Electronic Arts has done a deal with Elevation Partners to acquire VG Holding, the parent company of game developers BioWare and Pandemic Studios. The two developers employ about 800 people in four studios, including Pandemic's Brisbane studio.

The deal is expected to close in January next year, and will cost EA US$620 million in cash and $155 million in equity, making it EA's biggest ever acquisition. There's a strong link between EA and VG Holding by way of EA's CEO John Riccitiello: EA is buying VG Holding from Elevation Partners, a company co-founded by Riccitiello and in which he served as a managing director before re-joining EA earlier this year.

EA says the reason for the purchase is to fill gaps in its genre lineup, specifically action, adventure and RPGs. BioWare, of course, is a leader in the RPG genre, with its upcoming Mass Effect and an MMOG in the works. Pandemic, meanwhile, will help EA in the action department with titles like Mercenaries 2 and Saboteur, as well as some unannounced games.


Gamasutra has a summary of an EA conference call that followed the acquisition announcement, in which EA was asked which IPs will be changing hands. Perhaps most importantly, EA will get the Mass Effect IP, though the game will still be published by Microsoft in November. Pandemic owns the Mercenaries and Saboteur IPs, but the Destroy All Humans property now belongs to THQ, and is not included in the deal.