BioWare - To Be Acquired by EA

GhanBuriGhan said:

Why the outcry? Bioware games have increasingly become formulaic at their own accord ever since BG2. Should go together well enough with what EA wants. After all, their formula sells.

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Exactly. EA obviously needed presence in the RPG arena, which seems to be having a bit of a resurgance (or continuing one) - certainly in Europe. EA tends to go with 'safe', and formulaic Bioware RPG/action cross-over fits perfectly.

No disrespect to Bioware - they've had a shrewd eye for licenses to exploit, and have made some market changing engines. Infact it's the latter I'm most concerned about - is it within EA's strategy to allow its companies to license their engines to other companies outside of the umbrella? Both Crytech and Bioware's engines are valuable (as is the one that powers the NFS games.. can't remember what it's called at the moment).

I really don't understand the outpouring of dramatics over this. BioWare are a business, a highly, massively successful, business, and as such they are of course going to be open to business moves which suit them. EA will provide a steady source of publishing for BioWare's games (which is particularly great for Dragon Age, as that has been indicated to be an on-going series) as well as umbrella funding and regular contracts to work on which will probably also allow BioWare to expand which means more hires.
EA gets a powerful RPG design studio under it's wing, so any RPGs they want to make, they know they've got people that can do them and do them well, which saves EA a ton of headaches I'm sure.

People just seem to forget that game design studios are businesses like any other. They don't want to live paycheque to paycheque, never knowing when their next contract will come up - they want solvency as much as anyone. And it's always been clear that BioWare have a big-business mentality, so entering into this deal with EA makes perfect sense.

The only thing that bothers me about it is that it's one more Canadian company being acquired by an American corporation. Irritating, but there it is, and I still don't think the sky is falling (well, not over this anyways!).

Gallifrey said:

I really don't understand the outpouring of dramatics over this.

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Origin, Bullfrog, Westwood...

Please note that EA has a history of closing down succesfull companies in the past . when they have finsihed milking them for every profits available to them. I'm pretty sure EA is going to do this again. I'm also pretty sure that EA is going to make the Bioware devs. work a lot harder than even Candian labor law allows, claiming that Bioware is now a US owned subsidiary of EA, and as such should follow the industry norm in the US, not Canada. And there goes Bioware making Canada's Top 100 employers for a very, vert long time...

You can sell your indepence for too high a price....

/aries100

I'm well aware of the history of Origin, Westwood and the like, as I am sure BioWare are as well. It's not like they went into this blind after all. And EA certainly didn't pay what they did for BioWare for those other studios - why spend millions of dollars for something you'll just close down in some manner? I've read recently that EA are trying to overhaul the business as well, so I'm content to take a wait and see approach on this one.

As for turning BioWare into a sweat shop and labour laws, I don't know the particulars of what is and is not allowed and what the operating procedures are for a company owned by an American corporation operating in Canada. It'd be interesting to know, though, so Aries if you do know the laws there, I'm honestly curious to know what they are.

Actually, the person who would know about Canadian law would be Desslock. He hasn't been around here for awhile but from memory he posts at Qt3, so I'm sure he'll have something to say.

It's not about Canadian law.When a company works in a another country it must follow the rules and laws of the specific country.Of course ther are exceptions(if you know what i mean)

This doesn't really bother me all that much. Microsoft pulled Bioware away from PC gaming years ago, so as a PC gamer, this doesn't really affect me much. It might even mean that games like Mass Effect come to the PC sooner than they otherwise would, which is a good thing, I guess.

slak said:

Goodbye Dragon Age.

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I'm very sure EA will close this.

It's funny to me that this happened now because I was just replaying Baldur's Gate 1 and remembering the good old days when Black Isle and Bioware rejuvinated the RPG computer game. I fell in love with this game instantly as I'm sure just about everyone else who played it. It was like the Gold Box series we reinvented.

I was just checking over my game stash and couldn't find a single EA game anywhere other than Black & White 2 and a few older ones like the horrifying buggy and sad Ultima 9. I was wondering when was the last time anyone else bought an EA game?

"IT'S IN THE GAME - EA business strategy

- But EA is more than just a successful company in a glamorous industry. It is a model of successful management for companies in any industry. Lots of organizations struggle to turn ideas into blockbuster products. EA pulls it off by honing the way that it develops and markets games: by thinking of its products as emotional, cinematic experiences, not toys.

- Lots of organizations struggle to turn ideas into blockbuster products. EA pulls it off by honing the way that it develops and markets games: by thinking of its products as emotional, cinematic experiences, not toys. By allowing its 12 studios the freedom to innovate while instilling the discipline to meet deadlines..

- In attracting new customers, though, EA has to be careful not to lose its core customers, who don't want to see their beloved games dumbed down for newbies. So EA has begun focusing on the first five minutes of game play. That's how long a customer at Best Buy or Wal-Mart may spend trying out a game. The challenge is to create an experience that leaves these two distinctly different consumers with different impressions of the same game. It must be easy enough for one, yet hard enough for the other.

