Company News Bioware is fucked

[Vault Dweller]

Tags: BioWare

Electronic Arts, the bastion of shitty design and even shittier development and business practices, <a href=http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/071011/20071011006083.html?.v=1>is about to acquire Bioware</a>:
<br>
<br>
<blockquote>Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS - News) today announced an agreement with Elevation Partners to acquire VG Holding Corp. -- the owner of both BioWare Corp. and Pandemic Studios. This acquisition gives EA a strong competitive position in key genres in interactive entertainment: action, adventure and role-playing games. The two studios have been recognized for creating some of the highest-quality games in the industry.
<br>
<br>
BioWare Corp. and Pandemic Studios have ten franchises under development, including six wholly owned games. BioWare Corp. is currently developing the highly anticipated Mass Effect, which will be published by Microsoft in November, and is in the early development stages of a massively multiplayer online game. Pandemic Studios is redefining open-world games with its upcoming Mercenaries 2: World in Flames(TM) and Saboteur(TM), in addition to several unannounced projects.
<br>
<br>
Pandemic Studios and BioWare Corp. employ roughly 800 people across four studios located in Edmonton, Canada; Los Angeles; Austin; and Brisbane, Australia.
<br>
<br>
"These are two of the most respected studios in the industry and I'm glad to be working with them again. They'll make a strong contribution to our strategic growth initiatives on quality, online gaming and developing new intellectual properties," said John Riccitiello, EA's Chief Executive Officer. "We also expect this will drive long-term value for our shareholders."</blockquote>It's hard to expect anything good from this deal. If you're wondering why:
<br>
<br>
<blockquote>EA is often criticized for buying smaller development studios primarily for their intellectual property assets, and then making the developers produce mediocre games on these same franchises. ... EA is also criticized for shutting down its acquired studios after a poorly performing game. </blockquote>
<br>
<br>
Thanks, Stargelman & Hellraiser
<br>
<br>
Edit: So far the reaction is very negative:
<br>
<br>
<blockquote><a href=http://kotaku.com/gaming/ea/ea-buys-bioware-pandemic-309937.php>Kotaku</a>
<br>
<br>
This can't be! Not BioWare!
<br>
...
<br>
Noooooooooooooooooooooo!
<br>
...
<br>
This is truly, a sad day for the gaming industry and gamers. Before this I still had faith that we'd see at least a few more good western RPGs, but now even that seems like a far away dream knowing how EA usually works.
<br>
<br>
On other news, Mass Effect is now multiplatform, with a mobile phone version arriving in early 2008!
<br>
<br>
<a href=http://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2906>RPG Watch</a>
<br>
<br>
"Oh my god, EA wants to make RPGs again...
<br>
...
<br>
This is the worst gaming news in years.
<br>
I hope all of the Bioware staff leave to form another RPG company. They could do a share listing, I could buy shares, cool games made, price goes up, everyone's happy. Hey - I can dream.
<br>
...
<br>
Goodbye Dragon Age.
<br>
<br>
<a href=http://www.bluesnews.com/cgi-bin/board.pl?action=viewthread&threadid=81767>Blues News</a>
<br>
<br>
Yeah, that sucks.
<br>
<br>
Is there a studio they haven't fragmented, alienated their developers, or entirely killed off after acquiring them?
<br>
...
<br>
My first response to this headline was quite literally:
<br>
<br>
"Noooooo." In kind of a groan stylee. This is just shit.
<br>
...
<br>
It is really sad.
<br>
<br>
And f*ck EA. It may take fifty years, but I cannot wait until EA finally gets burned for always pushing out its licensed crap, buying and then burning companies into the ground, and stifling innovation.
<br>
<br>
F*ck EA. </blockquote>Indeed.
<br>

 

[inwoker]

So maybe good people like dgaider will leave to Obsidian?

 

[Monolith]

The golden days of Bioware are probably over.

 

[Amasius]

So maybe good people like dgaider will leave to Obsidian?

I've heard Iron Tower is hiring.

 

[Fyz]

yay

 

[Vault Dweller]

InXile (Brian Fargo) has the Wasteland license and is working on a sequel.

 

[Risine]

Sad news!!! Hope we will see a good Dragon Age anyway.
EA should have bought Beteshda instead

 

[OSK]

This is like some sort of bad joke.

 

[Elhoim]

This is like some sort of bad joke.

Yeah...

 

[Bossman]

Like I said over on the other thread dedicated to this disaster, stands to reason that those $620 million gave EA +100 Diplomacy during the negotiations.

I'm gonna need some serious Tibetan training in order to prepare myself for the deluge of KotORs, Mass Effects and Dragon Ages...

...

...

Fuck me, this isn't even funny.

P.S: Yeah, I liked KotOR very much, but that doesn't mean I want to see a new version every fucking year :evil:

 

[Sovy Kurosei]

This doesn't sound good.

 

[Fyz]

InXile (Brian Fargo) has the Wasteland license and is working on a sequel.

I know.
I just had the urge to make a poor attempt at a joke as the words EA and RPG came to my mind.

 

[Grandpa Gamer]

Must be a failure of the free market or something...

