EA acquires Phenomic

[UPDATE] Purchase of SpellForce maker now official; developer will focus on making real-time strategy games for PCs and consoles.

With its mix of Diablo-style dungeon crawling and real-time strategy elements, the PC game SpellForce 2: Shadow Wars raised a few eyebrows upon its early May release, even with the build to the Electronic Entertainment Expo dominating the news those days. Apparently among the eyebrows raised were those of Electronic Arts, as German daily paper Die Welt is reporting that the American publishing giant has acquired the game's developer, the Ingelheim, Germany-based Phenomic.

In an online story dated August 23, Die Welt reports that the publisher will keep the studio management in place, and that it will continue to operate in Ingelheim under the new name EA Phenomic. According to the story, EA won't say how much it paid for the developer, but that it would have no material impact on its earnings. It also reports that Phenomic announced multiple new games but gives no details on those.

Phenomic would only be the most recent studio to join the EA fold. Since last year, the publisher has since acquired mobile-game publisher Jamdat, Outlaw Golf series developer Hypnotix, and Warhammer Online studio Mythic, which was then renamed Mythic EA.

An EA representative said that the publisher had made no announcement to that effect. Phenomic is currently working on SpellForce 2: Dragon Storm, an expansion to Shadow Wars.

[UPDATE] EA has confirmed the acquisition of Phenomic today at Leipzig. Phenomic will focus on making online real-time strategy games for PCs and consoles. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

54 Comments

  • HaRiZ420

    Posted Jan 28, 2008 2:38 am PT

    EA in some ways is good and in more ways bad.

  • Cobra_nVidia

    Posted Aug 13, 2007 6:09 pm PT

    Please, please don't screw this up EA.

  • recobo

    Posted Jan 19, 2007 6:20 pm PT

    anyone knows if this expansion will be out anyway???
    i hope it does, so we can say goodbye to spellforce with a new expansion at least =/
    i really like games, but i found the big franchises to be really desaponting lately (i think only the capcom franchises escaped this fate)...
    however we can only hope that new studios will pop up with nice original games everytime EA decides to destroy the smaller ones xD

  • Pompous_Fool

    Posted Oct 16, 2006 7:30 am PT

    it seems that no sooner do i find a good game is it snatched away by the great 'micosoft' of gaming, dammit

  • versado

    Posted Oct 3, 2006 4:01 am PT

    Well, I guess this means the Spellforce series is dead, unless Jowood finds somebody else to develop it from now on.

  • MythicAvenger

    Posted Sep 29, 2006 6:38 am PT

    Oh no... I liked that game...

  • reliantk81

    Posted Aug 25, 2006 8:46 pm PT

    Great, expect spellforce 3 to be rushed out and followed by 15 patches like all of EA's other games

  • KiLLer_ba

    Posted Aug 23, 2006 10:13 pm PT

    Damn EA keeps increasing each year.

  • _Sam_

    Posted Aug 23, 2006 8:15 pm PT

    I should buy some EA stock

  • Valas_Azuviir

    Posted Aug 23, 2006 9:48 am PT

    There is one upside to this actually. No more Starforce on Phenomic games, their old publisher Aspyr had this annoying tendency to use that.. whatever you want to call it... to "protect" the software. It was even included in the demo's of the games.

  • MSE369

    Posted Aug 23, 2006 5:42 am PT

    omg EA damn it!

  • Shtinky

    Posted Aug 23, 2006 5:34 am PT

    Officially boycotting all EA products from now on (except spore, damn you EA!!!).

  • ElectrolightSH

    Posted Aug 23, 2006 5:28 am PT

    EA sucks balls. Die EA!

  • muscrat_01

    Posted Aug 23, 2006 4:20 am PT

    Oh Noes!!

  • mendigovirtual

    Posted Aug 23, 2006 3:03 am PT

    EA adquired Phenomic?ooh,no!! EA destroyed everything touch!!

  • GFofgaming

    Posted Aug 23, 2006 1:36 am PT

    EA eates, and grows. IF Microsoft bought EA, than its all over for all the console industry.

  • West-Coast-G

    Posted Aug 23, 2006 1:24 am PT

    What will they buy next?

  • samhellbringer

    Posted Aug 23, 2006 12:57 am PT

    goddang EA. Eventually, they'll rule the world.

  • s0l0123

    Posted Aug 23, 2006 12:41 am PT

    First EA ruin Command & Conquer, now they destroy SpellForce.

  • VolcanoMan001

    Posted Aug 23, 2006 12:31 am PT

    ***News FLASH***

    EA buys the moon

  • jakeboudville

    Posted Aug 23, 2006 12:03 am PT

    EA seems to be getting bigger every year

  • dukerav

    Posted Aug 23, 2006 12:03 am PT

    The ravenous evil beast that is EA swallows another company whole and doesnt think twice, sadly this wont be the last. I havent bought an EA game besides BF2 in three years. I dont really feel they need my money.

  • TavLok

    Posted Aug 22, 2006 11:36 pm PT

    ahh the death and dumbing down of another game studio fallen into the clutches of the game industry's vampire.

  • Fallout_red

    Posted Aug 22, 2006 11:27 pm PT

    Why online? Why not make some good single player games? Anyway, another good studio EAten up.

  • kittencrusher

    Posted Aug 22, 2006 11:09 pm PT

    EA is the bane of the gaming industry.....gah....

