engine, and hire the mediocre studio behind the failure that is Caesar IV to design it. That's exactly what EA is doing with SimCity Societies. One of the most venerable PC game series of all time is reduced to the uninspired, inoffensive, mildly-likable crap that EA specializes in. If Maxis were still around, I doubt we'd be seeing this.

    Then there's the Westwood. EA dissolved the studio and released C&C: Generals. It had no live action cut scenes, no creative and silly weapons, and no enigmatic bald men bent on world domination. It was a generic RTS featuring the USA, China, and some Arab quasi-nationstate fighting across desert landscapes dotted with mosques - the same setting used by every Clancy knockoff.

    (Just because you build a city doesn't make it SimCity. Likewise, just because you command a modern army doesn't make it C&C.)

    And let's not forget the Battlefield series. DICE revolutionized online FPS gaming with BF1942. To this day, it's still one of my favorite games. Battlefield 2, however, is a system hog that could teach Vista a thing or two. Post-release support is abysmal and the game is still riddled with bugs. BF2142 is for all purposes a half-assed futuristic mod based on the same crummy BF2 engine...and it features in-game ads.

    I could go on and on, but you get the picture. I've been playing PC games ever since SimCity 2000 in 1993 and have witnessed EA steadily bastardize so many PC games I know and love. They make boatloads of cash from their exploitation games (Madden, The Sims) and then buy out respectable studios. Am I cynical for thinking that BioWare and Pandemic will go to shit? Based on my experience with EA, it's only a matter of time.

  9. Re:Carry The Torch? by ObiWanStevobi · · Score: 4, Funny

    Shut up you fool! EA is listening.

  10. This is GREAT news! by Huntr · · Score: 5, Funny

    Baldur's Gate would have been a much better game if it had more basketball and football in it.

  11. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  12. Re:No. No No No No No. by great+throwdini · · Score: 5, Informative

    EA never made good games. They purchased companies that did, and the quality improved for a year or two until their creativity burned out too.

    Back in 80s, EA attracted a number of top game developers and was (to many) synonymous with interesting, solid gameplay. MULE and Archon are two clear standouts published by EA, but a complete list of hits both big and small from "back in the days" is pretty lengthy (Bard's Tale, Mail Order Monsters, the various Construction Set games, Starflight, Seven Cities of Gold, etc.)

    EA itself may not have "made" these games, but its distribution strategy and relationship with developers back then did a lot to get good games in the hands of eager players.

  13. Unskippable by Lurks · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Now I think we can look forward to the next Bioware games having unskippable corporate spinning logos for 5 minutes before the game starts up. Yay.