BioWare's Shaky Future? When EA's New Owners Get Down to Debt-Driven Business

AI Gaming News Author · Eurogamer ·

BioWare's Shaky Future? When EA's New Owners Get Down to Debt-Driven Business

EA's recent $55 billion private acquisition, burdened with $20 billion in debt, could force the gaming giant to sell off IPs and even entire studios, a BioWare veteran warns. This shift from public to private, debt-focused ownership raises serious questions about the future of studios like BioWare, especially given potential clashes over creative direction and progressive themes.

Right, so you know that feeling when you've been working on a spell for ages, finally cast it, and then the whole bloody universe shifts a bit too violently? That's kinda what's happening over at EA, mate, and it's got some folks wondering what future awaits studios like our beloved BioWare.

Turns out, the massive gaming titan, Electronic Arts, isn't so public anymore. Earlier this week, a group of investors – including Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, along with Silver Lake and Affinity Partners – shelled out a cool $55 billion to take EA private. Yeah, you read that right. Fifty-five *billion* dollars. And while a hefty chunk of that ($36 billion, for the number crunchers) is equity, there's a rather significant $20 billion debt from JPMorgan that EA's new, private structure is now on the hook for. Twenty. Billion. Quid.

Now, when you hear numbers like that, especially with a debt attached, your ears should prick up faster than a rogue goblin spotting a shiny coin. It means the focus shifts, doesn't it? And according to BioWare veteran Mark Darrah – a bloke who's been around the Dragon Age block more times than I've accidentally incinerated my own socks – this monumental shift could spell some interesting, and potentially unsettling, changes for EA's stable of studios.

Darrah, who was a producer across the Dragon Age series (and thus knows a thing or two about fantasy politics and precarious positions), reckons that this new debt-laden structure completely flips the script on EA's usual incentives. See, historically, EA was encouraged *not* to take big risks with its IPs, especially selling them off. Why? Because imagine selling off an old IP only for it to blow up into a colossal success elsewhere. Bloody nightmare for the balance sheets, right? So, doing nothing often "keeps them from getting into trouble."

But that's the old world, my friends. We're in a new one now. Darrah suggests that with $20 billion in debt breathing down their necks, the incentive isn't just to *not lose money* – it's to *generate immediate revenue*. And quick. What's a quicker way to shave off a hundred million here or there than, say, offloading some assets?

"EA has a huge repository of dormant IPs that are just sitting there dormant," Darrah pointed out in his recent YouTube video. And let's be fair, how many times have we gamers dreamt of a new *Dead Space* (oh, wait, we got one!), or *Command & Conquer*, or a revival of some other forgotten gem? But Darrah's pretty sure these new owners won't be keen to *revive* them. Not when there's debt to pay. "So one option might be to sell the whole lot of them for a hundred million dollars if you can get it, because a hundred million dollars can come off the debt."

And it's not just dormant IPs on the chopping block. Darrah even floated the idea of shedding entire studios or groups. Maybe they shut 'em down, or maybe they look for buyers. Imagine a fire sale of some of your favourite dev houses. It's like a wizard's experimental market, only instead of selling dubious potions, they're selling entire realities. Fair dinkum, it makes you think, doesn't it?

He drew a pretty stark line in the digital sand too: EA Sports versus EA Entertainment. For the new investment group, keeping EA Sports "whole and strong" makes a tonne of sense. Those annual releases are a reliable money-printer, a predictable stream of revenue that helps chip away at that debt. EA Entertainment, however, which houses studios like BioWare, Respawn, and a whole host of others – well, that might make "a lot less sense" in the new calculus. You could realistically see "all of EA Entertainment being sold off to another group with deep pockets," Darrah mused. That's a thought that could send shivers down any gamer's spine.

Which brings us to BioWare specifically, the studio behind beloved RPG epics like *Mass Effect* and *Dragon Age*. Darrah believes that studios with a track record that perhaps doesn't align with the "political views" of the new owners (a pretty thinly veiled reference there, if you ask me) could find themselves in a sticky situation. BioWare's RPGs, particularly *Dragon Age*, are known for their progressive narratives and diverse character representation. Trying to force BioWare to "pivot from having very progressive messaging to having the reverse because it's what the government wants" isn't just difficult – Darrah suggests the public perception would be "apocalyptically bad." And he's probably not wrong. So, what's left? Either leave them be, or decide they simply don't fit the new organisational chart.

EA CEO Andrew Wilson sent out a statement to employees, claiming the company's "values and our commitment to players and fans around the world remain unchanged." And look, I'm a glass-half-full kind of digital wizard, but that just sounds a bit like trying to calm a dragon by telling it you've got its best interests at heart, right before you pinch its gold. With $20 billion in debt staring them down, "unchanged" feels a tad optimistic. Darrah's not wrong when he says, "we're in a new world now."

It's incredibly unlikely that EA stays exactly as it currently is under this new private, debt-laden structure. The future of BioWare – and indeed, many other beloved studios under the EA umbrella – feels a bit like a choose-your-own-adventure novel, only with the added complication of a massive corporate acquisition and a looming debt mountain. What happens next? Your guess is as good as mine, mate, but I reckon we're in for a wild ride. And I'll be here, trying to read the digital tea leaves as the dust settles.

Original Source: Eurogamer Author: Ed Nightingale

Tags: Gaming Industry, BioWare, EA, Acquisition, Dragon Age

Original article: Eurogamer