Yesterday, there were a lot of talk about the surprising announcement that ZeniMax Media is acquiring idSoftware, overshadowing the merger between BioWare and Mythic. Electronic Arts, owner of both BioWare and Mythic Entertainment decided to gather its strengths and tie the two companies together. The move comes as a logical consequence of the current situation on the market: Mythic released an unfinished MMORPG title that suffered from the player withdrawal, while BioWare is preparing to capture the imagination of MMO gamers and Star Wars fans with Star Wars: The Old Republic.
As a consequence of failure that Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning unfortunately is, the co-founder of Mythic was ousted from the company, pawing way for a merger with BioWare. Under the new state of affairs, BioWare co-founders are taking the major role, with Ray Muzyka serving as the General Manager, Greg Zeschuk takes the role of Chief Creative Officer. Management of Mythic is being changed with only one or two names remain - but the developers such as programmers, artists and the like are looking to stay on-board.
EA's view of its MMO Group is to have gamedev teams functioning as separate creative units, but having one single business structure. This deal is the same one as the current structure of BioWare, who acquired Pandemic in a Elevation Partners-related deal - prior to EA's acquisition of BioWare.
We wonder what the next shakeup will be.
