Just days after it announced that it was closing Visceral Studios, the developer of the Dead Space series of games, EA Games has revealed that its offer of $450+ million for Titanfall developer, Respawn, has been accepted. The studio will become part of EA's massive collection of studios, existing and past. Visceral is far from the only studio that EA has swallowed and devoured.
The Respawn deal has been approved and is going ahead, so there's nothing we can do to stop it now. It will see EA deliver $151 million up front, with another $164 million in EA stock given to Respawn employees. Topping it all off is a further $140 million if Respawn delivers on existing projects which are still under development at the studio.
The deal reveals that Respawn is currently working on three separate games. Alongside the previously announced Star Wars and virtual reality games, PCGamesN also reports that there is a new game in the Titanfall series being developed.
"We have worked together a long time from the inception of the studio," Respawn CEO Vince Zampella told VentureBeat. "The question was, where we are in the industry, how do we take the next step in making bigger, better games. We see the need for bigger resources to make bigger games."
Respawn fans are already holding candlelit ceremonies for their favorite developer. Although there is no guarantee that Respawn will one day be shuttered by EA, the publisher has had a history of acquiring and then closing developers. They include the aforementioned Visceral Games, Origin Systems, Bullfrog Productions, Westwood Studios, Mythic Entertainment, Bioware, Maxis, Pandemic Studios and Dreamworks Interactive.
God speed Respawn. Here's hoping you hold out better than some of your peers.