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Unseen · #1 10-15-2007, 09:02 AM

==> http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/...288362,00.html

Quote:

In an industry-trembling move, Electronic Arts has announced that it has acquired VG Holdings, the owner of BioWare and Pandemic Studios, from Elevation Partners in a deal worth up to £397m.

The deal is worth millionsSome of the details surrounding the deal have already emerged, with VG Holdings purchased for £304m with an additional £76m for "certain employees" of VG Holdings, and a £17m loan to VG Holdings until the closure of the deal, due in January 2008.

The two development studios were brought together in November 2005 in a £147m deal by Elevation Partners, and are currently working on ten franchises, of which six are wholly owned internally.

Before teaming up with Pandemic, BioWare's experience laid squarely on the PC and Xbox, with the likes of Buldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Knights of the Old Republic and Jade Empire.

The likelihood of future Bioware titles also heading to PlayStation 3 is the latest blow for Microsoft. The Xbox 360 producer has already seen the acquisition of Bizarre Creations by Activision and the re-emergence of Bungie Studios as an independent outfit within the last few weeks.

One of the founding figures of VG Holdings' previous owners, Elevation Partners, was John Riccitello - now CEO of Electronic Arts.

Speaking about the acquisition, he said: "These are two of the most respected studios in the industry and I'm glad to be working with them again. They'll make a strong contribution to our strategic growth initiatives on quality, online gaming and developing new intellectual properties."

"Pandemic Studios remains focused on attracting the best talent and creating blockbuster action games," said Josh Resnick, President and Co-founder of Pandemic Studios. "As a worldwide publishing leader, EA represents the ideal partner to bring our titles to market as global entertainment events."

"We are truly excited by John Riccitiello's new vision for EA," said Ray Muzyka, Co-founder and CEO of BioWare Corp.

"This vision is consistent with BioWare's focus on crafting the highest quality story-driven games in the world. It will enable us to further the careers of the passionate, creative and hard working teams at BioWare Edmonton and BioWare Austin."[/b]

So, the biggest Xbox 360 game of 07, apart from Halo 3, comes to PS3. The time has finally come for PS3 to step up the charts.

Nit3 · #2 10-17-2007, 12:36 AM

First off, old news. EA screws up a lot of companies, and I am scared that Mass Effect might go multi-platform as Orange Box will soon be. Too bad it never said Mass Effect is coming to the PS3. You can keep you hopes up, but, as of right now, it is still exclusive.

Not to mention, if anything, the PS3 version will come out much later, as will Orange Box.

P.S. I still haven't seen that exclusive triple A title on the PS3

. Not to mention you can't take out the fact that Bioshock is probably the best game of this year.

Unseen · #3 10-17-2007, 04:15 PM

Hey, Im just using a review I got.

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