This would be true in most publisher/developer relationships. However in EA/Bioware this is completely false.
Bioware is 100% totally and wholly owned by EA. The only reason they even call it a "division" is to promote this kind of discussion exactly. There is no boundaries, you can be told to work on any project for EA, the division is meaningless.
The paychecks all come from EA, its EA direct deposit. For all intents and purposes, Bioware doesn't exist.
This myth that has floated around since Origin & Bioware and every other brand that was purchased, that your dear developers could create a perfect game if not for the evil EA overlords… is exactly that. A myth.
*source* first hand knowledge.
First of all, I appreciate an Intellectual debate with arguments backed by facts. This concept of "ownage" is a legal and financial term. Now let's discuss the internal human resource structure of EA and Bioware. Up to this point, Bioware still handle the recruitment at their own branches Bioware Edmonton, Bioware Austin, etc. Yeah I'm with you there about the payroll being controlled by EA, and the big decisions like opening or closing a branch of Bioware being made partially or wholly by EA. But EA isn't gonna interview these candidates, they don't post the openings specific role duties (despite the fact that they may control the number of openings). The kinds of talent acquired are explicitly dominated by Bioware alone, barring the instances where they are told to have a branch working on a MMO RTS or MOBA (C&C General 2 anyone?) so they'll have to acquire some talents based on those requirements. But beyond that all the creative decisions are made ultimately at Bioware. Otherwise EA can give these IP to any of its 30 or so studios--why not have DICE work on it, they have more knowledge about Glacier Engine which DA:I is based on. Bioware being working on it means EA still trust their artistic (debatable) visions.
My point is being the evil corp EA has been perceived as, they do not possess the creative capacity to directly manipulate any details regarding design and implementations. Whatever differences or frictions come out of these review scrum meetings involving Bioware and the pawns sent by their EA overlords, the instructions/requirements/comments are gonna be pretty vague and general, such as "we won't publish a game without any multi-player components in it, leader boards, half-assed co-op, trading cards games, I don't care, just give the players some multi-player experience, preferably where micro-transactions can be exploited", or "the animations and visual designs should be more exciting and coherent to our pop culture". They don't have the personnel to "call the shot" on details and implementation specifics like "having mandatory online class-based horde mode co-op in which the performance impact the outcome of your single-player games", or "an awesome button to loot, to attack, to make automated responses on the dialog wheel with emo icons, to turn enemy into red paste, to uninstall the game, blabla". These specifics still come from the dudes working at Bioware, and they are responsible for these decisions for better or worse. I never said they would make perfect games without the evil of EA, the products came before the acquisition can hardly be called perfect, but true, they at least they retain more artistic integrity. Saying "Oh Bioware/Origin was no more the day they became part of EA" is being cynical, and we all love doing that =D. But it's hardly the truth in technical terms, is it?
Back to the TopWare/Reality Pump issue, I think TopWare screwed over the latter for sure. They dump a irredeemable and abandoned project onto the poor Polish developer, slap on a deadline and expect to make some final quick cash grab before going down. Oh yeah, I bet TopWare was having financial difficulties by the time they asked Reality Pump to take over and they were fully aware nothing good can come out of this game. TopWare did it again later last year to make a second clumsy attempt of even more desperate money grubbing schemes. Their intention was crystal clear. I don't know why somebody can defend this game thinking it's a German-RPG. Made in Germany, this is not. Support franchises developed by German studios like Risen and Drakensang, dude, "they real, and they are spectacular". On the other hand, Raven's Cry doesn't even qualify as a bad game like Legend of Dawn, Realm of Arkania HD or Sacred 3. Those are bad, but they are still games. This Raven's Cry is just like a snuff film, a abomination from an honest Polish studio badly abused by their German publisher "owner". Disregarding all these facts and dead setting on a quest to defend it by accusing everyone else a German hater is just...below being cringeworthy.
Hah, looks like this debate has hit some serious heat at Just Cause level. Let's cool it down. Like I said, I appreciate intellectual debates with sane critique backed by facts, not personally attacks like "XXX knows nothing about game industry" or "XXX is a German hater".