EA Buys BioWare and Pandemic
 

EA buys two game studios | Reuters

Can someone please just make EA go away? Everything they touch turns to shit. They've all but ruined what was one of my favorite series: SimCity. What next?

Bioware no :(

Does this mean that we are going to see Mass Effect ported to PS3, PS2, PSP, DS, GBA, Wii, and cell phones?

Ahhh.. not bioware! I bet they are eyeing square-enix too.. lol

Nah, just yearly sequels.

EA becomes self-aware at 2:14am EDT December 21, 2012. In a panic, they will try to pull the plug.

I was more surprised by the fact that EA could afford to buy the companies with all the office downsizing and complaining of sales they've been doing this year. Suppose they wern't as bad off as they tried to make it seem. (no surprise there)

However I'm not all that surprised. I'm more surprised that Pandemic didn't get purchased by Lucas Arts first and that Microsoft didn't buy BioWare, especially with the recent loss of Bizzare and Bungie.

Ah well, such is the way of the business world I guess. Worst part is there's another 3 seconds taken out of my life each time I boot up Mass Effect watching the stupid EA logo, lol... *crying*

*sigh* This just adds to the long list of studios that have been wholly consumed by EA, reminds me of amoebas that just engulf everything they come in contact with. Westwood, DiCE, Maxis (not sure about this one, but close enough IMO) and now these two studios. Before we know it all that'll be left will be EA, who will stick their stupid logo into our faces every time we boot up a game (which by then there will be no other publishers).

Well on the bright side, Bioware is shit anyways. :)

Dragon Age sounded pretty awesome though :(

Oh noez! I see Bioware's MMO in great danger. :/

EA don't have shit on real developers.

Also, Westwood was bought out by EA? Fuck. There goes the possibility of a Total Annihilation sequel.

Pandemic noooo ;_;

Although I can't tell if this increases or decreases the chances of a Full Spectum Warrior sequel :(

This is great news! BioWare RPGs will now have rockin' EA TRAX. :rock:

"The evil Atari gang is threatening to destroy our very existence with their Backyard Football, you there! You must save our king, John Madden, only then will peace be restored to the land!"
"SHUT UP BITCH I'M LISTENING TO MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE LOL"

*Advert for underarm deodorant pasted on a nearby wall*

This sorta puts a full stop on the Sonic RPG Project, doesn't it?

If EA work on a Sonic game, I just don't even want to think how that'll turn out.

Just have him as an unlockable in Burnout Paradise. HE'S THE FASTEST THING ALIIIIIITAKEDOWN.

Yeah, good thing that there wasn't any game made called "Supreme Commander" or anything, nope.

Obviously I have no idea who Chris Taylor is so there! That, or allow me to nitpick what I personally felt was r0ng with Supreme Commander.



Still, again, I would kill for a proper next-gen FSW2 ;_; Finally seeing all that processing muscle put to proper good use would be amazing! Am I seriously the only one? :(

DO NOT WANT!

Elixir, Westwood Studios was acquired in between C&CRA2 and C&C Generals. You can obviously see the effect.

Since Will Wright made EA a metric shit ton load of money from the Sims, he was allowed to more or less keep his own creative team and is generally the lone exception to EA's rule of QUALITY (But since it IS EA, that's why we have "The Sims ..." expansions all the fucking time.

The good news is that Microsoft said that Mass Effect was close enough to being finished that it won't be affected by the take over, but any future games WOULD be.

Dammit EA, why must you destroy all that is good and right in the gaming world? Last game I remotely enjoyed from you was Burnout 3 (Which was made by Criterion Games anyway)

No it isn't.

I can't find the interview but it pretty much says "Sonic RPG still happening".

EA is pretty much saying "We're not interfering with what's going on already." Plus I really don't see too much point in hating them anymore. (Employees often recruit at my school and interns tell me that EA is not perfect, but they're certainly not cruel monsters).

Any hopes of a (good) sequel to Knights of the Old Republic just went down the shitter.

Yeah, I could see this happening, since EA is ramping up to release Warhammer Online next year. Would be silly to have the two MMOs compete for the same space. Of course, that is, if BioWare's MMORPG is for PC. If it's for PS3/Xbox 360/PC, then that's a different story.

EA are basically a gigantic katamari, just rolling up every small American/Canadian developer slowly. And they've been constantly processing cheese which is killing the gaming industry.

They're as bad as THQ. They shouldn't be allowed to make games at all.

Especially their sports games man. Jeez, that's really killing the way the industry works in North America, and it sucks balls.

