October 12th, 2007

Electronic Arts buys Bioware and Pandemic for $800 million

Electronic Arts (EA) just made a big move on Elevation Partners and yesterday finalized the agreement to buy VG Holding Corp, who in turn is the owner of Bioware and Pandemic Studios. The acquisition of these two gems of the gaming ethos rises to a value of $800 million, paid mostly in cash to the VG Holding Corp stockholders.

For comparison’s sake, let’s say Electronic Arts is one of the biggest producers on the gaming market, a corporate environment where financial considerations are paramount in releasing new titles. Like comparing the Moon to a cloud of stardust, on the other side we have the smaller, independent, development studios proudly represented by the two studios. Pandemic is responsible for cult titles as Mercenaries, Destroy All Humans or Full Spectrum Warrior, while Bioware’s list of successes is so big that anyone playing computer games is bound to know a few. They practically reinvented RPG as a genre is times past and are now releasing even more original franchises like Jade Empire, Mass Effect and Dragon Age.

But how does this affect us gamers? It is said that most Bioware employees were at some point with EA, so tensions are bound to arise internally. In addition, such a takeover usually ripples through every level of the organization, thus studios will slow progress down in regard to new productions. EA is notorious for pushing back release dates and gained a bad reputation for ruining good studios like Westwood and Origin. These are the prime examples of dev teams joining EA along with their grand franchises and losing grip into dismissal. You can check more feedback from the everyday gamer like you and me on the Bioware forums.

While some think that EA is simply buying off the competition, it’s not excluded that Bioware and Pandemic will be granted the needed freedom and finances to do something spectacular on a regular basis. EA’s CEO John Riccitiello noticed Bioware’s high metacritic score, which is a breath of fresh air for the all time low rating in EA’s backyard. The need to fill gaps in portfolio was also mentioned for motivation, with EA gaining a strong hold in the world of Bioware’s RPGs and Pandemic's open-world titles.