Bioware to focus on PC games

[Vault Dweller]

Well, not really.

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/20/biowa ... velopment/

Mass Effect creator BioWare likes console development. In fact, it would like to do more of it – on more platforms – so implies Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood project lead Mark Darrah in an interview with Gamasutra.

"We're looking into Wii and PSP as a company," Darrah revealed, although "nothing's been decided." BioWare is also intent on broadening its portfolio, Darrah says.

 

[Shota Shernokavich]

We're looking into Wii

the fuck?

 

[Kingston]

I need one cc of kc's :frowningatmonitor: pic, stat!

 

[Volourn]

This isn't news. BIO has been saying stuff like this for years. BIo never claimed to be a one machine company. They never planneed to be PC exclusive, or xbox exclusive, or whatever.

 

[Fat Dragon]

Not that big of deal, really.

 

[Brother None]

The Wii is the best platform for RPGs anyway.

I mean, how can you pretend to be your character if you don't swing your arm when he swings his? Immersion.

 

[Shota Shernokavich]

That's actually why I didn't finish Zelda. That, and the really shitty main character. If he's meant to be your 'link' to the world of Zelda, why the fuck can't you do character customization?

 

[Jasede]

Yeah okay.

 

[Shota Shernokavich]

 

[Fat Dragon]

That's actually why I didn't finish Zelda. That, and the really shitty main character. If he's meant to be your 'link' to the world of Zelda, why the fuck can't you do character customization?

Isn't it obvious? You're suppose to "pretend", just like in Oblivion. Immersion.

 

[Castanova]

Fallout 3 Collector's Edition should ship with a blue jumpsuit.

 

[Xor]

Fallout 3 Collector's Edition should ship with a working suit of power armor.

 

[spiwak]

That's actually why I didn't finish Zelda. That, and the really shitty main character. If he's meant to be your 'link' to the world of Zelda, why the fuck can't you do character customization?

Because it's not an RPG?

 

[Shota Shernokavich]

Because it's not an RPG?

I know several non-RPG's that have character customization.

 

[Jasede]

Look, Shota. Zelda - while it's damnable that it's always the same - is -always- about a green-clothed boy in a silly hat saving Zelda. He'll -always- find a Boomerang, Bow & Arrow and a Hookshot as well as Bombs and fight Ganon in the end. It's... traditional. Some don't like Nintendo for that, but I can tell you, if they changed anything at all in this formula there'd be blood when it comes to Zelda.

 

[Xor]

Customization: the One True path of game design.

 

[thesheeep]

I wouldn't have problems with games like The Witcher or MotB (or Mount&Blade or AoD - downloadable content, see Wii) coming out for consoles.
But IMHO it will take at least one additional console generation until we see things like Gamersgate, etc. for them.

Developing for consoles is alot easier anyway... or so I've heard.

I mean... there will always be PC games, but it will become a niche market more and more, no way to change that. Better adjust to new platforms asap and start developing good games for them.

 

[Kraszu]

Actually there can be more quality games on PC in future if low budget games kick inn (if you don't mean AAA grapchics by that). I mean games that cost >500k$ (~100E or so) to make. Sure GC2 or SOASE didn't sell as good as popular console title but they cost fraction of the money to advertise/make.

As for NDP those are only for USA digital and no walmart. How big is PC games market in Germany alone? E is worth 50% more then $. I had read that for example Deus Ex sold more copies outside of USA.

 

[Destroid]

You need to add UK, Germany, France, Spain and Italy together to get the same size market as the US.

And people wonder why they won the war.

 

[mahdi]

In ten years, the only surviving PC genres will be flight sims, racing sims, MMOs, and bejeweled.

 

[Azrael the cat]

You need to add UK, Germany, France, Spain and Italy together to get the same size market as the US.

And people wonder why they won the war.

'They' won the war? Even most US historians say that Russia won WW2 for the allies (or Germany's stupidity for trying to invade russia). Russian history is pretty amusing - all the different sub-cultures seem to hate each other and keep on periodically fighting each other...until each time that an outside force is dumb enough to set foot in the country, in which case they band together and pwn them before going back to killing each other.

That, and the sheer ruthlessness of their tactics on the Eastern front went beyond anything the western allies dreamt of. Even though Stalingrad and St Petersburg were what eventually killed the German army, many historians put Kiev as what broke them mentally. The Russians wired every street and almost every building of that city with explosives, and repeatedly blew up their own men just to take down three times as many Germans. They would place a couple of guys camping inside the door on the ground floor to delay the germans getting inside, then a couple more guarding the stairs and windows on each floor, with most the killing being done by a sniper on each roof. The idea of having guys inside and putting the sniper onto the roof was that the germans had to actually send a decent number of troops into the building to get at them. And when the troops finally reached the sniper the russians would detonate the building. Multiply that over a city, and you can see why when they reached stalingrad they were shitting themselves so badly that they delayed entering until they could get more support, which gave the russians time to reinforce and led to the well-known 'oh shit we're still in russia and winter has arrived' problem that killed them off like Napolean before them...


Back on topic of comparable value of US v european markets - agreed (hey, try living in Aus - game companies barely know we exist) but if China keeps on its course of rapid-modernisation the US market won't be worth a minor chinese province...

 

[Lumpy]

This isn't news.

The majority of threads in General RPG Discussion aren't news anyway, so what's your point?

 

[pkt-zer0]

Well, Bioware's recent games seem to fit better on consoles, no surprise here. More money and lower expectations would naturally draw them there.

Sure GC2 or SOASE didn't sell as good as popular console title but they cost fraction of the money to advertise/make.

GC2 "cost less than a million, and generated an eight-digit revenue", if Brad Wardell is to be believed. A worst-case estimate is a 900% profit margin, which seems pretty good to me. The artificially inflated development costs and the costs associated with the classical retail channel seem to cut into that profit quite heavily.

I had read that for example Deus Ex sold more copies outside of USA.

Crysis comes to mind, too. 86K sold copies in the US, a million worldwide, IIRC.

In ten years, the only surviving PC genres will be flight sims, racing sims, MMOs, and bejeweled.

You forgot Starcraft.

 

[Texas Red]

"Well, Bioware's recent games seem to fit better on consoles, no surprise here. More money and lower expectations would naturally draw them there"

Except Bioware's most selling games are BG and NWN. Both NWN and BG didn't have next gen grafix.

 

[Jasede]

Do you have any figures to back up this?