While I do appreciate the fact that EA IS coming out with well baked games like Army of Two and such, they still have a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG ways to go. At the very least, they're not taking advantage of the Wii like Ubisoft which EA could VERY easly do. (take advantage in a bad way I mean)

But this topic in of itself can be made into a thesis and then on to a full size paper of business and econimics all based off this very topic so I think I'll stop here for the night.

The real question is:

Would it be good?

No.

Oh yes they are.

NBA Live 08 Reviews

I applied to be a QA Tester with THQ ;___;

@BlueMikey
I meant more in the shear number of games. I wouldn't be surprised if someone told me that Ubisoft have made 50% of the Wii games to date... seriously.

Why wouldn't it be good? >=0 Saged so bad.

Incidentally, both games were released by THQ, so the company can't be all bad.

GameFAQs - Game Company Information

Enough said. If someone blows THQ up, maybe some quality movie-to-game releases will start happening. Some random mecha game isn't going to make up for the dozens of processed cheese they've managed to pump out in the last three years, sorry.

If THQ goes bye-bye, then who's going to make Man Handeling or Wresteling games?

The world will cease to lose balance... oh wait a second, there's still EA, right, nevermind.

BW still has many games under its belt not revealed.
I remember the news of one PS3 xclusive.
I know they will definatley make use of their voice engine alot, tweaking it even fiurther for future releases.
MMOrpg, dragonage, ps3 xclusive and lots more will come, all will rock coz they are in playable form, so EA could not harm it or can it?

There is no Bioware PS3 exclusive. It was a rumour started in early 07 by an anonymous reader. Here is the article.

Rumour Central

I.. can't really tell if you were making reference to some other games or if you're actually misinformed enough to think Full Spectrum Warrior is a mecha game, in which case we can just laugh you out of GFF altogether.

Either way, they sure have their share of crap as do all large publishers, but they've also published the Dawn of War games, Supreme Commander, Psychonauts, Broken Sword and your beloved Gitaroo Man. Like I said, they can't be all bad.

This raises some interesting points and questions for me. What i'd like to know is whether or not a video game developer would be considered a forum for media, and thus being branded a media company. BioWare is Canadian, and it is against the law to own a canadian media company if you're not canadian yourself (i.e. a canadian organization, or citezenship in the case of private ownership). I also happen to know that more than a few canadian laws get overlooked in this sort of case, so i wonder if this was taken into account during the buy.

But it isn't a Canadian media company anymore, it is a division of Electronic Arts, just like EA Canada.

But the law should've stopped the transaction in the first place.

If there is such a law that you cannot completely sell a Canadian company to an American corporation, I'd be willing to bet they just structure it in a way where EA buys all of BioWare's assets...licenses, copyrights, employee contracts, property, etc....and then BioWare is dissolved.

I suppose that would work. I'm going to ask my politics professor about this though. Not that i'm trying to start a revolution or anything, just curious. Also would like to hear his opinion on whether or not game developers are considered forums of media.

How many good games have THQ actually developed, not just released into Europe?

It still amazes me in a not really so amazed but kind of (sorta) that THQ is as big as they are today. Also that I can form sentences like that. They were so ARSE in the early 90's, breaking everything they touched. Wayne's World, Ren & Stimpy, Home Alone, MORE EXAMPLES HERE. These were big names! But the games were complete rubbish, and nobody bought them. They almost went down the shitter. Then BAM, effort! Time Trax, the second Ren & Stimpy (AND MORE EXAMPLES HERE: THE SEQUEL) were awesome. THE DIRT WAS GONE.

But now their licensed games sell hundreds of thousands of copies no matter how much stomach bile is rubbed on the case. THQ doesn't need to try anymore. And good luck to them on that. They outsell everything else on the planet combined including bread and milk (also milkbread). I'm off to pre-order Bratz 4 Real. :3: THQ's a pretty good publisher when you kung fu kick the shovelware out of the way, though.

Buy Worms Open Warfare 2

http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/572...7778500in0.png

Corrected. Anyone who released the RTS/strategy game of the year, more than once, can't be all bad.

With luck, EA will get so large that people will be able to siphon money off into little development departments without the "suits" knowing and we will get some great games that way.

Actually at first I thought EA was horrible. However, a few of my friends work within there, and they say it's alright. It's not all that great, but it's not painstakingly horrible. I'm playing the game skate right now, and it's not all that bad. I'd prefer it more than Tony Hawk games at this point.