Well, things just got really interesting, that’s for sure. You have to give props and a big cigar to EA CEO John Riccitiello for getting this deal done. Anyway, go read the press release below and comment away. My take: it really doesn’t matter who owns what as long as the commitment to quality still comes through. Some folks out there hate EA for being EA, but hell… you need a lot better reason than that these days if you’re going to pass up that many good games.
Anyway, read on:
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 and Saboteur, 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™ 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.
As the saying goes, let the games begin… and keep on coming.
A year or two ago, I’d be screaming “the sky is falling!” about this lol. But honestly, I like what EA has been doing lately. They really have begun to focus on producing new IPs and games that do more than just rehash old ideas with a new coat of paint. Like you said, as long as BioWare and Pandemic keep making great games, it doesn’t really matter who owns them.
yeah, i’ve already seen some boneheaded comments elsewhere, but i’m guessing EA has heard ’em all in the past. All they’re doing is rounding up the best teams and putting out their games, not stamping some sort of “EA house style” onto everyone’s foreheads. There are lots of cool things coming, that’s for sure. A few games I’d wanted to ignore initially were all great at that recent holiday event. MOH Heroes 2 is solid fun, Need For Speed ProStreet totally shocked me based on the demo alone and The Simpsons Game is so damn funny so frequently that it was hard to play the game because I was looking for or hearing all the in-jokes.
I don’t mind the buyout at this point, because I mean…EA had enough sense to buy up guys like Criterion and Mythic. The Fight Night franchise has always been a breath of fresh air, the Need for Speed games have always been fun (except Carbon), Madden 08 is actually enjoyable, Medal of Honor: Airborne is pretty damn good, and now they are getting a ton of stuff put together for a killer lineup next year.
Good stuff.