Bioware is immortal

[La vie sexuelle]

I just read the reports from IGN - https://www.ign.com/articles/respaw...game-black-panther-and-iron-man-will-continue.

We've been hearing a lot about layoffs in the industry in recent months. This is an objective phenomenon that will outline character od video games development for the coming years. Overproduction, inflation, social confusion, all this adds up to a difficult situation. Cutting off less promising branches, or at least pruning them, is normal in corporate life.

However, Bioware, a studio that has been in an endless cycle of failures for ten years, seems to be carried along by the wave of its former fame, although from a rational point of view there is no indication that they will ever repeat their past successes. What's more, it's partly their fault that EA needs money. And yet, the studio not only has not been closed, but also seems untouchable.

I wonder what would have to happen for EA to finally deal with them? And the second question - how many more studies, often better ones, will they sacrifice so that this one can live?

 

[Riddler]

I just read the reports from IGN - https://www.ign.com/articles/respaw...ork-on-next-jedi-game-black-panther-and-iron- man-will-continue.

We've been hearing a lot about layoffs in the industry in recent months. This is an objective phenomenon that will outline character od video games development for the coming years. Overproduction, inflation, social confusion, all this adds up to a difficult situation. Cutting off less promising branches, or at least pruning them, is normal in corporate life.

However, Bioware, a studio that has been in an endless cycle of failures for ten years, seems to be carried along by the wave of its former fame, although from a rational point of view there is no indication that they will ever repeat their past successes. What's more, it's partly their fault that EA needs money. And yet, the studio not only has not been closed, but also seems untouchable.

I wonder what would have to happen for EA to finally deal with them? And the second question - how many more studies, often better ones, will they sacrifice so that this one can live?

Didn't they fire a bunch of people like 9 months ago, among them all their senior writers?

 

[La vie sexuelle]

Maybe, but note the difference between independent studio decisions and a grand purge project made by a sovereign. Besides, these smaller studios also fired someone, probably more people. And yet this Bioware is still alive.

 

[Hellraiser]

Maybe, but note the difference between independent studio decisions and a grand purge project made by a sovereign.

Yes, the difference is they could tell the suits to fuck off since they just trimmed the fat and they actually might agree. Or most likely it was the same suits that made the call in both cases. Subsidiaries don't do such things on their own, at the very least someone from the parent (or grand-grand-grant-parent depending how long the clusterfuck stretches) company bitched they need to cut costs and pushed bioware's upper management to do it.

Furthermore these types of layoffs aren't a thing that when it pops into an execs head they call the underlings and say they need to fire a few hundred by the end of the month and it is done just like that just as they say by the end of the month. There's at least a few weeks (and a lot more if dealing with subsidiaries in countries with actual functioning employee protection laws and unions) of back and forth bargaining and clarification between the various vassals and sovereigns, before global HR gets the green light to proceed and can put down a date on when the firing can take place.

So if anything this implies the situation in bioware was so bad the suits needed to act sooner ahead of whatever other plans they had. Or possibly that it was easiest to fire the lot in bioware first because of some other factors like they anyway axed a project or something.

 

[Infinitron]

Wait until Dragon Age Dreadwolf is out before saying this.

 

[std::namespace]

immoral

 

[Ryzer]

Wait until Dragon Age Dreadwolf is out before saying this.

Based Dragon age Dreadwolf?

 

[La vie sexuelle]

Wait until Dragon Age Dreadwolf is out before saying this.

Sounds reasonable, but wasn't that what people said after Andromeda?

Maybe, but note the difference between independent studio decisions and a grand purge project made by a sovereign.

Yes, the difference is they could tell the suits to fuck off since they just trimmed the fat and they actually might agree. Or most likely it was the same suits that made the call in both cases. Subsidiaries don't do such things on their own, at the very least someone from the parent (or grand-grand-grant-parent depending how long the clusterfuck stretches) company bitched they need to cut costs and pushed bioware's upper management to do it.

Furthermore these types of layoffs aren't a thing that when it pops into an execs head call and say they need to fire a few hundred by the end of the month and it is done just like that just as they say by the end of the month. There's at least a few weeks (and a lot more if dealing with subsidiaries in countries with actual functioning employee protection laws and unions) of back and forth bargaining and clarification between the various vassals and sovereigns, before global HR gets the green light to proceed and can put down a date on when the firing can take place.

So if anything this implies the situation in bioware was so bad the suits needed to act sooner ahead of whatever other plans they had. Or possibly that it was easiest to fire the lot in bioware first because of some other factors like they anyway axed a project or something.

If I were to explain it somehow, it would be the psychological effect that the more resources we put into something, the harder it is for us to stop. In this case, the entire EA structure is involved. Perhaps the removal of Bioware would be a shock for the entire company, not only financially, but also personally.

That's why I think that after the failure of Dragon Age: Deadname, their next internal explanation will be "BUT MASS EFFECT 5 WILL CERTAINLY BE A SUCCESS".

immoral

Yes.

 

[Chippy]

Heh. '2024' Modern day Bioware apparently making a sequel to the original trilogy. It's almost like Star Wars under Kathleen Kennedy. If they weren't so edgy and full of themselves, I bet they're just aching to mkae it a full on porn game to rake in the dollars. And they'd probably still end up with Wrex's head up Garuss's ass and not a decent shot of Liara's boobs or Miranda's ass in the whole thing.

 

[Tyrr]

Wait until Dragon Age Dreadwolf is out before saying this.

Bioware getting what they deserve:
Getting raped to death by the Dickwolf.

