Respawn Entertainment will soon be under the umbrella of EA after years of working together with the Titanfall series. Respawn were founded by Jason West and Vince Zampella, two of the creators behind Call Of Duty, after being fired by Activision. Respawn then signed as an EA partner to have them publish the Xbox One launch title in 2014, and the the sequel, Titanfall 2 last year.
EA will pay $151 million USD in cash for Respawn, with up to $164 million USD of long-term equity plus a maximum of $140 million USD for performance milestone payments.
Respawn is currently developing a new Titanfall game, a new Star Wars game and a VR experience, which is most likely to be the secret new VR game they announced for Oculus.
While this sounds great that the developers now have more resources being poured in, there is a lingering fear- this is EA after all, known to close studios that under performed. Visceral was the latest victim of many studio casualties.