EA: ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL

[Imperius]

It is the eve of Mass Effect 3's release, and I for one am rather giddy about being able to bed ano- err I mean, finish Shepard's story. I have high expectations for this game, and am hoping that it will be an epic conclusion to the main storyline.

However, that's not what I wanted to talk about.
I have noticed recently, that Bioware -praise be thy holy name- has started to...errr change.
Of course, you all have heard about Drew K. leaving Bioware, and a number of other staff members as well for various nebulous reasons that they won't discuss in public for the sake of professionalism.

Thus leads me to conjecture. I have heard rumors that alot of the Bioware peeps left the company because they felt it was "no longer theirs" and I have noticed an...increasing amount of practices are are very un-Biowarish (yes I invented a new word, call Websters).

First they went from Mass Effect 1 to Dragon Age, and the installment of DLC which is not in itself a bad thing, but the DLC's packages seem to be small, and are more expensive than they are worth (my opinion). Now, we speed up a few years to Mass Effect 3, and day one DLC.

Now, I personally am not one of those people who rage about this sort of thing, if they can get in the DLC early, that's great for them, put it on the disk and offer it as a preorder bonus.
But, this time around it's an extra $10 USD.

I raise my eyebrow at this, because this is not something I would expect from Bioware -holy be thy name-. This sort of business model of nickel and diming you to death, seems to be more on track with a company more like...oh, I-don't-know, EA.

Wait... isn't EA games Bioware's publisher?
-le gasp!-

(forgive the lulcatz, it was the best image I could find.x)

 

[evilneko]

Welcome to the real world.

This is EA's modus operandi and has been for quite some time. Acquire companies full of good people, then run them into the ground.

 

[Fr]anc[is]

You're a bit late to the party bro. EA owns Bioware.

 

[ResonanceSD]

anc[is]You're a bit late to the party bro. EA owns Bioware.

Pretty much this. Shareholders make decisions about how much longer people stay at a company, thus, EA are maximising RoI. Or trying to anyway. Notice how they ham-handedly handle every complaint? Yeah, shareholders are to blame.

Valve don't have that problem, notice how they manage to handle situations without everything going to hell all at once.

 

[Cid Silverwing]

EA has devoured and destroyed countless companies and their precious franchises and will continue to do so until they are sued out of business.

 

[isometry]

EA has been buying development studios and devouring their souls for almost two decades. There was never any question of "if" it would happen to bioware, only of "when."

Even though I didn't stop buying their games until after playing Mass Effect 2, I can see they've pretty much stagnated ever since KoTOR. It seems like instead of believing in what they had and developing it into something unique and awesome, they just look for more successful games to try and copy. When Bioware looks at Skyrim they don't think "wow they've been building towards this since Morrowind", they think "dragons = 10 million copies sold, those are the dragons we need in the next dragon age."

 

[isometry]

When Bioware looks at Skyrim they don't think "wow they've been building towards this since Morrowind", they think "dragons = 10 million copies sold, those are the dragons we need in the next dragon age."

Funny, I was thinking something more along the lines of this

It's fine you didn't like Skyrim, my point is just that it's more successful than any of Bioware's games, so EA definitely wants to copy from it. They even said so here:

BioWare: Next Dragon Age Will Draw From Skyrim
http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2011/12/dragon-age-3/

 

[Viridian]

The (subjectively) overpriced, day 1 dlc thing will go away when people stop paying for (subjectively) overpriced, day 1 dlc.

It makes me sad that that I can't see the above happening any time soon. ;A;

 

[Savagezion]

After the content that is the day 1 DLC of Mass Effect, it is hard to argue against your point. Add the fact that people are leaving Bioware suspiciously really makes it a pretty solid case. Really, the recent couple years of press releases point to that fact. I hate to use the term "sold out" here because it seems more a case of bought out. EA bought the Bioware for the logo, not the insight they held - although I am sure that wasn't the pitch thrown at Bioware upon the acquisition.

This is a shame, but it is one that happens all too often in the gaming world. Publishers hold most of the power in the business and they really don't care much about games, they mostly care about consumer trends which is why stuff that sells successfully get a ton of half-assed (low cost) rushed (hit the market while it is hot) clones.

 

[Dandark]

Yeah you may have heard about all of the rage and backlash gets from their fans. You know how a ot of their fans hate them now? EA is why.

EA do this a lot, they buy successful developers and then ruin them, and then fire them. They have already tried to stick the Bioware label on everything they can just to try and get as much out of their previous reputation as they can before the new one forms.

 

[Battleaxx90]

IMO, EA can drive themselves into the ground as much as they want... but ONLY when they make it so you don't need Origin to play ME3 on the PC. The quality (or lack thereof, but that's another thread) of the program is irrelevant to me; I am NOT downloading an entire friggin' game distribution system for one gorramn game, no matter how good it is. That's like buying a mansion and only using the swimming pool. I know that Origin's free, but c'mon. Seriously, EA. Get your head out of your collective asses.

