Ludlum estate on EA vs. Activision: 'We're dealing with grown-ups now'

by Richard Mitchell { Feb 2nd 2009 at 5:56PM }

Variety is reporting more details on Electronic Arts' recent ten-year acquisition of the Robert Ludlum estate license, which grants the company rights to create games based on the Bourne novels, among other things. According to Ludlum estate CEO Jeffrey Weiner, Electronic Arts was the first choice for the license after it was dropped by Activision. Weiner said that EA CEO John Riccitiello almost bought the license in 2005 while he still worked for Elevation Partners, former owner of both Pandemic and BioWare. "So when Activision decided to terminate the license we reached out to him because we like John and it's a great company," said Weiner, "We feel we're in a much better position now."

Apparently, Vivendi didn't do a very good job with the Bourne license, as one Ludlum estate agent noted that EA "had the best take on the property, and they know how to grow the IP and have unquestioned worldwide market reach," adding, "We're dealing with grown-ups now."

Finally, Variety reports that Radical Entertainment's Treadstone project has been canceled, making the upcoming Starbreeze game the only Bourne project currently in the works (that we know about, anyway).

Tags: activision, activision-blizzard, bourne, business, ea, electronic-arts, jason-bourne

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

OMGOMG @ Feb 2nd 2009 6:01PM

Shit=on.

Mr Khan @ Feb 2nd 2009 6:04PM

I do like the disses that this industry dispenses with

PSN: slycooper_rocker (The Agent of Orange) @ Feb 2nd 2009 6:13PM

sony vs ign is still the best imo but dang that pic up there is cool. if they sold off the cod franchise then i would keep pulling that trigger until i ran out of ammo.

PSN: slycooper_rocker (The Agent of Orange) @ Feb 2nd 2009 6:18PM

dang i was hoping my avatar uploading would have worked after the ultrastiq change. mr. glow, would you kindly look into this when you've got less work? i know you must be swamped right now and probably will be for a while so when you get the time is fine. thanks. oh and for anyone who would like to help, my potential avatar is 64x64 and 2.11 KB so it should upload fine right?

Banana Kid @ Feb 2nd 2009 6:06PM

This doesn't seem like EA vs. Activision as much as EA vs. Vivendi. The buyout hadn't happened yet when Bourne Conspiracy came out.

I don't care too much about who publishes what. But in this case, I can only pray that EA shells out the cash to get Matt Damon in on this game. There can never be another Jason Bourne.

dabamf @ Feb 2nd 2009 6:13PM

I read that Damon wouldn't sign on because of how violent the game was. That seems a bit hypocritical since the movies themselves are extremely violent, especially Ultimatum.