In a surprise move that’s sent gaming message boards around the globe into 24-hour suicide watch, Electronic Arts announced Thursday that they have bought out Bioware and Pandemic Studios effective in 2008. Bioware is perhaps best known for their work on the PC AD&D Baldur’s Gate RPG series, as well as the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Jade Empire RPGs for Microsoft’s Xbox. pandemic is known for their work on the Star Wars: Battlefront series as well as the well-received sandbox-shooter Mercenaries (Mercenaries 2: World in Flames is their current development project). So what does this acquisition hold in store for the upcoming Bioware-developed Xbox 360-exclusive Mass Effect? Probably not much in the short term, as the acquisition doesn’t take place until next year and Mass Effect is due on store shelves November 20th, but it’s very possible that future iterations of the Mass Effect franchise (allegedly the series was planned as a trilogy) could go multiplatform.

This move, however, is indicative of a much larger issue in game development today: the gradual disappearance of the independent studio. With current-gen game budgets skyrocketing out of sight, many studios are putting themselves on the auction block just to keep themselves in the black. This begs the question: will sacrificing their autonomy to large publishers find these studios cranking out half-hearted licensed cash-in titles designed primarily by committee? It’s no secret that publishers often stick their hands way too far into the pot where creative decisions in game design are concerned, so at what point does the trade-off of cash-over-content become too big a compromise?

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2 Comments »

1. 
   Devin de Gruyl
   October 12, 2007 at 10:18 am

   To all publishers that are considering an EA buyout to stay afloat, all I can say is two words…

   “Remember Origin.”

   Unless it’s absolutely a matter of “We must do this, or we are definitely going under,” you may want to reconsider cutting a deal with the Microsoft of the gaming world. “Selling out” is no problem as far as I’m concerned (it often means the difference between staying afloat and shuttering), but when EA is involved it should be the absolute last resort… they have a nasty history with this sort of thing. Again, use the sad story of Richard Garriott’s company as a cautionary tale of what could potentially happen.

   [Reply]
2. 
   Corvus
   October 12, 2007 at 5:56 pm

   Is it too much for me to hope that Bioware could now have the money to get the KotOR license back and do a sequel that isn’t released half-assed like The Sith Lords was? Probably. Ah well, a nice dream.

   [Reply]

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