More BioWare/Pandemic Acquisition Details

[GameBanshee News]

GameSpot is reporting that EA's stock hit a new 52-week high after their acquisition of BioWare/Pandemic, despite analyst concerns that the $860 million price tag was way too high. This paragraph sums up what we can expect in the future:

"We think that the acquisition, though pricey, will likely pay off," Pachter wrote. "The two studios have averaged almost three games per year over the last seven years, so in order to generate $300 million in revenue, their games will have to average around $100 million in sales, or 2 million units, apiece. Although these are big numbers, we note that several prior efforts were multi-million unit sellers. Should the two studios future performance mirror their prior performance, EA will likely achieve its goal of $300 million in annual revenue."

Three games per year, each of which has to sell two million units or more? That sounds like a great work environment for those developers looking to create something unique and inspiring...

[Xandax]

Indeed.
Assembly line production isn't good for creativity, but is very much in line with EA's reputation of "sequel producing".

So wonder if we'll see Jade Empire 2 within the next year, and Mass Effect 2 right after the first is released ... just so they can keep up