Electronic Arts has announced today that it will acquire VG Holding Corp. from Elevation Partners. VG Holding owns both Pandemic Studios and BioWare, which means the deal nabs both developers for EA. Electronic Arts will be paying up to $650 million in cash to the stockholders of VG Holding, with up to $155 million being paid in equity to specific employees. Pandemic is currently hard at work on the excessively violent sandbox title, Mercenaries 2, which is being published by EA. The deal raises questions about BioWare, as the company is currently developing the galaxy hopping RPG Mass Effect for Microsoft Game Studios. As the game is set to be a trilogy, we have to wonder what this deal means for the next two installments.We'd love to make some sort of Madden RPG joke here (Madden Effect, perhaps?), but we just don't have the energy. Hit the "read" link for the full press release.
[Via Joystiq]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
10-11-2007 @ 5:37PM
Elliot J said...
Frickin' EA
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10-11-2007 @ 5:42PM
Jesus was here said...
Crap, now we are gonna have more shitty games from EA
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10-11-2007 @ 5:42PM
Hockle said...
This news leaves me non-plussed
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10-11-2007 @ 5:42PM
sisedi said...
Bust out your bibles, qurans, torahs, buddha bellies because it's time to start praying EA doesn't fuck their shit up.
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10-11-2007 @ 5:43PM
SadisticHam said...
Bloody EA. Die already. Stick to making bad Simpson's games, i truly hope they let bioware run on it's own and there's very little difference otherwise it's going to go to crap.
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10-11-2007 @ 5:44PM
Jonah Falcon said...
I just threw out in my mouth. Thankfully, MS owns the Mass Effect IP.
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10-11-2007 @ 5:54PM
Yuccadude said...
It's a trap!!!
Like Jonah said, luckily MS owns the IP of Mass Effect and they can't really do much besides profit from owning Bioware(hopefully).
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10-11-2007 @ 5:55PM
Jared said...
Why does EA feel the need to gobble up all these companies? It's really starting to piss me off.
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10-11-2007 @ 5:56PM
itsburnsie said...
Bioware? No. Just... no. C'mon EA, Really? Aren't you content ruining sports franchises, racing games, and FPS's? Now you have to scoop up my favorite RPG maker too?
/sigh
Resistance is futile, it would seem.
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10-11-2007 @ 6:09PM
intRvenous said...
It means that Mass Effect 2 & 3 will have hot cars, bikini-clad aliens and a dope techno soundtrack! woooot!
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10-11-2007 @ 6:35PM
mirage said...
At ^
You mean EA Traxxxxxxxxx!
The next mass effect will have crappy tunes from crapy indie bands with one crappy tune from a crappy big name band. That is the amazing EA Traxxxxx formula.
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10-11-2007 @ 6:44PM
Xion said...
EA owns Mass Effect now actually...so this is bad news.
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10-11-2007 @ 6:47PM
Token White Guy said...
Can you people be more ignorant. EA is a publisher, not a developer. They don't create the games, period. All they do is publish them and slap a big EA sticker on it. All of the "shitty" games you buy are from shitty dev teams.
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10-11-2007 @ 6:49PM
a.j. said...
oh well, at least Mass Effect 1 will be great. and then Mass Effect 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 will come out yearly and suck balls. EA sucks.
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10-11-2007 @ 6:49PM
a.j. said...
@13, but their lack of attention to things like..oh i don't know, online problems with like every sports game they "slap their name on" is their fault. fuck em.
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10-11-2007 @ 7:18PM
Michael said...
^ Bzzzt wrong. EA does develop its own games and then publish them.
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10-11-2007 @ 7:54PM
stirlo said...
:'( can't we get EA busted for monopolization or something? They're my least favourite publisher, They have so many decent IP's but they always find a way to screw them up... :'(
They act just like MS in the PC world, gobble up all competition and smaller devs, then make them mundane...
I'm boycotting them, but still have to buy Skate and Burnout, it's just like "I boycott MS but still need windows and office" :'(
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10-11-2007 @ 8:26PM
jimy said...
love it.
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10-11-2007 @ 8:37PM
ChewyDogg said...
EA console in 2010?!!?!
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10-11-2007 @ 9:29PM
Jonah Falcon said...
Mass Effect is published by Microsoft Game Studios. So while EA "owns" the IP, Mass Effect is going to be published by Microsoft for the 3 games.
Look up the Wiki.
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