EA buys BioWare, Pandemic

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/826/826662p1.html
OMG, EA has done it again, worse or better time will tell but this news shocked me.

BioWare is one of few company that made excellent RPG name a few Baldur's Gate series, Starwars: Knight of republic and Neverwinter night. I've spent restless nights playing baldur's gate 1, 2 and neverwinter night and they were high quality FUN games.

I hope EA will use their new resource and make better games not to turn BioWare my beloved game developer into crap game maker.

Your opinions?

 

Mdk2...wow.

 

well, think about battlefield. they made it so you have to pay. what will they do now?!?!?!

 

In this case I think EA is getting far too big. My concern is what would they do if BioWare's next game fails to meet expectations, which with BioWare's recent successes is bound to be very high. It's hard to forget that EA bought Westwood Studios, then liquidated it's assets when C&C: Renegade didn't sell as well as their targets. Granted EA may have been financially justified, but the punishment seems harsh, especially given that although Renegade may not have sold well, it's engine was good and continues to be used in Generals and C&C3.

 

EA = Electronic Arseholes

 

Oh no, not BioWare...love their RPGs! Played Baldurs Gate and currently playing Star wars knights of the old republic the second time...damn, their RPGs allways were awesome!

 

*sigh*
there goes my hopes of someday again playing a good, new rpg. *waves goodbye to Dragon Age*

 

how about Extreme Arseholes?

 

Coming soon- Grand Theft Lightsaber: KOTOR 3, streets of Tattooine.

Seriously, you guys could probably hear my scream of anguish when I read about this from 3-4 states away. EA has this magical way of taking every property they own and turning it into absolute and total crap.

The only silver lining here is that I bet most of the Bioware team will jump ship if it gets too bad, and found another company to do original work (so still no KOTOR III, but that's better than no more Bioware ever).

 

I concur crimsonman, it fits EA really well

btw here's something I digged out from EA To Acquire BioWare Corp. and Pandemic Studios pdf file host on BioWare webiste.


In a short description about EA.

"In fiscal 2007, EA posted revenue of $3.09 billion and had 24 titles that sold more than one million copies."

24 game titles in cross-platform worldwide and only more than 1 million copies sold? Maybe EA guys are getting desperated and need some serious assistance to sell more games. But what's more interesting the revenue in 2007 is $3.09 billion !!! (it is still 2 months away to year end).

I have to admit EA sure knows how to make (milk) money out of gamers....

 

is this sales or net income?!

 

revenue = total sales.

 

well, now start deducting all the expenses, etc. and then that number will be significantly reduced...

 

nuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu! that stinks... or it could be good if they just leave the company alone, and give them some more cash to spend on developing, while leeching profit from them

I've been wondering what Bioware's new mmo is going to be too...

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=ERTS&annual - check this out

 

They are incapable of leaving a good company alone. I still haven't forgiven them for how badly they screwed up Ultima Online. EA should stick to those sports games and leave the rest to people who can actually do a good job.

 

EA lied it's not 3.09 billion it is 3.09 millions lol
Thanks for the BIG FIND big_v
Anyway, best of luck to BioWare and Pandemic~~


EDIT: I'm sorry the numbers are in thousands, they're indeed 3 billion bucks.

 

So it is indeed 3.09 billion, with 1.9 billion in profit...holy cow.

Oh well, despite the constant outcries of how bad EA is, some of the stuff they've done recently is pretty good...C&C3 was awesome, NFS: Carbon and Most Wanted were pretty good, Battlefield 2 was good, MOH:A is spectacular. Overall, I'm not too worried.

 

Yeah I'm not too worried either. The way people talk you'd swear that EA release nothing but terrible games; well guys time to face reality, EA wouldn't be such a huge company if millions of people didn't buy their games. And people don't rush out to buy crap games...and I don't mean games that some people say are crap, others say are excellent. I mean games universally accepted as crap.

My favourite Pandemic games were Battlefront I and II, best Star Wars games ever, spent hours upon hours playing system link on the Xbox. Mercenaries was pretty good too though, same with Full Spectrum Warrior.

