EA To Buy Respawn For Over $400 Million

<p>In a not too shocking move this week&comma; EA has announced that they will be purchasing independent developer Respawn in a deal that could be worth over &dollar;400 million&period; Until now EA had been publishing Respawn&&num;8217&semi;s <em>Titanfall<&sol;em> games&comma; but the developer remained independently owned&period; The deal is valued at &dollar;455 million and it is based on a mixture of cash&comma; equity&comma; and performance milestones for Respawn&&num;8217&semi;s upcoming games&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><amp-youtube layout&equals;"responsive" width&equals;"500" height&equals;"281" data-videoid&equals;"SbdQPdaPme4" title&equals;"Titanfall 2 - Postcards From the Frontier Gameplay Trailer"><a placeholder href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;youtube&period;com&sol;watch&quest;v&equals;SbdQPdaPme4"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;i&period;ytimg&period;com&sol;vi&sol;SbdQPdaPme4&sol;hqdefault&period;jpg" layout&equals;"fill" object-fit&equals;"cover" alt&equals;"Titanfall 2 - Postcards From the Frontier Gameplay Trailer"><&sol;a><&sol;amp-youtube><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The deal apparently came about when South Korean publisher Nexon put in a bid to purchase Respawn&period; Nexon are the publishers that put out the <em>Titanfall<&sol;em> mobile game&period; EA then had 30 days to put in a counter offer to purchase&comma; which is what EA has done&period; It isn&&num;8217&semi;t a surprising move&comma; as EA has Respawn tapped to make a third-person Star Wars game&comma; as well as a new virtual reality game&period; This move has also confirmed that <em>Titanfall 3<&sol;em> is in the works from Respawn&comma; though no time frame has been given for its release&period; Still&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s a pretty sudden move for EA to make&comma; especially after shuttering another studio&comma; Visceral Games&comma; mere weeks ago&period; It has been reported though that EA was very happy with the performance of <em>Titanfall 2<&sol;em>&comma; even after it was released in 2016 right in the middle of <em>Battlefield 1<&sol;em> and <em>Call of Duty&colon; Infinite Warfare<&sol;em>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Respawn was formed in 2010 when former Call of Duty designers Jason West and Vince Zampella had very publicly left Activision&period; They took the opportunity to create the first <em>Titanfall<&sol;em>&comma; which was an Xbox exclusive&comma; and was published by EA&period; The game was popular and had very strong sales for Respawn and EA&comma; however with <em>Titanfall 2<&sol;em> they decided to make the move to the PlayStation 4 as well&period; The series is known for it&&num;8217&semi;s mix of <em>Call of Duty<&sol;em> twitch-style shooting&comma; and the ability to pilot and fight with giant mechs&comma; known as Titans&period; The games also have free DLC&comma; and make their money by selling assorted cosmetic packs&comma; for weapons as well as Titans&period; The EA deal is said to still allow Respawn with full control over the <em>Titanfall<&sol;em> series&comma; but it will be interesting to see how they handle future DLC and micro-transactions&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The deal is a pretty big one in the gaming world&comma; although one that isn&&num;8217&semi;t that big of a surprise&period; The biggest piece of news really out of this is the confirmation that <em>Titanfall 3<&sol;em> is in the works&period; Are you a <em>Titanfall<&sol;em> fan&comma; what do you think of the deal&quest; Is it good for the series&comma; or will EA&&num;8217&semi;s ownership of the property now have a negative impact on how you view the series&quest; Let us know in the comments below&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Source&colon; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;kotaku&period;com&sol;sources-ea-is-buying-titanfall-developer-respawn-1820131071&quest;utm&lowbar;campaign&equals;Socialflow&lowbar;Kotaku&lowbar;Twitter&amp&semi;utm&lowbar;source&equals;Kotaku&lowbar;Twitter&amp&semi;utm&lowbar;medium&equals;Socialflow">Kotaku<&sol;a><&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;