EA acquires Bioware and Pandemic
 

Ea just purchased Bioware and Pandemic for $775 mil.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=29520

All I can say is F*CK!!!! I just can't see this as being a good deal for Bioware or Pandemic.

That blows, although i honestly don't believe it will make that much of a difference in the long run. I don't think Bioware games would start to suck any time just because of the EA tag.

Let just get Mass Effect out the house before any crap starts.

The shitty thing is that Mass Effect is supposed to be a trilogy. Hopefully this doesn't fuck that up, but I am sure it will in some way. Hell, I bet at least half of the developers leave to start up a new company.

You can thank all the people that buy Madden every year for giving EA enough money to do shit like this.

R.I.P. :rip:

Did EA get purchased at some point? I mean their games didn't always suck. I remember thinking of them as a mark of quality. I mean Wasteland, Seven Cities of Gold, M.U.L.E., Archon, Legacy of the Ancients, etc. Those are all games I specifically remember as being Electronic Arts games. I'm sure there's more that I've liked. When did the turn for the worse happen?

Didn't LucasArts own Pandemic? What happened with that?

Sucks about Bioware, as they seem to be the antithesis of EA's rush 'em out, LCD, every-platform-ever-made business plan

Ugh.

I don't think Lucasarts ever owned Pandemic, Mercenaries was just published by them.

EA's not all that bad. I mean now we get to see Neverwinter Mercenaries of the Old Madden Republic 2009 :up:

my bust

Cack. Hopefully Dragon Age still comes out as a PC title.

You're Welcome! :)

Mass Effect will be the bomb, now that it'll have Nike and Pepsi ads in it. Realism, baby!!!11!!!1!

Well, that sucks....make way for even more dumbed down games.

Bioware is one of my all time favorites and one of the few companies that I gladly support with my $$$....it was nice while it lasted.

Wow, Bono just doubled his money. Elevation purchased Bioware and Pandemic about a year ago for 300mil. Good turn on your investment but this is not good news for Bioware and Pademic, they just got bought out by the Evil Empire.

I don't think Lucasarts ever owned Pandemic, Mercenaries was just published by them.

I just hope Dragon Age comes out at all. It started development shortly after Jade Empire came out on the Xbox, and there has not been any news on the game in ages. Bioware has been pimping Mass Effect hard, but they haven't said one word on Dragon Age in at least a year. I am beginning to think it may be the next Duke Nukem Forever (aka vaporware).

I'm sure Dragon Age is still going strong. I think they are just really laying the ground work for a truely detailed, epic new IP. I remember listening to a bioware interview on Dragonage last year and they sound very passionate about it.

Here's an appropriate image for this acquisition:

http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:...06_468x397.jpg

Although it'd be even more accuarte had the seal been wearing a top-hat, a monocle and carried a large bag of cash...

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6180866.html
Q&A: BioWare on the EA buyout

GS: Now, you just mentioned Dragon Age. Since Dragon Age wasn't mentioned in the acquisition announcement and so little has been heard about it, there's been some speculation that it was canceled.

RM: Oh, no. We were just playing that last week as well. It's one of the more enjoyable things I've done in the past few weeks, by far. I could not stop playing it. I meant to play it just for a little bit just to check it out, but I ended up playing it all weekend. I wish we could say more about it, as the team has been putting in some late hours on the project, and they've come up with some amazing stuff. We're gonna be revealing some more about Dragon Age very soon, I think, and I think you'll be excited to hear about it.

holy crap..the bioware forums are on meltdown.

I think EA is putting themself in a position of getting into the hardware business. Swallowing up so many studios and having so many AAA titles would be devastating if they were to enter the hardware business. No one could compete with a company with so many exclusives. Then again, they do fine releasing the same games every year on a half dozen consoles...

It would be odd to say the least.

Sigh.

*pours a forty for the departed*

So how awesome will it be when we have EA Trax in Mass Effect!?


This is really disappointing. I still hold a grudge against EA for their insistence on running everything through their own servers and totally screwing up the online play of the great game Burnout: Revenge.

The game was awesome, but EA completely and totally borked the online play and ruined the entire game imo.

Jade Empire 2K8
Jade Empire Head Coach 2K8
Arena Jade Empire 2K8

This is going to be sweet.

I don't think EA is big enough *yet* to afford the losses that come with a hardware launch. That would be crazy though. If EA Sports games became exclusive to any system, that system would instantly become the best seller in the US. Their games drive a huge part of the market in this country.

I look forward to next year's version of Neverwinter Nights. The roster update will make a full priced purchase worthwhile!

But they added new animations and bone-crunching hits. It has to be better!!!

Nobody gives a shit about Madden outside of the US though.

I believe Konami has the sports markets in Japan (with All Pro) and Europe (with Pro Evo).

That sucks. Always hate to see EA get any bigger.

No one plays FIFA in Japan really. And Winning Eleven is kind of popular in Europe (maybe not so much in the UK, I'm not sure).

And I liked Jade Empire! Maybe not a game a year, but hopefully EA won't start trying to pull that crap on non sports franchises.