BioWare goes to EA!

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And Pandemic as well.

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/071011/20071011006083.html?.v=1
EA To Acquire BioWare Corp. and Pandemic Studios

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Electronic Arts Inc. 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(TM) and Saboteur(TM), 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(TM) 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.​
EA better not **** with them and the Mass Effect trilogy. If they make them rush it out...

Ugh.

EDIT: Bolded some of the better parts of the article.

EA shelled out $700 million for both these companies?! Holy crap, that just puts the $400 million MS/Rare deal to shame.
 
Better EA than Microsoft, right?

Doesn't Microsoft have the publishing rights for Mass Effect? I don't see that game going anywhere but Xbox.
 
If you can't make good games, buy exclusive licenses and companies that can. :indiff:

More evidence that EA is following Microsoft's lead by spending their money on aquistions, licensing, and marketing rather than on development.

I hope this is not a sign of bad things to come for the developers at BioWare Corp. and Pandemic Studios.



As a reminder...

billgates_wideweb__470x4460.jpg



Bill Gates: "We have won again. That is good! But what is best in life?"

Paul Allen: "A powerful program, that is open sourced, talented employees at your side, and a drive to create."

Bill Gates: "Wrong! Steve, what is best in Life?"

Steve Ballmer: "To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to see the lamentations of their software!"

Bill Gates: "That is good. You are now ready to become CEO of Microsoft."



:)

:D
 
Better EA than Microsoft, right?
...Not really. At least Microsoft lets developers take their time... and they give gargantuan marketing campaigns as well (see: Halo 3 diorama + Mountain Dew, Viva Pinata Burger King toys + cartoon show). EA? Not so much.
Doesn't Microsoft have the publishing rights for Mass Effect? I don't see that game going anywhere but Xbox.
Yeah, I think they do. I'm wondering though if EA is going to make them rush out the two sequels and the Sonic RPG... but who knows.

All I know is that this possibly can't be a good thing, for Microsoft, BioWare, or the industry itself.

More evidence that EA is following Microsoft's lead by spending their money on aquistions, licensing, and marketing rather than on development.

To be fair, Microsoft hasn't been acquiring anything at all. I mean, they let Bungie go as a first party, and now BioWare and Bizarre as second parties. And they closed down FASA. When it comes to MS' first party, they're hardly gobbling up developers like Activison, EA, Sony, etc.
 
To be fair, Microsoft hasn't been acquiring anything at all. I mean, they let Bungie go as a first party, and now BioWare and Bizarre as second parties. And they closed down FASA. When it comes to MS' first party, they're hardly gobbling up developers like Activison, EA, Sony, etc.
I was refering to Microsoft, not just their gaming division, and about their general business strategy, not just recent events.
 
Completely annoying news. I hope Bioware can stay independent on a creative level like a couple of EA subsidiaries have. But still, I give EA a big thumbs down.
 
Doesn't Microsoft have the publishing rights for Mass Effect? I don't see that game going anywhere but Xbox.

I was wrong.

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=15833

Following the announcement of Electronic Arts' acquisition of BioWare and Pandemic for over $800 million, EA held a conference call to explain the move to press and analysts, and Gamasutra was listening in to get the full details on this major deal.

Firstly, EA CFO Warren Jenson commented that his company has "had our eye on these studios for several years", and underlined the main reason for the acquisition of the two developers - that it "fills out a gap in our genre line-up". In other words, where EA was under-represented in RPG, action, and adventure titles, according to CFO Jenson, the BioWare and Pandemic purchase has now helped fill the gap.

In fact, Jenson claimed that 36% of the North American and 29% of the European markets were in these key genres, hence the acquisition. He noted that the two firms will bring 10 franchises to market in the next 6 years, and more expansion into the MMO space was planned. Overall, he stressed, it was "an important step for us in driving growth and profitability".

Next up was John Riccitello, who formerly headed up Elevation Partners (the company that included BioWare/Pandemic parent VG Holdings) before rejoining EA as CEO earlier this year.

