Jan 7, 2008
Electronic Arts has officially completed its acquisition of BioWare and Pandemic, and placed the studios under the EA Games label.
The acquisition formally fills a gap in EA's portfolio in the RPG and action-adventure genre. The studios will be bringing ten new franchises to EA based on six wholly-owned properties.
EA Games president Frank Gibeau will oversee the studios, while BioWare studio heads Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk will become VPs of EA and co-general managers of BioWare.
Pandemic Studios' Josh Resnick and Andrew Goldman were also named EA VPs and co-general managers of their respective studio. Pandemic director of production Greg Borrud is now chief production officer and an EA VP.
EA announced in October 2007 that it would acquiring BioWare and Pandemic's parent company, VG Holdings, in a deal worth $860 million.
BioWare most recently released the Microsoft-published action RPG Mass Effect for Xbox 360, which released on November 20 and and has sold 1.6 million units to date worldwide. The company is also developing a Sonic RPG for Sega and is rumored to be working on a Star Wars MMO.
Pandemic's big upcoming releases include action games Saboteur and Mercenaries 2: World in Flames.
"Our new EA partnership is already proving to be both positive and productive," said Resnick in a statement. "Pandemic Studios prides itself upon its creative independence while being the best place for top industry talent to work. These values continue to be upheld by all levels of EA and we couldn't be more excited about the future of our studio and our games."
Muzyka stated, "EA has shown great respect for the creative integrity of our studios and BioWare's core values of quality in our workplace, quality in our products, and entrepreneurship. Operating as a city-state within the larger EA studio family, our talented teams at BioWare Edmonton and BioWare Austin are empowered to continue delivering powerful emotional experiences through our story-driven games."
Article supplied byNext-Gen
