EA Acquired Respawn Entertainment. And That’s Terrible

The death of Visceral Games renewed discussions about how often EA kills their studios, a trend you know is bad when several memes of it have existed for years. Developing AAA games is becoming a nigh-suicidal risk, where profits have become too important, and the combination of that and continually-rising development costs have led to many studio closures. But of the biggest publishers, EA is the most cutthroat of them all, to the point that there’s immediate panic whenever a game from a specific division fails critically or commercially. A grim reaper whose cloak includes an “It’s in the game” quote perpetually hovers over these companies.

Before Visceral, this fate recently befell Maxis Emeryville after contention with SimCity in 2013, and Mythic Entertainment after their reputation was butchered following the microtransaction-heavy Dungeon Keeper for mobile platforms. One that still bothers plenty among the gaming audience is Pandemic, who was shuttered a mere 13 months after EA acquired them in February 2009. They kept the franchises they worked on, but they’re not using them.

The topic of future Star Wars games came up with Visceral’s closure, and a common sentiment expressed was “Thank God they don’t own Respawn!” They’re working on a title of their own that will be published by EA, after successfully collaborating with them on two successful Titanfall titles. As it turns out, God has a quirky sense of humor.

It was confirmed during a recent financial briefing that — surprise! — EA has acquired Respawn Entertainment in a buyout that will be worth around $450 million in collective fees over time. South Korean publisher Nexon, who recently published mobile RTS spinoff Titanfall: Assault and has handled several MMORPGs, offered to purchase them first. So, it was a race against the clock for EA to outbid them, and it’s clear they succeeded. It’s tough to definitively tell which company would have been better for Respawn, though it’s not like memes exist about Nexon killing studios.

With the news, EA confirmed how they’re collaborating with Respawn for three titles. One is the aforementioned Star Wars title, a third-person action adventure title announced in May 2016 that’s yet to be revealed. The second is Titanfall 3, which EA is somewhat surprisingly going forward with despite the second game selling below expectations. The last one wasn’t specified by EA at the meeting, but is likely a previously-announced first-person combat experience VR game for Oculus, due for release in 2019. It certainly sounds like they have a bright future ahead of them.

EA will have another reliable development subsidiary in the future in lieu of Visceral, but while Respawn unsurprisingly expressed their gratitude through their official website and social media channels, their employees have to be in a mild panic. The three games they have in development will take a while, and there’s no way EA will even consider closing them before they’re out — unless one of them runs into the kind of development turmoil that doomed Visceral’s “Ragtag” Star Wars title. They’re also in a more convenient location, as the cost of paying employees isn’t quite as bad in Beverly Hills as it was in Visceral’s location of San Francisco. But this is still a concerning move, because we’re talking about EA here.

Given the direction some larger companies are taking their AAA games in, this is also concerning for the quality of Respawn’s upcoming titles. Development woes were only part of the reason why Ragtag was cancelled, despite EA’s insistence otherwise; they’re all set to make the new Star Wars game being created in its stead the kind people will come back to (and potentially pay into), with the likely result being a Destiny or Avalon-like game set in the Star Wars universe.

Considering that scenario, it’s unlikely the focus of Respawn’s Star Wars game will be a single-player mode. Instead, expect a multiplayer-focused one, since it will be easier for EA to insert “modern” features that people love like microtransactions and loot boxes.

It will be a surprise if these features don’t also make their way into the next Titanfall game. EA will want to ensure that it doesn’t perform below expectations, and if it isn’t a big seller at retail, they’ll try their damnedest to get those who purchased it to pay much more than the $60 asking price.

It’s difficult to see a road that isn’t rocky for Respawn’s future, but I don’t want to end this post on too negative of a note. It would be nice if they became so integral a part of EA that they’ll want to keep them around for years to come, despite how that’s also far from a guarantee. Bioware, for instance, is still around, but they’ve fallen far from the state they were in quality and reputation-wise. At the very least, let’s hope the employees keep their jobs for the near future.

Related posts:

Cognition Dissemination: The Importance of Single-Player Experiences Examples of Damage Control in Gaming: For Whom the Twitter Titan Falls Back to Outer Space for Mass Effect Andromeda Mass Effect Andromeda is Nearing its Destination