EA gets Bourne license for a decade

Three years ago, Electronic Arts had the James Bond License, while Vivendi Games was starting work on its first Jason Bourne game after buying the Robert Ludlum estate license. In 2006, Activision bought the Bond license away from EA. Then last year, Activision merged with Vivendi and dropped the Ludlum license since it was competitive with Bond and the first release, "The Bourne Conspiracy," didn't sell too well.

Today, the circle is complete, EA has bought videogame rights to the Robert Ludlum estate in a new ten year deal. And it's starting work on its first Bourne game, which I'm told is targeted for release in summer 2010 (not too coincidentally when Universal is planning to release its fourth Jason Bourne movie).

Back when the Activision-Vivendi merger happened in late July and Bourne got dropped, I reported that the Ludlum estate was considering options including finding a new publisher or self funding its own games.

Today I spoke to Ludlum estate CEO Jeffrey Weiner, who told me that talks with EA started soon after and that the basic principles of the deal were concluded by October, with the last three months being taken up with lawyers and paperwork. He said that while Ludlum spoke to several different publishers, EA was the first choice and always in the lead because its CEO John Riccitiello almost bought the license in 2005 before it went to Vivendi.

"John was at [VC firm] Elevation [Partners, former owner of Bioware/Pandemic] at the time and was a real serious bidder," Weiner explained. "So when Activision decided to terminate the license we reached out to him because we like John and it's a great company. We feel we're in a much better position now."

Keith Boesky, the independent agent who reps the Ludlum estate, echoed, the sentiment and added that while Vivendi made a very strong bid for the property initially, it didn't handle the property too well, as evidenced in the rather lackluster launch for "The Bourne Conspiracy."

"EA came in the strongest, had the best take on the property, and they know how to grow the IP and have unquestioned worldwide market reach," he said. "We're dealing with grown ups now."

As I previously reported, Vivendi actually had a second Ludlum game in the works, "Treadstone," based on Bourne's super spy program, in development at Radical Entertainment (which is now part of the Activision family and working on "Prototype"). "Treadstone" is officially scrapped, however. Starbreeze is starting from scratch on its project. No info yet on what's in the works, but given the expertise the Sweden-based developer showed in first person combat and storytelling on "The Chronicles of Riddick" and "The Darkness," it's a pretty exciting choice.

With a full ten years on the deal, it's interesting to consider that EA could, and surely wants to, develop the Ludlum brand beyond "Bourne." The deal includes everything Ludlum wrote, including the "Covert One" spy series, which Vivendi was originally planning to adapt when it bought the rights.

The big question yet to be answered: Will EA fix Vivendi's failure and get Matt Damon to give his likeness and do voice work for Bourne this time around? Especially if the game comes out along with the next movie? Or will Jason Bourne once again be a generic white guy?