Interview Bioware acquisition Q&A

[Drakron]

I am not going to defend Chris Roberts but damn it, WC IV was good.

You trying Garriott ... well Ultima VIII was under EA and I know Ultima IX was more that just under EA, the real "killer" of Origin was the cash cow know as Ultima Online, the first of the modern MMORPGs.

 

[Jeff Graw]

The demise of the wing commander series was the due to Chris Roberts wanting to be George Lucas, not the EA Sith demanding dumbing down.

I'm afraid that you're very wrong. Wing Commander didn't suck until Prophecy, which Chris Roberts wasn't a part of. And in case you bring up Freelancer, Roberts left that game early in development. As for EA not acting like evil sith...

For me, the most memorable aspect of working on Wing Commander Prophecy was that it was the first WC game of the post-Chris Roberts era. In my opinion, Chris had gotten a bad rap from Electronic Arts, as well as internally at Origin, for "overspending" on Wing Commander 4. It was a very expensive project (over $10,000,000 I think), but it still garnered a profit for EA, just not what they had projected. It seemed to me that the heads at Origin, including the new WC producers, wanted to change up the overall look and feel of the game as much as possible without straying too far, all in an attempt to distance themselves from the Chris Roberts production values, which I thought were very successful. This revamping even came down to the music, as I was told by the new executive producer and his henchmen to make the music sound as little like Wing Commander as possible.

-George Oldziey

 

[obediah]

Are you blind or have you not been reading the press releases and discussion? Bioware didn't CHOOSE TO JOIN ANYONE. They were bought out.

Real life isn't some Kids in the Hall sketch where EA ran in with swords and captured Bioware. Bioware chose to join Elevation Partners. They either signed their destiny over to the suits then or they had a say in the EA sale and agreed. Assuming that Elevation had control then the financial factors are different. Was Elevation worried about the profitability of Bioware and looking to sell, or did EA want Bioware so bad they made an offer Elevation couldn't refuse?

True. We also can't forget EA's part in killing the space sim genre (canceling all in-development Wing Commander titles) after Interplay dropped the ball (marketing and sales wise) on Freespace 2.

I hate EA. But holy fuck, a company can't kill a genre. Anyone is entitled to make a space-sim game anytime they want. It's not like EA has a team of highly trained assassins around the world to make sure no one makes a good game (although they have been guilty of trying to sabotage the competition rather than letting their games compete).

It's simple. Not many people like space-sim games, and the ones that do are critical as fuck, and writing good games is hard and risky. The only person that is going to make that investment is someone that cares more about seeing a good space-sim than their money. Good luck with that.

Of all the hundreds of gaming companies that have been, there isn't a single long term success story of a studio focusing on putting out good games. Even Spiderweb Software, the Indy example of success is frank about sticking with their known formula out of financial necessity.

 

[Volourn]

"BioWare got the name from Baldur's Gate series"

Wrong. They got their name from being good developers, and nmaking games people want to play. Most companies who make D&D games tend not to gain even half the success BIO has.


"Yeah, the reason that Bioware is joining EA is that EA owns a significant enough portion of Bioware stock to make Bioware join EA."

This is one of the few times Drakron even tells the turth. BIO is (was) a privately owned company. There's no stock to buy so it can't be taken over in a 'hostile' manner.


"No, it was not ... making top 10 in the Xbox list during the dry season is easy as hell, it did not preformed as expected, it was a big disappointment."

Bullshit. Both MS, and BIO have stated repeatedly that they were happy with JE's perfromance both financially and critically. JE was so successful that it even was ported. If JE had bombed, it would have been buried. Of course, it didn't do mega sales; but after 6 months of release on xbox only it had sold around 600k copies. I'm sure it's over 1 million now.


"Feel free to prove me wrong but I need proof and not just your word for it ..."

Feel free to prove me wrong but I need proof and not just your word for it ...



R00fles!

 

[obediah]

The demise of the wing commander series was the due to Chris Roberts wanting to be George Lucas, not the EA Sith demanding dumbing down.

I'm afraid that you're very wrong.

No, he is very right. Wing Commander died because they overspent. EA bought it's corpse and tried to do some hokey shit with it to milk some cash, but Wing Commander was already dead by that point.