He commented that the deal was "a strategic move that speaks directly to quality, online, growth and new IP" for the publishing giant, also disclosing, for the record, that he may receive some personal gain due to a residual interest in Elevation Partners. In fact, an independent board within EA supervised the takeover process due to the potential conflict of interest, according to the CEO.

The question and answer section was particularly hot on which IPs will transfer over to EA, and the company noted that Mass Effect is published by Microsoft, but the intellectual property now belongs to Electronic Arts and would conceivably from here out be EA published.

In addition, Pandemic owns IPs such as Mercenaries and Saboteur - and in fact, the upcoming Mercenaries 2 will be the first game to appear from this deal. The executives did note that the Pandemic created Destroy All Humans IP was now owned by THQ, and wouldn't be included in the deal.

Also asked was how IP might lend itself to Nintendo's DS or Wii, and John Riccitiello revealed that there is Nintendo platform development underway in both companies, with several unannounced titles in addition to the Sonic The Hedgehog RPG for DS already in development by BioWare.

In addition, technology was dealt with, and EA noted some key areas of innovation, particularly the dialogue engine in Mass Effect, in addition to proprietary engines, that might be of use to Electronic Arts down the road.

As for how the 10 new franchises spaced out over the next few years, the company confirmed that it would be fairly evenly over the 2009, 2010, and 2011 fiscal years, revealing that the BioWare MMO currently in development at BioWare Austin is planned towards the back half of that three year outlook.

Asked what the deal brought to BioWare and Pandemic, Riccitiello said that as independent developers, the two spent a lot of time courting independent publishers and negotiating deals, and EA would effectively simplify that process to zero, offering them the leverage of EA publishing which could extend the two studios into places they don't traditionally get, including online and in the mobile sphere.

Finally, asked how this new deal compared to those Riccitiello oversaw in his first seven years at EA, he said it could be comparable to Maxis and Westwood, though admitted that both were significantly smaller studios with properties that were still heavily in development -- The Sims and Command and Conquer, versus the strong established IP of both Pandemic and BioWare (though, he admitted, The Sims has "paid for the acquisition many times over.")

Riccitiello explained that relative to timing, this acquisition was a very good deal. Over the past few years, he said, independent developers have seen a number of challenges both in mastering next-gen platforms, and difficulties managing multi-platform releases. In BioWare and Pandemic's case, though, EA is "getting in on the back end with developers that have mastered those difficulties" -- saying the acqusition comes "post-risk."

So basically, unless Microsoft pulls a Team Ninja/Tecmo deal with EA, Mass Effect 2 and 3 will be published by EA.

EA is also planning for Pandemic and BioWare to make a total of 10 titles over the next 6 years. Looks like we're getting yearly updates!
 
...Not really. At least Microsoft lets developers take their time... and they give gargantuan marketing campaigns as well (see: Halo 3 diorama + Mountain Dew, Viva Pinata Burger King toys + cartoon show). EA? Not so much.

Rock Band gets MTV and Fender, Skate and NFS: Pro Street gets every possible skater merchandiser and after market parts company ever conceived. How is that not as gargantuan as Halo 3 with Mountain Dew/Doritos/ and Pontiac?

To be fair, Microsoft hasn't been acquiring anything at all. I mean, they let Bungie go as a first party, and now BioWare and Bizarre as second parties. And they closed down FASA. When it comes to MS' first party, they're hardly gobbling up developers like Activison, EA, Sony, etc.

Some how I feel that people think it's ok for Microsoft to acquire developers and even bitch fit when Microsoft lets one go, but when EA acquires a developer, they get lynched.
 
EA is also planning for Pandemic and BioWare to make a total of 10 titles over the next 6 years. Looks like we're getting yearly updates!

Mass Effect 2 will be renamed Mass Effect 2009 and will feature some name changes, but everything else will remain the same from Mass Effect.
 
Rock Band gets MTV and Fender, Skate and NFS: Pro Street gets every possible skater merchandiser and after market parts company ever conceived. How is that not as gargantuan as Halo 3 with Mountain Dew/Doritos/ and Pontiac?
Licensed in-game content ≠ video game advertising. With skate, there wasn't a big advertising campaign. With Rock Band... that's up in the air. But it's safe to say we haven't seen skate everywhere in our everyday products, and Rock Band looks to have the same fate.

