Electronic Arts Wants To Kill People Too
Video game behemoth Electronic Arts just got a little bigger. They've acquired two software studios, BioWare and Pandemic, for an industry record breaking $860 million. Although Electronic Arts is the number one video game publisher in the world, their offerings in the first person shooter/ role playing/action genre are a little thin. These acquisitions should fix that.
Prior to this deal, EA's largest acquisition was its $680 million purchase of mobile game publisher Jamdat Mobile Inc. in 2006.
BioWare and Pandemic have a total of 10 games under development. Together, they employ about 800 people in Los Angeles and Austin, Texas, as well as in Canada and Australia.
Microsoft Corp. is
planning to publish BioWare's Mass Effect game next month, and the
studio is in the early stages of developing a multiplayer online game,
EA said. Pandemic is planning to release "Mercenaries 2: World in
Flames" and "Saboteur."
EA should consider buying the rights to Grand Theft Auto, melding it with their existing Madden Football franchise, and calling it: The Bengals.
