EA Acquires BioWare, Pandemic for $860M

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Electronic Arts is laying out the best part of a billion dollars ($860 million) for BioWare and Pandemic Studios. While that may seem like a big chunk of change, you have to remember that these two studios are the guys behind Neverwinter Nights games, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (I & II), Star Wars Battlefront (I & II), the highly anticipated Mass Effect and Mercenaries 2.

In a conference call on the buyout, EA CFO Warren Jensen gave more details of the acquisition, including the total cost of the deal for the publisher: $860 million. "We've looked at a lot of companies and have had our eye on these studios for several years," Jensen said. "This is a powerful combination of creative talent and portfolio strength."
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A sad day in the world of PC Gaming, one of the last few indep devs just sold out. I thinkw e all know and love EA around here, oh yes sir we do. yech

Shame, I was actually hoping Bio would go with their IPO idea they floated a year ago; I would have been lining up for that one. Better ways to have sold out than EA.
 
Fucking lame. Now I have to stop buying BioWare games too? :mad:

I almost wish they had purchased Ubisoft instead.
 
I agree with you guys. . .this is a sad day. . .

Oh well, at least we still have Blizzard.
 
Spectrum17 said:
I agree with you guys. . .this is a sad day. . .

Oh well, at least we still have Blizzard.
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We'll see about that one.. Avoiding WoW like the plague and wasn't crazy about WC3 at all. I'm leaving it up to SC2 to rekindle that love I had for RTS.
 
This sucks. I am a big fan of Bioware. I have BG1, BG2, NWN (all expansions) KOTOR, KOTOR2.

I love the support on their web site with updates on a continual basis, additional premium downloadable modules. Support forums where the Designers contribute.

Any bets on how long before this goes down the toilet?
 
for creative talent at BioWare and Pandemic, may be the best time to jump ship since the titanic
 
I think many of the more senior people will be drawing up their resumes. Some may choose to go with Obsidian, otehrs may choose to try to startup their own studio.

I dont see anyone with any talent hanging around for long after EA takes over though.
 
Damnit.


EA SUCKS

I mean really, I fucking hate EA with an unbridled passion. I hope everyone working in management at EA uses birth control because we don't need another generation of jack-offs walking around.
 
In other related news: EA aquires your company before you can think of it.:D
 
I guess that writes off any chance of KoTOR3 and will end the KoTOR2 Restoration Project. Those guys will be getting a cease and desist letter any moment now.

EA - We buy the competition so we don't have to even try!
 
enelson125 said:
Obsidian did KOTOR2, not Bioware.
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D'oh! I forgot that, too. They're so seamlessly blended that it's easy to forget.

I hope Lucas never looks to EA for a Star Wars game. I will personally poop in the HVAC system of EA headquarters if they toss Burger King ads in a Star Wars game.
 
This is the worst gaming news in many, many moons. Bioware is everything that EA despises. I think I'm going to puke.
 
Looks like another company that shall die a gruesome death soon. Anyone think EA gives two craps about Bioware's employees or company? Personally I don't and think they will tank Bioware just like they did Westwood.
 
Arg... Stinkin EA.

And no we don't still have blizzard. They are a vivendi subsidiary which isn't as bad as EA but they are still dead to me none the less. Not sure if vivendi or world of boring 8 hour raid crap did that to me though lol. Ok ill stop rambling.
 
Aquila76 said:
D'oh! I forgot that, too. They're so seamlessly blended that it's easy to forget.

I hope Lucas never looks to EA for a Star Wars game. I will personally poop in the HVAC system of EA headquarters if they toss Burger King ads in a Star Wars game.
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How about do what the Seniors did for their senior prank about 10 years ago...Truckloads of cow manure blocking the entrances to the school..Smelled like cow dung for days...weeks!!
 
i honestly never played any of there games besides a couple hours of kotor at a buddies house, but it wasn't something i was actually into. So i guess this doesn't really afffect me much.
 
NONONNONONONONONONONO...NO...NO!

Did I mention NO!
Thats does it, I am starting a Game studio to compete DIRECTLY with EA! (YOu hear that EA..Compete...With YOU)
Gimme A Billion dollars and I May change my mind!

Bastards!
 