Some how I feel that people think it's ok for Microsoft to acquire developers and even bitch fit when Microsoft lets one go, but when EA acquires a developer, they get lynched.

Well, I do agree there is some form of irrational hatred towards EA... but some hatred is justified. Whether it's whoring out their series (Madden, Sims, etc) or ruining other studios they gobbled up (Westwood, Origin, Bullfrog)... there are some bad aspects about them pertaining to them buying something.

And to MS' credit, they don't mindlessly whore out their franchises, and they let Bungie buy itself back in order to preserve its talent. They're not perfect, but they're the better of the two evils so to speak.

And...

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3163617

1UP
1UP: This must affect existing relationships with other publishers. Obviously, you guys won't be working on the Battlefront series anymore.

Resnick: I would say never to anything like that. I don't think this necessarily closes as many doors as you think. BioWare, Pandemic right now have existing publishing relations with many companies and we're excited to continue those.
So, I guess their contract with Microsoft is still in effect.
 
And the one with Sega.

That too.

So I think it's pretty obvious MS/Sega/LucasArts (possibly) are still in of the picture.

But still... $860,000,000. Almost a billion dollars for these two companies. There's definitely some things going on behind-the-scenes.
 
Just the beginning everyone... Just the beginning everyone...

In other news...
It was a bad day for quite a few of my tech stocks, including Apple (this despite the latest upgrade status from Goldman Sachs who raised Apple's price target to $190 from $165)... which then subsequently dropped 3% in the afternoon sell off. :grumpy:

I took the biggest hit though from Infosys Technologies (this despite reporting an 18% increase in quarterly profits and meeting the Streets expectations)... the stock fell by more than 6% today. :ouch:
 
Well, I do agree there is some form of irrational hatred towards EA... but some hatred is justified. Whether it's whoring out their series (Madden, Sims, etc) or ruining other studios they gobbled up (Westwood, Origin, Bullfrog)... there are some bad aspects about them pertaining to them buying something.

While I don't forgive EA for what they did to Origin, however, Microsoft is guilty of being the biggest whore-er. I can go out and buy Halo 3 with a Halo 3 Xbox 360 that comes with a cat helmet while I'm drinking Halo 3 Slurpee with Halo 3 flavored Mountain Dew in my Halo 3 cup, munching on my Halo 3 Doritos while wearing my Halo 3 t-shirt and playing with my Halo 3 action figures and reading my Halo 3 novels all before I hop into my Halo 3 Pontiac G-whatever.

And to MS' credit, they don't mindlessly whore out their franchises, and they let Bungie buy itself back in order to preserve its talent. They're not perfect, but they're the better of the two evils so to speak.

Microsoft won't have any developers left to whore out. They have Rare, Turn 10 (Forza), Ensemble (Halo Wars), and ACES (Flight Simulator). Isn't it dangerous to not have any first party developers at all?
 
While I don't forgive EA for what they did to Origin, however, Microsoft is guilty of being the biggest whore-er. I can go out and buy Halo 3 with a Halo 3 Xbox 360 that comes with a cat helmet while I'm drinking Halo 3 Slurpee with Halo 3 flavored Mountain Dew in my Halo 3 cup, munching on my Halo 3 Doritos while wearing my Halo 3 t-shirt and playing with my Halo 3 action figures and reading my Halo 3 novels all before I hop into my Halo 3 Pontiac G-whatever.

So, wait.... Is it any different when Nintendo does the same thing with Mario? SEGA with Sonic? Sony with Bandicoot?

While I do understand your point, I'm really not buying it in this case, particularly when Microsoft and Bungie were very careful picking how they wanted to promote Halo 3. Making a promotional console with a game is nothing new (they did it with Halo 2, Sony did it with Gran Turismo, etc), the Halo 3 Mountain Dew actually tasted pretty good and a lot of people who had absolutely NO interest in Halo liked it...

