EA Nets Games Rival For $860M

It's a whole new ballgame at Electronic Arts. CNN Money reports the video game giant is buying rival VG Holdings for $860 Million. The takeover brings interactive and role-playing game makers BioWare Corp and Pandemic Studios into the EA stable. Pandemic is soon to launch Mercenaries 2, among other games, and BioWare's Mass Effect debuts next month.

"EA are trying to stay on top of the market. To do that, you need games to sell," said analyst Daniel Ernst. However, he said much depends on whether EA can hold on to BioWare's design team. "That's always the question when you buy talent. Talent goes out the door every day." (More Electronic Arts stories.)