 

I remember Bioware being bought over once by an outfit which combined them with another developer, that change didn't do much to affect the company's games portfolio however with EA's "scoop" I'm starting to wonder if Bioware can continue making great games in the near future.

 

How did they screw up UO? I left UO a while back just after the one where they made all the new land for people to build on and introduced the neon clothes and stuff. It went 1337 and that was just too much.

 

C&C3 was not awesome. Story was weak and the races seemed to be invented by monkeys who never learned the word innovation....they play exactly the same its so boring.

I didn't know EA made battlefield 2? I thought they only made BF:2142 (which wasn't that good).

MoH:AA is also totally cookie-cutter, but it is fun.

 

My concern isn't because I think EA doesn't produce popular games, it's because I think they don't make risky games. EA makes lots of sequels and prequels and spin-offs from established properties and in established genres. There's nothing wrong with that, and some of those games are pretty fun. They don't push the envelope though, or take risks with their money. Bioware pushes the envelope and takes risks with their money, they want to make a great game even if it takes longer or might not make as much money. My concern is that EA won't let them do that.

Look at Mass Effect- this is a hugely expensive game to make, with a property that has no background, in a genre that isn't as profitable as others. What do you think the odds are EA would make that game if you pitched it to them? Probably not very good. All of us are worried because we're think EA will clamp down on Bioware and make them make more conventional games, or games that are more cookie-cutter oriented.

 

that works too

 

Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars was fun to play and the plot was pretty good.

 

NOOOOOOOOOO! We don't like EA. I agree with brassmouse, EA doesn't make risky games. Which makes good new games harder to come by if they buy up the industry, studio by studio.

 

i must concur. C&C3 is washed up. then again i was never a killer fan of the C&C series to begin with.

 

EA kills innovation. We like innovation.

 

I think everyone all over the internets is completely over reacting. There are several games and developers under EA right now that have continually made quality games, or will soon have quality games out.

Crytek for example, Criterion(however you spell it). Pandemic and Bioware are both strong companies in themselves, they aren't the sort to get pushed around easily. And all the statements BioWare and Pandemic have released about this have been positive.

EA may kill innovation, but maybe BioWare and Pandemic being added to the mix might just begin to loosen them up as they already have a few people pushing the edges some.

Then again I've been up for 20 hours now and I'm at work, so my argument might be weak -_-

 

if u look at ea's cash flow statement, which is a lot more accurate measure of what's going on, u can see here http://finance.yahoo.com/q/cf?s=ERTS&annual that ea is investing a lot less cash in their projects, as compared to 2005, where they spent over 1.5 billion on it as comapred to 2007's 208 million (they year is not over, yet, and this acquisition will add to the total investment value). Capital Expenditures, however, for 07, which is not complete yet, are already higher than for the previous years. they, however, sold more stock than in 06, but less than in 05 as of right now. i think, this acquisition might have a positive impact on their stock price. Last, but not least, Change In Cash and Cash Equivalents is positive so far, unlike the negative tendency in the previous years, and that's good, cuz they have more cash to use on something else, like new investments and dividends.

 

EA kills innovation because in their scope innovation doesn't sell...at least not to the masses. What sells is the best graphics without too much story so more "people" without any imagination can "enjoy" it.

Thats the way the whole industry works...computer games have become an entertainment industry like films or music...its sad...but thats the tendency...it has become a big business.

 

EA suffers from a lack of innovation, which is exactly why they're buying Bioware. They want to make better thought-provoking games (hopefully) and they need talent for that. Small innovative companies get bought up by bigger fish all the time in all walks of business. Why would EA force Bioware to make dumbed down games, who would buy them?

It is becoming increasingly more expensive to develop high-profile games so Bioware needs financial security if they're going to take risks, that's where EA comes in. A flop in this day and age would spell bankruptcy for most game developing companies.

 

In response to frenzy discussion of acquisition, both studios speak to their fans
http://pc.ign.com/articles/827/827000p1.html

If what these guys said is true then it is great news to all fans around the world.