EA buys Mythic

GameSpot has news that EA has purchased Mythic, developers of DAoC and the upcoming Warhammer. Here's part of GameSpot's newsbit on EA Mythic:

Warhammer Online maker bought and will be redubbed EA Mythic and will focus on MMORPGs, Jacobs and Denton to remain on board.

Ever since the massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft was released in fall 2004, Electronic Arts has looked on with envy as rival Vivendi has raked in millions. In March, the French media conglomerate's game division--which lost 203 million euros ($241 million) in 2004--reported a whopping 244 million euro ($289.9 million) one-year jump in earnings for the calendar year 2005.

The jump in revenue was thanks largely to WOW, which is developed and published by Vivendi subsidiary Blizzard Entertainment. The game now has over 6.5 million subscribers worldwide, filling the company's coffers with a hefty regular revenue of gold.

Not one to let an unexploited market pass it by, Electronic Arts today announced that it has entered an agreement to acquire the Virginia-based development studio Mythic Entertainment. The new studio will be renamed EA Mythic, and it will focus on producing MMORPGs. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.