 

[Therumancer]

It is the eve of Mass Effect 3's release, and I for one am rather giddy about being able to bed ano- err I mean, finish Shepard's story. I have high expectations for this game, and am hoping that it will be an epic conclusion to the main storyline.

However, that's not what I wanted to talk about.
I have noticed recently, that Bioware -praise be thy holy name- has started to...errr change.
Of course, you all have heard about Drew K. leaving Bioware, and a number of other staff members as well for various nebulous reasons that they won't discuss in public for the sake of professionalism.

Thus leads me to conjecture. I have heard rumors that alot of the Bioware peeps left the company because they felt it was "no longer theirs" and I have noticed an...increasing amount of practices are are very un-Biowarish (yes I invented a new word, call Websters).

First they went from Mass Effect 1 to Dragon Age, and the installment of DLC which is not in itself a bad thing, but the DLC's packages seem to be small, and are more expensive than they are worth (my opinion). Now, we speed up a few years to Mass Effect 3, and day one DLC.

Now, I personally am not one of those people who rage about this sort of thing, if they can get in the DLC early, that's great for them, put it on the disk and offer it as a preorder bonus.
But, this time around it's an extra $10 USD.

I raise my eyebrow at this, because this is not something I would expect from Bioware -holy be thy name-. This sort of business model of nickel and diming you to death, seems to be more on track with a company more like...oh, I-don't-know, EA.

Wait... isn't EA games Bioware's publisher?
-le gasp!-

(forgive the lulcatz, it was the best image I could find.x)

Related to some things I've said before, I do not think the issue with Bioware (so much as it exists) is one with the employees getting upset with the financial model. The business end of things has little to do with the developers when it comes to things like DLC. The big change with Bioware is that their MO up until this point has been to focus on one game and develop the heck out of it, throwing in everything they could, and polishing it to a high shine. With EA at the helm, calling the shots, they have been demanding Bioware grind out more and more games at a faster pace, not to mention putting them on the ToR project which was the most expensive thing EA has ever done and doubtlessly what they insisted Bioware focus most of it's attention on.

Bioware has increasingly become about it's franchises, not about it's development style, they have been holding all their franchises up in the air, to get them out one after another, and developing them alongside ToR which doubtlessly still takes up a lot of their effort as they work on fixes and new content.

It doesn't surprise me that developers who wanted to focus on a single game at a time and make sure it was as close to perfection as possible, don't like the change in direction. One thing about comparing say "Dragon Age: Origins" to "Dragon Age 2" is that Origins was apparently in the works before EA took over, and was the result of a lot of focused effort, where "Dragon Age 2" was produced at a time when it was made clear Bioware had it's attention and resources focused not just on it, but on ToR and Mass Effect 3 all at the same time.

I also seem to remember something about Bioware expanding it's staff, and one thing to consider is that a development team refers to specific people and talents. You can't just grab a bunch of people, even experienced ones, slap a patch/name on them and expect them to be the same thing. I think the actual Bioware personell in Bioware have become diluted among differant projects, even if they do still confer, and a lot of them still get their names on everything produced as a result.

Or basically I think it's about the development end of things itself if the stories about problems are true, not about what the marketing end of things decides to do.

 

[80Maxwell08]

Go look up Origin Systems and watch Spoony's Ultima Retrospective and everything will be unveiled. Seriously Bioware's currect record is nothing new at all when it comes to what EA does.

 

[hooksashands]

EA is the business equivalent of ebola virus. Think about it.

A virus is a parasite that attempts to replicate itself in the host, much the same way EA tries to duplicate financial wealth from a franchise. When a virus begins to multiply, it destroys cells in the host. It attempts to convert the host into itself, killing them in the process. It's a motive without a conscience.

Ebola: "Must propagate, must propagate..."
EA: "Buy rights, collect profit... Buy rights, collect profit..."

Enough. It's time to get out the flamethrowers and bleach.

 

[Canadish]

Bioware is just a puppet now. EA have named a whole boatload of their studio's "Bioware" because they KNOW Biodrones will eat anything they're presented with so long as it comes from Dear Leader.

 

[Rednog]

anc[is]You're a bit late to the party bro. EA owns Bioware.

Pretty much this. Shareholders make decisions about how much longer people stay at a company, thus, EA are maximising RoI. Or trying to anyway. Notice how they ham-handedly handle every complaint? Yeah, shareholders are to blame.

Valve don't have that problem, notice how they manage to handle situations without everything going to hell all at once.

The thing is that Valve is the statistical outlier out of every other developer out there. It just happened to be fortunate enough to create steam and make boatloads of money of it thus granting them a huge bankroll to fund their products on their own terms and not have to rely on anyone else for money.
Other developers don't have that choice and have to submit to publishers demands and even then they get enough money to pay their employees and a bit extra, but no where enough to fill their coffers and make the independent. Which eventually just leads them to being bought up by one publisher or another because it is easier just to own a developer and have direct control of what is being made and where funds are going instead of having someone come to you with an idea and blindly throwing cash at it.