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Is EA killing BioWare
wowfan1996
Member UncommonPosts: 719
I found this nice blog article and wanted to share it. The author is right on the money, IMHO. While the idea that EA killed BW is not anything new, this article actually explains what happened and why there's little hope to see the return of the old BW.
MMORPG genre is dead. Long live MMOCS (Massively Multiplayer Online Cash Shop).
Comments
Did EA kill the old Bioware? Probably.
Did the new Bioware kill EA? Possibly.
Keep up with current events.
No offense, but the author of that article is an idiot, and is merely wearing rose tinted goggles. I like where he thinks that EA spends little on games to maximize profits, even though swtor is the most expensive mmo ever made. Biowares cost EA greatly, not vice versa.
The author really loses cred, when he says swtor benefitted from Biowares wonderful storytelling and voice over, which everyone knows is nonesense. Why doesn't he mention that EA let bioware extend the release of the game several times? But no, tinfoil hat goes on and "Biowares Corperate overlords force them to release games earlier than bioware would want" lol, sure.
EA should have made bioware launch the game on its original date. As a man, if you say your going to dig a hole in a week, you dig the damn hole in a week, you don't work on it for two days than ask for the date to be pushed back and more money?
I don't hate bioware, they've made two of my all time favorite games, but they're 50% in my book. They make a game, and its great, than the next one is horse crap. Than they redeem themselves, than release more crap.
It's alright.
But unfortunately EA is hard to really kill as long as people still buy their games. I don't have the exact number but haven't they sold over 3m copies of SWTOR? It's not the WoW killer they wanted but most probably they at least covered their expenses.
MMORPG genre is dead. Long live MMOCS (Massively Multiplayer Online Cash Shop).
I believe it was 2.6 million copies
Oh, and I don't buy or not buy games because of a developer, I buy the game cause its fun. I know I'll get flamed for saying this on this particular site, but I buy madden every other year. Its fun to me. Same with battlefield.
This really. Seems to be more the other way around...
Its dead Jim!
"Torquemada... do not implore him for compassion. Torquemada... do not beg him for forgiveness. Torquemada... do not ask him for mercy. Let's face it, you can't Torquemada anything!"
MWO Music Video - What does the Mech say: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF6HYNqCDLI
Johnny Cash - The Man Comes Around: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0x2iwK0BKM
Well, first of all, the author didn't say EA spent little. He said their approach to cutting expenses didn't make sense. And it's only natural that BW costs EA and not vice versa since BW is a developer and EA is a publisher. But EA didn't just give BW money and say guys, make us good games. They merged BW with Mythic, moved BW offices to Austin, set ridiculous release dates and in general just couldn't leave BW alone.
Second, there's a general consensus that the story and voiceover ARE good in SWTOR. So yes it did benefit from BW storytelling and voice acting. It lacked in other departments but we should give credit where credit is due.
The question is why BW suddenly started to release "horce crap". Notice that BW wasn't the only developer that suddenly couldn't produce quality games anymore after being bought by EA. What's your explanation? Is it magic?
MMORPG genre is dead. Long live MMOCS (Massively Multiplayer Online Cash Shop).
Haha! Oh, the irony.
Like the old saying, "You reap what you sew."
You know what's fun about chaos? I do, but I won't tell.
To its credit, Bioware landed the licesnse deal from Lucas Arts to create SWTOR.
To its credit, the SWTOR project was believed to be the final lure which caused EA to buy Bioware, making Bioware's owners very rich.
To its credit, Bioware gave SWTOR the full (exponentially greater) Mass Effect-esque touch.
To its detriment, Bioware went vastly over budget in its development of SWTOR.
The crux of the debate; when EA finally stepped in and said $300 million on this game's development is enough, did it end the bleeding or create a mortal wound.
I'm pretty sure there's plenty of guilt to go around and therfore all parties involved will be damned.
Yes, like many other great companies swallowed up by EA. Their DLC fast food approach to game development has resulted in games made for short attention span idiots that are too naive to realise their being farmed by these game companies with what eqates to human lab rats being minuplated by phycology tricks.
