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Yes it's with great sadness to inform you that EA has bought Bioware and Pandemic studios.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/071011/20071011006083.html?.v=1
2 good developers that will be sadly missed

Edit: thanks to Ace_combat over at TWC for bring this awful news to us.

I just saw this on Slashdot. RIP BioWare.
http://kotaku.com/gaming/ea/ea-buys-...mic-309937.php

This sucks. Hopefully EA won't do anything stupid, like fire everyone at Pandemic and Bioware and bring in new people. The thought of Bioware helping to churn out mediocre sports games is horrible. I'm hoping EA pretty much leaves the 2 studios the way they are and takes a cut of their profits.

*looks at EA's history* sorry dude
EA has never left a bought developer studio alone and has always put their own guys in.

I think this summarizes it best:

****

Bioware doesn't deserve an end like this.

Yeah, I agree, we need to recognize what Wizkids and MS did to Battletec........

err..

oh.

Yet another good publisher bites the dust. RIP Bioware this time.

****
Well, at least I still have Mass Effect to look forward too. I don't think EA will mess with it (too much) in the month before it ships(that might cut into their profits). It's 2 planned sequels will probably suck though.

I completely agree with that statement.

Wow, this really is horrible news.

Not worried personally. Bioware is a studio strong enough to stop any bad influence of EA and if EA has any sense they won't interfere with the development of games.

A look at EA's history says otherwise.
EA has only money in their sense and fully intend to milk the name of Bioware to the fullest.
When they can't milk it anymore then they will shut it down.
The guys and gals at Bioware have to play ball or be out of a job.
I can only hope that the guys at Bioware quits and joins a studio where they are welcome, far away from the hands of EA.

On the other hand, if EA does fire all the current crew at these two admittedly rather nifty game studios what will the reaction of the actual (now fired) programers be?

I Imagine they will start up their own games companies, perhaps called Chemoware or Hyperthermic. Or go to other game companies that appreciate them. Whilst the EA's and Microsofts will alaways be around bigging themselves up, experienced nerds will always know where to go for the real games.

I think. Maybe.

Indeed, can we say "Bullfrog" and "Westwood"?

Well most of them join other companies or start a new one.
Lionhead Studios(Black & White, Fable etc) was formed from the once Bullfrog(Theme hospital, Dungeon Keeper etc) after EA shut them down.
Westwood went on to form Petroglyph Games(Star Wars: Empire at War ).
However Origin suffered a worse fate where the staff is scattered all over the place.

Dear god...

*Hides his Madden NFL 08, that he loves so much*

Oh...crap. This is terrible.


CR

From a purely selfish perspective, I can't shed many tears for Bioware being bought out. I play PC games exclusively, no console, and I'm a market that Bioware has made a second class citizen with recent titles. So I just don't care anymore. BG was great, NWN was great (at least with the user content)... maybe I'll pick up NWN2 at some point. Dragon Age is taking forever to bring out.

Meh. If Bioware starts targeting PC gamers again in a serious way, for first release status, then I'll start caring again. If 2K can do it with Bioshock, then I don't see why Bioware can't. Maybe with EA's cash infusion they can manage it.

*looks at his games compilation*

Seems like I don't have a single game from either of these companies.

Something that makes me wonder is, when EA says they bought them, doesn't that mean that someone else sold them?

Oh man, you must immediately walk - no, run - towards your nearest computer game shop and buy up the entire back catalogue of Bioware CRPGs. I promise you, you will not reject it.

I found out Full Spectrum Warrior is from Pandemic, got that as a budget title.
I'm not sure about Bioware titles, they're roundbased fantasy, a combination that doesn't sound like fun to me.

RIP

Great can't wait to see Malak drink coca cola

From Diablo 2 to Hellgate London.

They generally keep together.

People dont know what the new ones are, then they see "From the makers of:..."

Then they love them.

I read that they became majority shareholders or something.

And apparently Bioware was an independent company, same with Pandemic.

I'm probably completely wrong.

I don't know from Bullfrog but Westwood had exactly one successful franchise, CnC. Every other game they released was crap. What happened to them was equal parts their own incompetence and EA greed.

Some of them did. Some of them didn't. Of the original CnC team something like 2/3 work for Petroglyph. The rest (including Westwood co-founder and CnC co-creator) still work for EALA.

I hope this won't lead to ludicrous copy-protecting and adverts. Unfortunately, I'm sure it will.

Depressing news. Bioware seemed to have a free hand in the development of their games with their previous owner so I'll wager EA will still be contractually obligated to follow the same rules... I hope.

The most shocking thing was reading that Bioware was already owned by another company, VG Holding Corp. I was always under the impression that Bioware was an independently owned and operated developer.

Man, first Mythic now Bioware. I sincerely hope they have ironclad contracts with EA that help to prevent as much meddling as possible.

A tragedy surely. But, perhaps, since EA (I presume) has some idea of Bioware's and Pandemic's worth, they won't make too many changes.

Warmaster Horus, you're assuming EA will behave in a rational manner and maximize long-term value. Why would you think they would behave this way?

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