Written By Words of Ivory 331 days ago
News Category: Industry News
Relevant Consoles: : Nintendo DS : PlayStation 3 : Wii : Xbox : Xbox 360

Sorry, I just had to emphasise the price for emphasis sake.

Only a few hours ago, a news story that sent shockwaves through the North American game industry was revealed to the public gaming community. Industry giant Electronic Arts announced that it will soon acquire VG Holding Corp., owner of gaming developer BioWare/Pandemic.

VG Holding Corp. formed in late 2005 when the much loved Canadian role-playing game studio BioWare, responsible for such legends as Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, formed as a "superdeveloper" with Californian company Pandemic Studios. This union was funded by Elevation Partners, a venture capital company with famou U2 front man Bono at the helm.

This was a huge change from traditional developer-publisher relationship, and saw the publisher becoming far more reliant on the developer. Electronic Arts recently distributed the Pandemic shooter Mercenaries 2: World in Flames under the EA Partners program. This apparently wouldn't be the only occassion these two worked together.

Today, BioWare / Pademic got a massive return on investments when EA paid the company $620 million in cash to the stockholders of VG Holding Corp. Electronic Arts will also issue an additional $155 million in equity to as yet un-named VG Holding employees, and an assumed $50 million in outstanding stock options... and will also lend VG Holding Corp. $35 million to fund the company transition.

So what exactly does all this financial mumbo jumbo mean? In return for Electronic's Arts financial investment, they will become the owners of BioWare's and Pandemic's original intellectual properties; which include amongst them Jade Empire, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Full Spectrum Warrior and Mercenaries, and an unnamed MMORPG that is currently in the developement stage

The deal does not include the Dungeons and Dragons-based Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, or the DS Sonic RPG, which, although developed by Bioware, are licensed to other publishers.

EA's takeover of BioWare/Pandemic will be completed by January 2008. Although they will become part of the EA Games Division, both companies are expected to retain their names, as has been the case with past developers bought out by Electronic Arts, such as Burnout franchise owners Criterion.

Bioware and Pademic were apparently already in development of a number of unannounced new intellectual properties, including an MMORPG and titles focusing on the Wii and DS market.

Although many will probably already be screaming bloody murder at news of this financial buyout, it should be noted that EA, a company once criticised for rehashing old franchises to death without any attempts at innovating the market, have seriously improved their game over the last year with a heightened focus on developing new IPs (Rock Band), innovation (Spore) and revising older franchises into more modern, polished games (Medal of Honour: Airborne).

Most of the company's recent developer buyouts have thankfully not seen the quality of the said developers' games deterioate or changed in a fashion that would anger existing fanbases for the sake of drawing in new consumers, which is an encouraging fact BioWare fans.

The future is always unknown, but with BioWare at the helm, it will hopefully be a bright one.

Tags : BioWare : EA : electronic arts : Full Spectrum Warrior : Jade Empire : Mass Effect : Mercenaries : Pademic : Takeover : VG Holding Corp.

Comments

By: Mobius Zero On: 10:36 Oct 12th, 2007 Offline	EA seems to have this habit of when they are running out of fresh ideas, let's buy them. Well, I figure this news is good for EA anyway either way maybe they can get fresher game ideas then they have been and expand on their genre styles. Just as long as there is no ads in Bioware or Pademic's games, I say this works out well for the companies and the gamers.

By: Mechanoma On: 12:30 Oct 12th, 2007 Offline	I read about this in the local paper earlier this morning. I was definitely going to post it up if no one else did. ^^ I really don't have a problem with this move, as long as EA doesn't screw around too much with any of the good things either of the studios have going on. I'm glad the deal doesn't include NWN. I hope they don't pull a GE and take over the entire gaming industry. I can see 'em trying it.....

By: boa On: 06:41 Oct 13th, 2007 Offline	So long as they don't try and command their new toys, and let them run as individual studios, then all this means is more money for some damn good studios ^__^