The giant publisher EA is reportedly acquiring the developers of Titanfall, Respawn Entertainment. The CEO of the latter, Vince Zampella, confirmed the news in an interview with VentureBeat this afternoon. The acquisition is reported to be evaluated at $315 million in cash and stock, plus a possible bonus of $140 million. Yes, that's a lot of money for a developing studio that has been independent so far but understandable following the company's critically acclaimed titles.

"We’ve seen firsthand the world-class caliber of Respawn as a development studio with incredible vision, deep talent and an inspiring creative mindset,” said Andrew Wilson, CEO of Electronic Arts, in a statement. “Our longtime partnership is grounded in a shared desire to push the boundaries and deliver extraordinary and innovative new experiences for players around the world. Together, we’ve brought this to life in the Titanfall franchise, and now with the Respawn team joining EA, we have exciting plans to accomplish even more amazing things in the future."

The deal is expected to close by the end of the year.

SOURCE

 

[Scarlet]

A moment of silence for Respawn please.

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

Never played that game anyway, and never will.

 

[linuxares]

Lets hope they can.... Respawn!

 

[sarkwalvein]

Yeeeey /s

EA, the Disney of Videogames. Not a compliment.

 

[Dimensional]

EA most likely bought them for their IPs. Given their reputation, feels like they'll close the studio, lay off employees, but keep the ownership over the games.

 

[ihaveahax]

EA most likely bought them for their IPs. Given their reputation, feels like they'll close the studio, lay off employees, but keep the ownership over the games.

that's exactly what is going to happen much like all the previous studios.

 

[HaloEliteLegend]

I mean... They basically owned them anyways. Although, I would like to see them do a collab with DICE. Respawn showed everyone they can make a damn fine shooter, and DICE is already the best in the biz imo, and a project between them could be really freaking cool. I know EA'll get their grubby mitts all over it and probably ruin it, but one can dream.

 

[DSpider]

Yep, they bought it so they could close it (and close down their competition). Give it two years, though, so it doesn't seem like they did it on purpose, just like they did with Visceral Games. If you sign a deal with EA, your studio gets shut down. They "relocate" whatever few key people work there and can the rest.

"FIFA Ultimate Team makes a billion dollars a year. Where's your version of that?"



They bought it, now they'll expect their next game to sell 5 million copies, with a >96 metacritic score, all kinds of bs.

 

[The Catboy]

Loot boxes, loot boxes as far as the eye can see

 

[Burlsol]

Yep, they bought it so they could close it (and close down their competition).

Titanfall and Titanfall 2 were published by EA. It was never a matter of competition. They just want to buy the IP, close down the studio, and milk it for whatever remaining profits they can much like they've done with Battlefield, Battlefront, ect. They basically could do mostly whatever they wanted before, but now that they own the IP they can have one of their own programming sweatshops do the work at a cut rate while having complete control over creative direction. No more whiny devs complaining about how loot boxes, premium services, day 1 DLC, bought progression, or whatever detracts from user experience or about how they want money to actually develop and improve upon systems rather than push out the same game with a fresh coat of paint.

 

[rileysrjay]

inb4 respawn gets shut down by EA in two years

 

[Kioku]

Makes me wonder why.

 

[Xzi]

Makes me wonder why.

Because Titanfall 2 was a cult hit. Just like Bioware used to have cult hits. Now we wait for the inevitable decline in quality from Respawn, followed by EA taking them out back and putting a bullet in their head.

EA: If you can't compete, buy up and eliminate all the developers instead.

 

[ArugulaZ]

No, you fools! They'll chew up your internal organs and leave your eviscerated corpse to rot! Don't you remember what they did to Visceral Games two months ago!?

 

[Cortador]

Another one bites the dust...

 

[Xzi]

Yeeeey /s

EA, the Disney of Videogames. Not a compliment.

I dunno, that's pretty harsh to Disney. They want to profit off the competition, sure, but they don't want it to decline in quality after they've bought it. Thor: Ragnarok is my example A. Marvel is still kicking out fantastic shit, even polishing their formula a bit. Compare that to Bioware, whose last game was Mass Effect: Andromeda before being Old Yeller'd.

Not to excuse Disney for any of the terrible shit they have done, of course, but they do want to be profitable if nothing else. EA just wants to milk what they can from developers and fans of those developers before eliminating the competition completely. The upper and middle management are tyrants who provide poor working conditions, and that naturally causes all development quality under them to decline.

 

[sarkwalvein]

Well, you're right. EA is in its own league, beyond any possible comparison.
I mean, they are among the best playing monopoly, but totally useless otherwise.

 

[Jayro]

Doesn't EA own enough shit yet? When is someone gonna call foul against EA for running a monopoly for eating up smaller devs?

 

[duffmmann]

EA truly is the cancer of video game developers. I don't think i have anything good left to say about them at this point. They represent everything wrong with the gaming scene and show no signs of changing their ways. It's a major shame that some huge name licenses like the NFL rests soley in their hands in regards to being able to create video games for them.