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Fallout From the BioWare/Pandemic Buyout

Posted by Zonk on from the if-they're-okay-with-it-i'm-okay-with-it dept.

Yesterday's announcement of EA's purchase of BioWare and Pandemic took a lot of people by surprise. Today, there's some more information, reactions, and assurances from the people involved in the move. First and foremost: Mass Effect should not be affected by this purchase. The future of the series is still up in the air, but the game we've all be waiting for is still slated for a November 20th release exclusive to the Xbox 360. EA held a conference call about the buyout soon after it was announced, and answers a number of questions about specifics. FiringSquad has a feature on the reaction from the developers, and that piece has some assurances that EA's CEO John Riccitiello has the best interests of the new acquisitions at heart. Gamasutra has a Q&A with Pandemic's management team, which wants to point out that Pandemic/BioWare and their parent company drove this deal forward; this was not a hostile acquisition. Likewise Gamespot has a chat with the BioWare co-founders, who are equally excited about the deal. This may have been surprising, but if the two companies were onboard with this move it can hardly be dire, right?

1 of 89 comments (clear)

  1. Re:You never know - look at Will Wright by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    RTFA, tardo, it was Maxis, not EA, that didn't want to develop The Sims:

    Eventually, Mr. Wright decided to create a game focused on people. The business executives running Maxis at the time had little faith in the idea and recommended the project be killed. Mr. Wright responded by moving his development team to Silicon Valley, about 40 miles away from Maxis's headquarters.

    Don Mattrick, a former top Electronic Arts executive who was involved in the company's 1997 acquisition of Maxis, said the company's then-management didn't know how to deal with Mr. Wright. "They had a hard time communicating with Will," Mr. Mattrick recalls.'

    "The company's then management" that Don Mattrick refers to above is the people running Maxis. And the very quote you used states that Mattrick encouraged Wright to go ahead with The Sims. So much for "having to fight".

    In short, you are a worthless illiterate fucksnot. People like you should be sterilized for the good of humanity.