My older NON-EA games just became even more valuable to me. I WON'T buy another EA game, regardless of how pretty the eye candy. EA just doesn't know how to put out a compelling game anymore. And I won't go into how their corporate attitude just sucks.
 
i know its shallow... i know they are games...but this is depressing...like seriously depressing.... hell i'm still down from when troika closed its doors. now the last of the truly compelling studios just got eaten by EA...probably the most documented evil empire...say what you want about microsoft...but EA wrote the book on unethical practice (I looked at their company when i was putting my resume out...not one of the ones to work for as a designer), and do i even need to go into the quality of games....i think the last thing i bought was battlefield 2... if it has ea on it...i dodge it any way i can.

*plays taps for bioware*

i just most of the talent jumps ship, i'd rather see them sell the name and start fresh or join up with the old troika guys/obsidian/or at absolute worst bethesda...
 
Well I think the gaming community just made a collective "Go to hell EA."

This makes me want to quit gaming altogether. It is becoming just like movies and television: a race to see who can put out the prettiest, most ad infested pieces of crap.
 
...notice no one is like "EA bought PANDEMIC? NOOOOOOO!"

lol! No love for Pandemic. ;)

Smart move by EA. Suck move for BioWare fans.
 
EA and I broke up last year when they wouldn't port their "next-gen" NHL game to PC, instead trying to fool PC owners with a Playstation2 (read: garbage) version which is not even remotely comparible to their true AAA hockey* offering. I got the nerve to ask them back out to tea, and they slapped me with a repeat performance in NHL 08. Bitches!

I'd like to send them a love letter, straight from my heart. It saddens me to watch others get lubed up for the blindside-hoopage.


* I know many will think that all hockey games suck but as a Canadian hockey fan who's been playing NHL since 1994, I don't listen to you gnarly rollerbladers from SoCal. :p
 
SPARTAN VI said:
Fucking lame. Now I have to stop buying BioWare games too? :mad:

I almost wish they had purchased Ubisoft instead.
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Wait? What difference does that make? I certainly don't buy Ubisoft's crap, either. The horribly ported crap that they threw at the Wii just to have titles was enough to turn me off majorly.
 
GilmourD said:
Wait? What difference does that make? I certainly don't buy Ubisoft's crap, either. The horribly ported crap that they threw at the Wii just to have titles was enough to turn me off majorly.
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The difference is that if EA bought Ubi instead, nothing much would changes, since they already suck.

Then they would leave Bioware alone to keep making great games. Though I figure Dragon Age may be the last great Bioware PC game before we just get console ports anyway...
 
I stopped buying EA games back when they bought Bullfrog and killed the Dungeon Keeper series.
I just don't understand why EA can't produce a nice fun original title like some of these games that came out so long ago from the companies that they had originally bought.

If anyone can name 1 fun original game EA has produced in the past 10 years I am all open to hear it. EA's last and best game imo was Kings Bounty on the sega genesis. Wich is also the last game I ever bought from them.

Keep your eye on some of the newer places like s2games.com and projectoffset.com these two companies seem to be making some really nice games. s2games has 1 game out there and the 2nd is almost here, and projectoffset hasn't released anything yet but their demo's look sweet of there upcoming title.
I just pray no more companies fall to EA as they couldn't produce a title worth anything except for the gaming morons in the world that actually keep buying there games.
 
Steve said:
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (I & II)
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NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! omg, #@$@#$#@$@ WHY?!

i hate ea

the death of another source of good games... now we will all be stuck with more EA crap... they have ruined EVERY series they have purchased IMHO (and i dont play sports games so i dunno about those)

ea causes cancer
 
I will poste here because it was the 1st thread...

Pandemic is cool. I'm not too familiar, or I may be, with Bioware. However EA has said it will leave them alone. How truthful? Who knows.

Consoles do seem like the way the industry is headed... :( Shame. FPS are best on a PC.
 
Steve said:
...notice no one is like "EA bought PANDEMIC? NOOOOOOO!"

lol! No love for Pandemic. ;)

Smart move by EA. Suck move for BioWare fans.
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actually yeah, i really like pandemics stuff too, but bioware was just the bigger shock at the time because i made me think back to losing great studios like troika, working designs etc...
 
EA is the equivalent of Creative Labs... They're a huge entity, and if someone comes out with superior products, they buy them out to stop them from producing them.

They already killed the goose that laid the golden eggs (Origin), and I'm guessing that they're going to kill off Bioware in a hurry.
 
Unabomber said:
EA is the equivalent of Creative Labs... They're a huge entity, and if someone comes out with superior products, they buy them out to stop them from producing them.

They already killed the goose that laid the golden eggs (Origin), and I'm guessing that they're going to kill off Bioware in a hurry.
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This is what the FTC is supposed to be for.

Yet, we have another fucking government entity that doesn't do shit but hassle Microsoft.
 
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