Otherwise your concern over the Slurpee and Doritos were only available at 7-11, and the deal with the Pontiac (as I recall) was limited to 100 cars given away through Best Buy Rewards. That is pretty minor overall if you ask me, particularly when Sony is so willing to throw Spider-Man on every damn thing I find at the local Meijer store when one of the movies comes out, not to mention the crap at Burger King...

And you're actually complaining about Toys and Tee-Shirts? Really? You're bound to find things from Link to Ratchet, God of War to Gears of War. Every "big" title is going to have something, no matter who makes it. Welcome to the world of marketing my friend, capitalism is a wonderful thing...

===

More on topic:

I can't say that I completely fault EA for picking up some high-quality developers to add to their growing portfolio. The problem is, one would prefer to keep these companies independent. Sure, their previous ties with Microsoft and LucasArts weren't necessarily "independent" in every sense of the word, but they did have plenty of room to move around and do what they wished.

You have to hope for the best. I have to say that the (overall) quality of many EA titles has improved in the past year or so, but by no means does that mean that their constant push for so-so titles in the name of cash-money is good either. Hopefully EA will allow these developers to do what needs to be done to create the best titles possible in a reasonable amount of time... Otherwise, people can always leave and do as they please and make better games once again (Peter Molyneux?).
 
While I don't forgive EA for what they did to Origin, however, Microsoft is guilty of being the biggest whore-er. I can go out and buy Halo 3 with a Halo 3 Xbox 360 that comes with a cat helmet while I'm drinking Halo 3 Slurpee with Halo 3 flavored Mountain Dew in my Halo 3 cup, munching on my Halo 3 Doritos while wearing my Halo 3 t-shirt and playing with my Halo 3 action figures and reading my Halo 3 novels all before I hop into my Halo 3 Pontiac G-whatever.

I was speaking of game sequels and tarnishing series and the like, but I do agree with you (again) about the other aspects of whoring out you've pointed out (that they've been guilty of).

Microsoft won't have any developers left to whore out. They have Rare, Turn 10 (Forza), Ensemble (Halo Wars), and ACES (Flight Simulator). Isn't it dangerous to not have any first party developers at all?

They also have Lionhead and Wingnut (though the latter looks to be for the Peter Jackson Halo project).

As for their first party strategy... who knows. On one hand, they could throw money at 3rd party development studios and get top tier games relatively easy. They don't have to worry about buying up studios for a ton of money and getting burned (see: Rare). They also don't have to worry about key talent leaving the company (see: Bungie). They see Epic making Gears of War, BioWare making Mass Effect, Silicon Knights making Too Human, Team Ninja making Ninja Gaiden 2, Bizarre making Project Gotham Racing, Remedy making Alan Wake, Irrational making BioShock, and more... and they show all of these developers the money. And voila, you got big 3rd party games to your system. And you don't have to buy these studios, nor do you have to worry about key talent leaving.

The flip side of this is that, well, they're 3rd parties. Epic is in bed with Sony right now with Unreal Tournament 3. BioWare just got snatched up by EA. Bizarre? Activison. That's the danger you face with this strategy.

Microsoft has already experienced the upsides and downsides to both strategies. After all the crap that's been happening for the past two months, it looks like they've chosen to have a few 1st party games to support their far more 3rd party games... unlike Sony who has the opposite strategy.

But who knows. Maybe MS is bowing out in the hardware race after this generation, putting their weight behind Peter Moore and an EA console, supplying media and online services, their games, etc. Of course this is just wild speculation. :lol:
 
So, wait.... Is it any different when Nintendo does the same thing with Mario? SEGA with Sonic? Sony with Bandicoot?

No difference, but it doesn't make it ok.

Microsoft has already experienced the upsides and downsides to both strategies. After all the crap that's been happening for the past two months, it looks like they've chosen to have a few 1st party games to support their far more 3rd party games... unlike Sony who has the opposite strategy.

Is it better to have greater first party games than third?
 
Is it better to have greater first party games than third?

I'd rather be in Sony's position (more exclusive first party games you can rely on), but then again I'm not Microsoft and I don't know of all their internal dealings. It really depends, and I can't give a definitive answer.
 
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