In 2007, EA acquired BioWare and Pandemic studios in a deal worth $860 million. Today, BioWare is one of the giant publisher’s cornerstones while Pandemic was forced to shut down less than 2 years after the acquisition.
BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk believes that they dodged Pandemic’s fate only by standing strong against EA’s meddling in their design decisions.
"I think one of the reasons that we survived and succeeded within EA was that our company was mature enough and there was enough good people throughout to handle the EA bear hug - something that is well meaning but vigorous," he told Polygon. "We needed to be strong to survive that and I think we did and you evolve from that as well."
BioWare developed Mass Effect 2 & 3 as well as 3 Dragon Age titles and Star Wars: The Old Republic for EA. All of those titles are among the company’s bestselling games.