With BioWare having announced its closure and the cancelation of its Mass Effect game, former executive producer from the studio, Mark Darrah, has said that EA is now more likely to sell off the studio’s IP. In a new video, Darrah has spoken about BioWare shutting down, as well as the fact that EA owns franchises like Mass Effect and Dragon Age.
However, while mentioning that the company is more likely to sell these IPs off to bolster its revenue and financing, Darrah has also noted that EA is likely going to do it over a longer time frame. The fact that the company is currently in “cost control mode” rather than “revenue-generation mode” means that the company is far more likely to focus inwards to see what it can cut.
“Remember, BioWare is 100% owned by EA. EA owns all the IPs. They own Dragon Age, they own Mass Effect, they own Jade Empire. That doesn’t change the situation, really, at all. …Now, there’s nobody working on a [BioWare] game, or games, within the EA organization, and chances are there never will be, which might make them more likely to sell off those IPs. But it might also make them more likely to just try to forget that they ever existed and bury them in the vault.
“I think we still are gonna have to wait a little bit before we see if EA has any interest in selling off some of its dormant IPs. Right now, they seem to be in cost control mode. They might start in a revenue-generation mode where selling IPs might be more desirable.”
As for why EA might be likely to sell these IPs off, the company was fully acquired by an investment consortium made up of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), Affinity Partners, and Silver Lake, and as a result of the $55 billion deal, the company had to take on a massive amount of debt. The first order of business for EA is likely going to be to figure out what it can cut to ensure that it doesn’t drown in the interest rates on its debt.
Once things have stabilized at the company, EA will likely explore further revenue growth by taking a long look at the several IPs it currently owns that are now dormant. Along with BioWare’s IPs like Dragon Age and even Jade Empire, the company has also acquired several other franchises over the last few decades, such as Command and Conquer and Dungeon Keeper. Unless EA has concrete plans to make use of these IPs in some way, selling could be a viable option.
However, the company might hang on to Mass Effect for longer, and rather than selling it off, EA might take a cue from Konami and license it out to external development teams. This is due to recent reports indicating that BioWare’s closure has had no effect on plans to produce a TV adaptation of the sci-fi RPG franchise. While no details about this adaptation have been revealed, work on it is still reportedly continuing at Amazon MGM Studios.