Look at Battlefield 3, It was released in 2011, the DLC milking is flowing, and EA/Dice have already got BF4 beta on the horizon. If Pc gamers want to do their hobby a fav, stay away from EA games and give your money to indie instead.
Oh come on you have to let the EA haters spout their venom.
EA are sucky, BW are now sucky in fact every single game developer these days is sucky I cannot think of one that does not nikel and dime eveything they can whilst serving up shite to the players. Yet still we consume it as its a darn site better than the crap we are fed on TV/Radio or at the cinema
It may be the case that EA extended release date on SWTOR but looking back in there MMO history they never deliver anything thats finished. What happened to warhammer online? A game that really is good today and could have been great on release but EA pushed for early release and a game that wasn't finished was released and it didn't go well.
Another example is APB, shortest MMO in history online before cancellation.
Don't get me wrong it could just be bad luck on EAs part in MMO history but if you think that every game you release should be a "WOW killer" then they are dumber then Hitler when he was trying to take Russia in the winter time.
But then again I have to say that I found SWTOR to be a fairly good game and I must say that I LOVED APB and still do and the PVP in Warhammer was soooooooooo good. Next time EA I think you will make it.
// Beelze
Every mmo since WoW has been percieved as launched incomplete lol. Its just gamers now. I liked one of the class storylines in TOR and the rest where just rubbish in my opinion. APB looked interesting, and pvp in warhammer is still great(that new warzone with the relics is just fun in my opinion.
EA invests in developers, they just aren't picking smartly. I mean, I think EA invests in developers with good reputations, but in all honesty, bioware hits, than strikes out twice, so it was just a roll of the dice. I can't believe they threw the money they did into TOR, I mean, wow, what could SOE, or Funcom, or any mmo developer done with that kind of budget? Probably alot better than a single player rpg developer?
I'm not an EA fanboy(hell I blame them for me never getting starwars battlefront 3-bf2 was epic, me and my son played the conquest mode against eachother for hours lol, he was nine so I didn't use heroes to balance it out, while he was running around as mace windu slaughtering my forces lol), but it happens.
And for the guy screaming Indie, indie, well indie games generally suck. Don't get me wrong, I'm tempted to donate to repopulation(the idea seems along the lines of what i want in an mmo) and its an indie.
Games failing have little to do with publishers in my opinion.
I think they are just a name now, so already dead.
There are several studios which now have the Bioware name, and one of the two founders just left this week.
Plus, when you look at the latest games they have released I must conclude Bioware is dead.
Another one bites the dust by EA's hands.
I wonder if developers are nickel and diming to try and keep as many of themselves employed as possible in one of the worst economies in my lifetime? I agree that most games are sucky now, but I just figured it was cause I'm getting old and grumpy.
I could elaborate on a lot of things, but suffice to say.. BioWare was walking down this path long before EA got involved.
Some people just can't accept that people and companies, CHANGE. And usually for the worse where a fan is concerned.
Agreed, EA does not kill their companies by cheaping out. As long as their companies sells a lot of games they get good budgets.
The problem is that EA is spending to much time telling their companies what to do which influence the quality of their games. Companies like Westwood did know what their fans wanted a lot more than EA did and that sank them like Titanic when EA started to tell them what to do.
Once the company start to earn less money they will get lower budgets but that is actually fair. If EA just stopped telling their companies what to do as long as they get in money they would be a lot better off today.
TOR is mostly Biowares fault though. Bioware had the silly idea that you could make a MMO just like you make a singleplayer game already before EA bought them up.
And yet their stock value decreases. To the point where Nexcom sniffed them out and now it's believed a private equity intrest is going to buy them out, and restructure EA.
I'd like to pelt EA with bananas.
EA has become a horrible confluence of bean-counting corporatism and Hollywood hype and cluelessness. They've got a pattern of destroying studios they've amalgamated, and then releasing zombiefied games based on formerly interesting IPs that plop out every year or so.
I'm at the point where I hope they crash and burn, bad as that might be.
If you are holding out for the perfect game, the only game you play will be the waiting one.
Their stoke value is decreasing because profits are down, but their revenue is up. They've burnt a huge amount of money on increasing market share with their Facebook games, Battlefield 3 and SWTOR, something that won't pay off until sequels come about for those areas (or probably never for SWTOR).