 

[Briosafreak]

Origin, Bullfrog, Westwood...

 

[Hamster]

Yes, the times when Bioware made my favourite games is long gone, their recent projects are pretty uninspiring but, fuck me, i still feel so sad about this shit...

 

[Deleted member 7219]

I felt like screaming when I read the news. Melodramatic I know, but Bioware is a company I feel very strongly about.

This is terrible, terrible news. Bioware no longer independent, bought by EA? As others have said, great developers have been shut down by stupid, large companies. Black Isle, Westwood.... now being totally under EA's control is a real threat to Bioware's future.

We can kiss goodbye to future, quality PC RPG titles. EA will almost certainly put emphasis on creating more casual console games. Sonic and Mass Effect will be what EA will concentrate on. I really hope David Gaider, Drew Karpyshyn and Ferret Baudouin, J.E. Sawyer and the rest move to Obsidian and stay independent.

 

[Pegultagol]

Now Bioware will get the taste of what it feels to be driven solely by market requirements and severe restrictions of their creative freedom. This is one of the most unfortunate decisions to be made in recent history. Bioware will soon cease to exist and be renamed to EA North or EA Edmonton or whatever faceless sterile corporate imagery that EA can regurgitate for the enshrinement of its new crown jewel. It also probably means that Dragon Age will go multi-platform: froths at mouth and falls over.

 

[SlyDrak]

--

 

[Ratty]

My sympathies to BioWare. EA taking over an independent (or, in their case, "independent") game development enterprise is a certain death sentence, and there is no reason whatsoever why BioWare's fate should be different from that of Origin, Bullfrog, Maxis, Westwood, DICE...

Then again, my esteem for BioWare and their feeble efforts in the field of CRPG design has always been rather low, so their inevitable demise won't exactly make my list of top 100 most tragic events ever.

Yeah, I liked KotOR very much, but that doesn't mean I want to see a new version every fucking year :evil:

You do realize that Lucas Arts owns KotOR? As in not BioWare and especially not EA?

Now Bioware will get the taste of what it feels to be driven solely by market requirements and severe restrictions of their creative freedom.

I'm afraid BioWare have already had that particular taste. In fact, I'd say that for a while now they have been guzzling from that well with eagerness of dehydrated waterbucks.

 

[Joe Krow]

I was going to rant about how lame it is to put fuck in a news title but- FUCK! There is no other way to put it.

It will be fun to see the effect extreme greed and mediocrity has on the company.

I'm just hoping the payola gets rolled over into a nice startup company (or two). Take the money and run boys. Godspeed.

 

[Vault Dweller]

I really hope David Gaider, Drew Karpyshyn and Ferret Baudouin, J.E. Sawyer and the rest move to Obsidian and stay independent.

Sawyer was never with Bio. He went to Midway after leaving BIS and then "returned" to Obsidian, taking over NWN2 development.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

I really hope David Gaider, Drew Karpyshyn and Ferret Baudouin, J.E. Sawyer and the rest move to Obsidian and stay independent.

Sawyer was never with Bio. He went to Midway after leaving BIS and then "returned" to Obsidian, taking over NWN2 development.

I stand (or rather, sit) corrected.

 

[KreideBein]

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_i ... tory=15833

[EA CFO Warren Jenson] noted that the two firms will bring 10 franchises to market in the next 6 years, and more expansion into the MMO space was planned.

That didn't take long.

 

[Ion Flux]

I hear Donald Rumsfeld is EA's new CEO.

 

[aries202]

I really, really didn't see this coming. I was shocked and awed at the same time. Then I got sincerely mad :twisted: :evil: and felt betrayed by a company I have trusted for 10 or more years to deliver some of the best story driven (rpg) games in the world.

It can be true that Bioware, especially lately with Jade Empire and possible Mass Effect, too, have cut corners and sold out to the mass market and mainstream gaming market.
However, the choices, the stories and characters in Mass Effect and Jade Empire are still very risqué, I think. In Jade Empire, you do a threesome and in Mass Effect there a 4-6 discreete love and sex scenes.

Do you really think that EA is going to allow Bioware (or EA Edmonton) to show a sideboob or a heated passionate kiss between two women. Of course, not. EA is all about playing it safe, churning out the same game year after year after year. On the plus side, the Mass Effect and Dragon Age franchices will probably go on forever - or untill EA decides that it has milked Bioware for all its profits worth. And then they
WILL close the studio down, just like they did with Bullfrog, Westwood and Origin.

If Bioware needed money, I can understand that. However, selling the company to evil emp, I mean EA, just to get some quick money is a very short term decision. The long term decision would be, of course, to make sure that Bioware is able to continue as big independent developer of games, making sure that Bioware is still around 20 years or so from now. Selling out to EA makes this less likely.

And I'm pretty sure that EA takes a quick look at Dragon Age and the Sonic RPG and says 'sorry guys, these games are not marketable enough. Make them into sims or sports games or mmo games, and then we can talk or maybe an action console game, say like Halo 3'. When the games then do not sell as well as EA expects, then EA will have n excuse for giving Bioware the axe

So solong Bioware. It was nice knowing you

/aries202