Mergers and acquisitions ahoy in gaming

Two RPG giants merge, id gets bought... Did anyone else just spot the goalposts moving?

News has come down the pike today of a huge merger under the vast umbrella of EA Games - RPG specialist Bioware has just been joined at the hip to MMO meastro Mythic Entertainment. Wow.

The announcement came via Mythic, along with news of who would be running the new RPG/MMO studio - Bioware co-founder Ray Muzyka. It's not been a bloodless shuffle, either, as it's been announced that Mark Jacobs, Mythic's former GM, is no longer employed by EA. Rob Denton steps into his shoes, while Greg Zeschuk - the other Bioware wunderkind, will take on the role of Group Creative Officer.

There's no news on if this move will chance either company's release schedules. Mythic's still chugging away on Warhammer Online while Bioware's focusing on The Old Republic, Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age.

This presumably means some of Mythic's expertise can rub off on The Old Republic, but we can't help but wonder if this move heralds even more MMOs down the track.

Can you say Mass Effect MMO, kids?

In other shakeups around the gaming traps, we've also learnt that Zenimax, the parent owner of Bethesda 'Fallout 3' Softworks, has bought up seminal game maker id Software. All senior id executives have signed long term contracts with Zenimax, and both companies are promising to keep things business-as-usual at id.