GameSpot has the huge news that BioWare and Pandemic Studios (Full Spectrum Warrior, Destroy all Humans, Star Wars Battlefront II) will form a new holding company called BioWare/Pandemic Studios, together with additional stakeholder and VC financier Elevation, who recently attempted an unsuccessful buyout of Eidos.
The article describes the result as a $300 Million "super developer", with BioWare's two co-founders, Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka, and Pandemic's two co-founders, Andrew Goldman and Josh Resnick, will becoming shareholders and senior executives, while Elevation's Riccitiello (ex-EA) will become the CEO:Carefully referred to as a "creative and management partnership," the new operation will be a holding company called BioWare/Pandemic Studios. BioWare's two co-founders, Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka, and Pandemic's two co-founders, Andrew Goldman and Josh Resnick, will become shareholders and senior executives. As one might expect, Riccitiello becomes the company's CEO. The 400 employees of both studios will also receive stakes in BioWare/Pandemic, and its studios in Los Angeles, Edmonton, Canada and Brisbane, Australia will continue to operate largely as before.
According to Elevation, the BioWare/Pandemic deal is even bigger than the Eidos acquisition, being a "combined investment" of over $300 million, including future funding. It also could have major repercussions within the game industry. Its express design is to sidestep the traditional publisher-developer relationship, where the latter is dependent on the former for funding, via the injection of outside capital. |
BioWare and Pandemic join to form "Super Studio"
