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EA Buys Out a Game Studio After Shutting Another One Down 3 Weeks Ago (arstechnica.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the welcome-to-the-family dept.

EA has acquired the video game studio Respawn Entertainment. "The studio, co-founded by former Infinity Ward chiefs and Call of Duty co-creators in the wake of their departure from Activision, has been bought out in a deal whose total value could reach $455 million," reports Ars Technica. "The news by itself may seem odd, considering that EA shut down one of its other wholly owned studios, Visceral Games, only three weeks ago." From the report: A report from Kotaku sheds light on why EA made the move: as a response to another game publisher, Korea's Nexon, making a formal bid to buy Respawn outright. Nexon currently publishes a mobile spinoff of Respawn's Titanfall shooter series. Kotaku, citing sources close to the matter, claims that Nexon had bid to buy the company outright. EA exercised its contractual right to match the offer, Kotaku says, and it ultimately outbid Nexon. Among other things, the buyout preserves Respawn's continued work on an upcoming EA game set in the Star Wars universe; EA currently enjoys an exclusive license to making Star Wars-related video games, and any takeover by another company would have to resolve whether or how such a project would continue in production. Respawn's Star Wars project still does not have a title, a release date, or revealed gameplay footage. Respawn announced its work on an additional, unnamed VR game at Oculus Connect 4 last month; the EA statement says that project will continue apace, as well.

3 of 57 comments (clear)

  1. EA Games by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Where game studios and franchises go to die.

    It's pretty much all they do today. Find a studio that has a hit or even a hit series, buy them, crank out a few crappy knockoffs with micropayments or "keep paying if you want to get the whole game eventually", until the last fan of the series walks away in disgust, then throw it away and abuse and kill the next good idea someone else had.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    1. Re:EA Games by Dogtanian · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Indeed. Always struck me as ironic that one of the most highly-regarded publishers of the 1980s- which had a reputation for good-quality games and crediting their authors- went on to become the complete antithesis of this.

      I've heard some pinpoint the change to the early 1990s, around the time of the 16-bit console era (Mega Drive/Genesis and SNES). It's probably not coincidental that- in hindsight- this is around the time they showed the first major signs of what would later become a hallmark- their reliance on franchises- with new versions of the John Madden games coming out every year or so.

      But I suspect it's also no coincidence that this would have happened around the time founder Trip Hawkins basically left the company (according to Wikipedia, his involvement was reduced significantly from 1991 onwards (in order to focus on the ill-fated 3DO) and he finally resigned from the board in 1994). From what I can tell, the original company reflected his vision, and it wouldn't be surprising that with him gone it may have lost its soul.

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  2. Re:It's what they do by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The EA kiss of death is well documented by Forbes and Wikipoodia

    1. Kesmai (2001)
    2. Bullfrog Productions (2001)
    3. Westwood Studios (2003)
    4. Maxis. (2004)
    5. Origin Systems (2004)
    6. Pandemic Studios (2009)
    7. Phenomic (2013)
    8. DreamWorks Interactive (2013)
    9. Black Box Games (2013)
    10. Mythic Entertainment (2014)
    11. Visceral Games (2017)