Bioware is fucked
Bioware is fucked
Company News - posted by Vault Dweller on Thu 11 October 2007, 23:45:52
Tags: BioWareElectronic Arts, the bastion of shitty design and even shittier development and business practices, is about to acquire Bioware:
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.
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.
Pandemic Studios and BioWare Corp. employ roughly 800 people across four studios located in Edmonton, Canada; Los Angeles; Austin; and Brisbane, Australia.
"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."It's hard to expect anything good from this deal. If you're wondering why:
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.
Thanks, Stargelman & Hellraiser
Edit: So far the reaction is very negative:
Kotaku
This can't be! Not BioWare!
...
Noooooooooooooooooooooo!
...
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.
On other news, Mass Effect is now multiplatform, with a mobile phone version arriving in early 2008!
RPG Watch
"Oh my god, EA wants to make RPGs again...
...
This is the worst gaming news in years.
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.
...
Goodbye Dragon Age.
<a href=http://www.bluesnews.com/cgi-bin/board.pl?action=viewthread&threadid=81767>Blues News[/url]
Yeah, that sucks.
Is there a studio they haven't fragmented, alienated their developers, or entirely killed off after acquiring them?
...
My first response to this headline was quite literally:
"Noooooo." In kind of a groan stylee. This is just shit.
...
It is really sad.
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.
F*ck EA.Indeed.
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.
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.
Pandemic Studios and BioWare Corp. employ roughly 800 people across four studios located in Edmonton, Canada; Los Angeles; Austin; and Brisbane, Australia.
"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."
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.
Thanks, Stargelman & Hellraiser
Edit: So far the reaction is very negative:
Kotaku
This can't be! Not BioWare!
...
Noooooooooooooooooooooo!
...
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.
On other news, Mass Effect is now multiplatform, with a mobile phone version arriving in early 2008!
RPG Watch
"Oh my god, EA wants to make RPGs again...
...
This is the worst gaming news in years.
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.
...
Goodbye Dragon Age.
<a href=http://www.bluesnews.com/cgi-bin/board.pl?action=viewthread&threadid=81767>Blues News[/url]
Yeah, that sucks.
Is there a studio they haven't fragmented, alienated their developers, or entirely killed off after acquiring them?
...
My first response to this headline was quite literally:
"Noooooo." In kind of a groan stylee. This is just shit.
...
It is really sad.
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.
F*ck EA.