  • etmaul

    Posted Aug 22, 2006 11:00 pm PT

    FEED EA!!! FEED EA!!!

  • Panzerfaust1014

    Posted Aug 22, 2006 8:36 pm PT

    Wow, Soon EA is gonna like gonna own the world

  • peeweeshift

    Posted Aug 22, 2006 8:24 pm PT

    the character models in this game rock

  • Blackfriend8

    Posted Aug 22, 2006 6:33 pm PT

    wow ea got another company. this is bad but just wait until they fully buy out ubisoft then ea will make like 75% of all games

  • RaiKageRyu

    Posted Aug 22, 2006 6:26 pm PT

    and EA gets keeps getting bigger...

  • BigC43

    Posted Aug 22, 2006 6:13 pm PT

    Another EA Studio? Here we go again...

  • the_real_VIP

    Posted Aug 22, 2006 5:47 pm PT

    Still on the main menu, not yet up to the dessert?

  • blackIceJoe

    Posted Aug 22, 2006 5:11 pm PT

    Well it looks like EA is at it again. I still wonder why they have not made a console them self's. It would have lots of games on it.

  • NLink0714

    Posted Aug 22, 2006 4:50 pm PT

    I think EA enjoys removing the "great" factor that smaller developing companies bring to the gaming world. EA has no creativty of their own...so it seems fit in their eyes that they remove that creativity from another. EA is, in many senses, alot like Micro$oft. Buying out anything and everything for dominance. As as each year passes, the consumers get more lackluster products at higher and higher prices. Soon, great franchises like Spellforce and Warhammer will become nothing more that the green diarrhea coming out of EA's large rectum.

    If nothing else...remember this...You can't spell RAPE without EA.

  • Fatality4u

    Posted Aug 22, 2006 4:45 pm PT

    EA grabs yet another.

  • halopower67

    Posted Aug 22, 2006 4:41 pm PT

    EA will one day rule the world!!!! muahahahaha!!!

  • Led_poison

    Posted Aug 22, 2006 4:40 pm PT

    (insert Company name) EA

  • kerensky287

    Posted Aug 22, 2006 4:33 pm PT

    EA will ruin all franchises once they've had their fun. I'm pissed that they keep on buying out companies, and I wish that one of them, at least, would decline...

  • KorJax

    Posted Aug 22, 2006 4:15 pm PT

    They distroy franchises.

    C&C Generals was the biggest disapointment in the C&C franchise, because it didnt have anything to do with the franchise, in gameplay and story/style. Guess who made it? EA after they bought the oringal developers of the franchise

    Bullfrog studios.... made the Populous series, which were one of the first RTS games ever made, and are orignal to this day. They were bought by EA, and thier company was completley disbanded. No more games from them!

    They are getting alittle better by making more quality games, atleast for thier franchises that have a bigger fanbase.

    But there is a reason why then entire orignal developement team of the C&C games QUIT EA after they made Generals and created Petroglyph Studios (they made the recent Empire at War game).

  • homsuplo75

    Posted Aug 22, 2006 4:02 pm PT

    I guess it is easier to jut buy someone else's idea... destroy it and then just move on to the next one.

  • dsiscool

    Posted Aug 22, 2006 3:58 pm PT

    Aragorn33
    "Yet another franchise about to be ruined by the malovent monopoly that is EA. "
    how is it about to be ruined? it's still the same people making the games. there'e nothing wrong with monopoly. it's buisness. to say there is is saying that it is wrong for ea to compete against other companies.

  • Latinbro1

    Posted Aug 22, 2006 3:50 pm PT

    Ok, maybe I overdid my comment but you all know what I mean. Whehter a company is small or big, it is still monopolising

  • OfficialBed

    Posted Aug 22, 2006 3:47 pm PT

    oh man..not another one taken by EA

  • Latinbro1

    Posted Aug 22, 2006 3:47 pm PT

    Why doens't EA buy Take Two, Eidos, Square enix, Activision, Capcom, Konami, and Sega while they are at it. Heck, buy sony, microsoft, and nintendo tooo and give consumers no option whatsoever on gaming.

  • Aragorn33

    Posted Aug 22, 2006 3:30 pm PT

    Yet another franchise about to be ruined by the malovent monopoly that is EA.

  • Theilan

    Posted Aug 22, 2006 3:26 pm PT

    i think ea has been buying lots of smaller studios because they're trying to get a better ratio of licensed content to original ip. i think i read somewhere in an interview they're trying to do 50-50, since the licensed stuff (like madden) is more guaranteed sales, but the original ip stuff they can earn much more money, since they don't have to pay massive royalties to the nfl and such. i just hope they can keep with the originality.

  • Sam_Lowery

    Posted Aug 22, 2006 3:20 pm PT

    I guess we can look forward to tons of product placement in their games from now on.

  • comthitnuong

    Posted Aug 22, 2006 2:41 pm PT

    an expansion of shdow wars huh....

  • ELJUDEZ

    Posted Aug 22, 2006 2:39 pm PT

    Monopoly?

  • dsiscool

    Posted Aug 22, 2006 2:34 pm PT

    this is good. i like to see capitalism in action. this is also good for the company. ea is going to put them on the map. if you slap ea on something, people are a lot more likely to buy it. by the way, did ea ever fully aquire ubisoft?

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