 

[MetalCraze]

Volourn is bioware fanboy

They got their name from being good developers, and nmaking games people want to play

EA too making games retards want to play. So what?

 

[Volourn]

"Volourn is bioware fanboy"

Is that your best cumback? Please wipe the white stuff off your mouth.


"EA too making games retards want to play."

Proof, please.

 

[Jeff Graw]

I hate EA. But holy fuck, a company can't kill a genre.

I said that they 'took part' in killing the genre. The death of space sims as a major genre had two parts:

1. Very disappointing Freespace 2 sales, owing to Interplay marketing and distribution fuckery.
2. Other companies canceling their products because of said sales.

EA's role in the death of the genre was canceling all of their Wing Commander titles in development. Freespace 2 sales are even given as primary reasons for cancellation in EA documents.

 

[MetalCraze]

Proof, please.

NFS?

About the white stuff. No sorry - I don't try to make Bioware to feel that good as someone.

 

[Drakron]

No, he is very right. Wing Commander died because they overspent. EA bought it's corpse and tried to do some hokey shit with it to milk some cash, but Wing Commander was already dead by that point.

Ha ha ... NO.

WC III was done under EA, same with WC IV and no, they were not "brought" since EA got the company around WCrivateer time (a excellent game ), I think the first "bomb" was WC:Academy that was some kind of multiplayer game.

I do know WC sales figures, I do not think it did good and in wake of the poor reception of U:IX ... well it was then EA pull the plug on everything besides U:O but they were the ones that fucked up with U:IX and WC.

WC died because EA failure to manage the series, the same with Ultima.

 

[Jeff Graw]

The demise of the wing commander series was the due to Chris Roberts wanting to be George Lucas, not the EA Sith demanding dumbing down.

I'm afraid that you're very wrong.

No, he is very right. Wing Commander died because they overspent. EA bought it's corpse and tried to do some hokey shit with it to milk some cash, but Wing Commander was already dead by that point.

EA bought it's corpse? So you're saying that Wing Commander was dead by Wing Commander 2?

Wing Commander died when the last game came out shitty and all of the other products were canceled. Chris Roberts' overspending is only indirectly responsible.

 

[Jeff Graw]

WC III was done under EA, same with WC IV and no, they were not "brought" since EA got the company around WCrivateer time (a excellent game ), I think the first "bomb" was WC:Academy that was some kind of multiplayer game.

Academy was actually the 'simulated dogfight' one and was indeed the first bomb. Nobody really cared though because it was just a cheap spin off. Armada was the multiplayer game and didn't do good because it was too far ahead of its time and people weren't ready for an almost purely multiplayer game.

 

[Oarfish]

I was disappointed by WC4, it had way too much shitty FMV. Something that blighted games for years. Nothing like paying for 8 CDs of sub straight to video acting. Privateer was the highpoint of the series for me.

The fact the FMV Kilrathi looked like:

Didn't help with WC3 either.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

HONEY MONSTER!

 

[Jeff Graw]

I was disappointed by WC4, it had way too much shitty FMV.

Say what you will, but you'd be hard pressed to find better FMV (in significant quantities) in a video game.

 

[Jaime Lannister]

Re: Bioware acquisition Q&A

Time for a <a>HISTARY LESON!</a>

Since Westwood continued to make good games for about three more years (Red Alert 2 being the last good one) I'd say Bioware has until 2010 before their games become crap.

 

[Risine]

Here's an excellent 2 years old article from The Escapist about EA-Origin relationships - with garriot,spector and many others comments - ... and the kind of story that probably awaits bioware in the next few years :
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/article ... -of-Origin

 

[Morbus]

Re: Bioware acquisition Q&A

Time for a <a>HISTARY LESON!</a>

Since Westwood continued to make good games for about three more years (Red Alert 2 being the last good one) I'd say Bioware has until 2010 before their games become crap.

50 they die before that.

 

[fastpunk]

That's the thing about Bio, they were an independent developer, and a big one. I don't know why this happened, what are the doctors hoping to achieve by doing this? I mean, they have enough resources to work on multiple projects at once, they were growing pretty fast too and I doubt they had any financial problems (did they? ). You work for over a decade on building something and then you just sell it, all of it...