 

[Infinitron]

Sounds reasonable, but wasn't that what people said after Andromeda?

The gaming industry was in a different state then. But Andromeda did actually more-or-less kill the studio that made it (BioWare Montreal).

 

[Modron]

Bioware is one flop away from getting put out to pasture.

 

[BosanskiSeljak]

With Mass Effect 1/Dragon Age, Bioware had the choice to either improve on those systems and make a truly great game, or go the casual route. They chose the latter. I've been wanting them to flop since ME2.

 

[StrongBelwas]

Bioware has gone from EA being so proud of them they were plastering their name on random studios( like the one making that F2P Command and Conquer game that went nowhere) to being just the main Edmonton office and the Austin branch(Which has quietly moved on from The Old Republic.) They can probably tank Dreadwolf underperforming (That was always the unloved child compared to Mass Effect) with Austin being closed or more layoffs, but if the Mass Effect return bombs it is probably over for them. Best case scenario if that happens, they became a support studio for other EA titles.

 

[Tyranicon]

Dreadwolf is Deadwolf on arrival.

Everyone's going to be comparing it to BG3, which it will more than likely come up as dreadfully lackluster in comparison. Judging from the leaked footage it's a lame console action game from 2008.

I wouldn't be surprised if BioWare has been in a continual state of panic since BG3's launch.

 

[Iucounu]

Could be that "Bioware" is nowadays just a brand name EA likes to retain for marketing the associated game franchises, while the actual studios (or the people working there) get replaced on a regular basis? So whenever EA thinks it's time for a new Bioware game, they just found a new generic studio to make it, and gives that studio the temporary name "Bioware".

 

[scytheavatar]

Maybe, but note the difference between independent studio decisions and a grand purge project made by a sovereign. Besides, these smaller studios also fired someone, probably more people. And yet this Bioware is still alive.

EA has been laying the groundwork to close BioWare ASAP........ taking TOR away from the studio is removing a sizeable funding source for the studio. And the purge of senior writers shows that no one is thinking about BioWare's long term plans. The recently canceled Mandalorian game shows how lowly EA thinks of single player experiences and it makes little sense for them to persist in BioWare if they fuck up Dreadwolf.

 

[agris]

If I were to explain it somehow, it would be the psychological effect that the more resources we put into something, the harder it is for us to stop.

This indeed exists and has a few different flavors, sunk cost fallacy and escalation of commitment

 

[Vorark]

So whenever EA thinks it's time for a new Bioware game, they just found a new generic studio to make it, and gives that studio the temporary name "Bioware".

Exactly what happened to Maxis. All studios were eventually closed down and then turned into a brand to be conjured up when convenient.

 

[NotSweeper]

I wouldn't be surprised if BioWare has been in a continual state of panic since BG3's launch.

This is probably one of the only things I'll give to BG3, the enormity of its success managed to send other devs into a "shit and piss my pants" panicked frenzy.
You love to see it.
It's still a horrible game, but I'm happy for its success.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

No such thing as immortality. Bioware's failures were mostly critical ones, not financial.

But I can see them getting closed if Dreadwolf bombs. But what's the realistic chance of that?

 

[Tyranicon]

But I can see them getting closed if Dreadwolf bombs. But what's the realistic chance of that?

Pretty good if the gameplay is ass or the writing quality dips (lol). Both are entirely plausible seeing how the quality of BioWare games have been in freefall for years.

The most optimistic outlook for the studio is that it can produce a good enough game to ride BG3's coattails (highly embarrassing since Larian was barely a blip on the radar during BioWare's golden age, and BG3 clearly imitates a lot of BioWarian character design).

The more realistic outlook is that they'll put out a mediocre game that skates by on its visual novel elements and barely manages to pay for its production.

Anything less than that and it bombs.

 

[scytheavatar]

No such thing as immortality. Bioware's failures were mostly critical ones, not financial.

But I can see them getting closed if Dreadwolf bombs. But what's the realistic chance of that?

People have been talking about how high Baldur's Gate 3's budget is but I bet it's only a fraction of what Dreadwolf costs. Considering how long Dreadwolf has been in development.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

No such thing as immortality. Bioware's failures were mostly critical ones, not financial.

But I can see them getting closed if Dreadwolf bombs. But what's the realistic chance of that?

People have been talking about how high Baldur's Gate 3's budget is but I bet it's only a fraction of what Dreadwolf costs. Considering how long Dreadwolf has been in development.

Otoh, I've never seen a Bioware game as buggy as BG3. Literally thousands of bug fixes since release. Bioware would have been severely scolded for that, while Larian gets a free pass for it's free-beta tester policy. I guess that also factors into cost considerations.

 

[La vie sexuelle]

Maybe, but note the difference between independent studio decisions and a grand purge project made by a sovereign. Besides, these smaller studios also fired someone, probably more people. And yet this Bioware is still alive.

EA has been laying the groundwork to close BioWare ASAP........ taking TOR away from the studio is removing a sizeable funding source for the studio. And the purge of senior writers shows that no one is thinking about BioWare's long term plans. The recently canceled Mandalorian game shows how lowly EA thinks of single player experiences and it makes little sense for them to persist in BioWare if they fuck up Dreadwolf.

And I'm telling you that after the defeat of Dreadwolf, their sectarian fans and the promise of a new Mass Effet will keep them going. Maybe as a consulting studio, but still.

If I were to explain it somehow, it would be the psychological effect that the more resources we put into something, the harder it is for us to stop.

This indeed exists and has a few different flavors, sunk cost fallacy and escalation of commitment

Ah, so that's what it's called in English. This is exactly what I was looking for.