 

[aries202]

I have been both to joystig, gamasutra, the bioware news discussion and the bioware off topic forums and my poor eyes are beginning to look like this I've also been to pandemic forums where the reactions are the same as on the bioware forums, this means: mostly negative.

Anyway, the bioware devs. are apparently not that worried about it so that must mean that they know something we don't know : Hopefully, it is so

I don'øt think Ray&Greg have run out of money (yet). Bioware seems to be fiscally & financially very well run company, making games, releasing them, and making some money from them.

The most logical things to happen is this: Microsoft
has told Ray&Greg that they don't want to fund any further Mass Effect games anymore as they, MS, return to making Operating Systems. Ray & Greg then of course need to find a new publisher so who do they turn to. A man they (think? they) can trust, namely John Ritticiello of EA. Oddly, enough this is the same John R. who for the past 2½ years or so were the CEO of Elevation Partners that owned Bioware/Pandemic.

In the gamespot interview as well as the gamasutra interview Ray&Greg kind of slides under the questions. Pandemic does not. This makes mi think that Pandemic maybe was the driving force in the merger( or take-over) since Josh Rednick in the
gamesutra interview basically says that Pandemic just would want to make games, not always be looking for a publisher as this takes a lot of time, time that goes from making games.

It could well be that Ray&Greg thought the same, especially if MS said to Bioware management that it will not fund any more Mass Effect games. Then strategically partnering up with EA really is the best move, Bioware could make as this ensures Bioware and Pandemic will alsways have a publisher for their games as well as Bioware's survival as a game developer for a very very long time.

Technically it is correct that EA bought the VG Holding that owned Elevation Partners who in turn
owned Bioware/Pandemic, but make no mistake about this, both John Resnik and Greg Bul? as well as Ray & Greg have a seat on the Elevation's boards of directors along with say Bono. I'm pretty sure they have taken a vote on this - and that they see this as the best move for the companies, both business wise and strategically e.g. to basically sell their own game developer house to EA. For some reason the Bioware devs. still keep calling it a merger.

There's another option to consider: Ray&Greg wanted to make Mass Effect and Dragon Age as well as some other games multi-platform, but Microsoft said no. Then Ray&Greg said 'no' to MS. And found another publisher who just happens to be willing to give Bioware a lot of money - if & when EA is allowed to buy Bioware. And then we are back to the first option's reasons for this to happen: Ray&Greg want to ensure that Bioware will have a publisher and that BIoware will stay in busineess for a very long long time...

/aries202

 

[Morbus]

Ray&Greg want to ensure that Bioware will have a publisher and that BIoware will stay in busineess for a very long long time...

Which is surely not this case though...

 

[Ladonna]

Anyone know if the Doctors are planning on sticking around? Maybe they have gotten sick of it all and want to retire to the caribbean...

 

[AlanC9]

I was disappointed by WC4, it had way too much shitty FMV.

Say what you will, but you'd be hard pressed to find better FMV (in significant quantities) in a video game.

Better than some actual movies, even. Certainly better than the Wing Commander film. Which is kind of a mystery when you think about it.

I actually didn't like WC4's gameplay engine much. Playable, but it didn't feel much like Wing Commander. WCP was a return to form, though it suffers from being compared to Freespace.

 

[aries202]

Anyone know if the Doctors are planning on sticking around? Maybe they have gotten sick of it all and want to retire to the caribbean...

I think the good doctors are still planning to be around - for some time at least, and preferable for the long run, I think. What they don't know is that with this move they basically hand over financial (and creative?) control of company, Bioware, they started more than 15 years ago. And how great a relationship they have with the boss of EA and the President of EA won't matter much if Bioware/Pandemic doesn't deliver e.g. make every game a big market seller that will sell at least 3-4 mill. or better yet
4-6 mill units each time. Then the free market triumphantly re-opens -- and Bioware is kicked out of the fine EA company because they can't deliver a profit to the share and stockholders of EA.

It could, of course, also be that the good doctors were to be fired from the company they themselves started. I hope not, though...

 

[Kthan75]

Check this out:

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=29549

much of their past revenue came from games like Neverwinter Nights, Baldur's Gate, and the Star Wars games. The first two franchises are somewhat tired and are PC-centred, while the last one will likely not be licensed by EA going forward.

It's possible that either Neverwinter Nights or Baldur's Gate can be turned into MMOs, and both would likely do quite well