- It takes a tough company to make entertaining games. "The forgotten aspect of creativity is discipline," says John Riccitiello, president and COO. There is the discipline of understanding the audience through focus groups. The discipline of sharing best practices and technologies across the studios through an intranet library. "There's a saying around here," says Brown in communications. "If somebody develops a better blade of grass in one game, that grass will be in somebody else's game the next day." There's also the discipline of grooming the next generation of executive producers. EA's "emerging leaders" program gives participants firsthand experience in departments outside their own. There is the discipline of studying (well, playing) the competition. "We often know more about the feature set of our competition's products than our competition does," boasts Riccitiello.

- And yet, the staff is encouraged to take creative challenges. Neil Young was the executive producer on Majestic, an online conspiracy thriller that broke the rules of traditional computer games. It was episodic, like The X-Files. It took interactive play to a new level, offering clues via email, fax, and telephone. But EA discontinued the game because of disappointing sales.

- At Electronic Arts, creativity is built on a foundation of management discipline. EA even takes a disciplined approach to the challenge of developing creative leaders. A dozen or so producers and designers at each studio meet throughout the year for a series of workshops. A dancer came in to talk about how movement can be used to express physical and emotional states. A film expert talked about the use of music in silent films to enhance the action. The idea behind the program is simple yet effective, says Andy Billings, vice president of human resources and organizational development: Expose creative leaders to other art forms and new ideas, and see what rubs off.

- And the millions that EA spends on market research to decide what games it should sell lessens the chance of a big bomb. For much of EA's past, that setup made it a model of reliability. But it's hardly a recipe that stokes creativity.

- In the past we have committed to ship dates with large development teams before we had a game design," says Lee. "That is changing....We're going to have the best games and release them when they are ready."

This could mean a higher level of quality for the company's new game titles, but it could also translate into headaches for investors as EA's product pipeline and revenue stream become less of a sure thing. That is probably not music to Wall Street's ears. But it may just be the price EA pays to achieve greater creativity."

I can only assume that this is a joke. I mean please tell me that this is not a statement meant to be taken seriously.

Yippiiiiieeee! this is awesome news...









... for me as a drama queenage connoisseur! Carry on, please. Good show so far!

skavenhorde said:

It's funny to me that this happened now because I was just replaying Baldur's Gate 1 and remembering the good old days when Black Isle and Bioware rejuvinated the RPG computer game. I fell in love with this game instantly as I'm sure just about everyone else who played it. It was like the Gold Box series we reinvented.

I was just checking over my game stash and couldn't find a single EA game anywhere other than Black & White 2 and a few older ones like the horrifying buggy and sad Ultima 9. I was wondering when was the last time anyone else bought an EA game?

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Good question. The last time that I bought a first party EA game was Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault.

I have loads of them from sports to shooters to ... who knows. They generally don't suck. But also seldom shine.

Bethsoft is really the last major independent then. OE is one of the last studios as they don't publish their own games.

I hope that Ray and Greg go back to doctoring. I'm not sure how many people's lives they can save by making video games.

There's plenty not to like about EA, and this certainly may turn out horribly. But let's not forget EA’s single most redeeming characteristic: They have money -- lots and lots of money -- and that's enabling.

If CRPG is ever going to turn around and start re-emphasizing RPG stuff and de-emphasizing video-game stuff, someone's going to have to stick their neck out. EA is in a position to do that if they want, and at least that's something.

That doesn’t seem very likely, but the chances that BioWare will be the ones to do it may have actually just improved.

Alrik Fassbauer said:

I'm very sure EA will close this.

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So, you think BioWare would have entered into this business arrangement without exploring EA's thoughts on current projects in development, not to mention future ones that they no doubt have planned and are in various stages of contractual and design conditions, as well as without discussion about the future of the BioWare brand and company?
And, if they did indeed discuss this, you'd think BioWare would willingly abandon a project that's been in development for years?

Squeek said:

There's plenty not to like about EA, and this certainly may turn out horribly. But let's not forget EA’s single most redeeming characteristic: They have money -- lots and lots of money -- and that's enabling.

If CRPG is ever going to turn around and start re-emphasizing RPG stuff and de-emphasizing video-game stuff, someone's going to have to stick their neck out. EA is in a position to do that if they want, and at least that's something.

That doesn’t seem very likely, but the chances that BioWare will be the ones to do it may have actually just improved.

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Beth has a lot of money also and look at the kinds of games they release. Let's also not forget what a lot of people mentioned earlier. Origin and Bullfrog to name a couple of the companies that were gone before you knew it after EA got their hands on them.

Let's face it we are (or at least I consider myself a niche market of story driven hardcore RPG game) and that isn't what EA is known for even when they aquired Origin they turned ultima 8 and 9 into a maybe fun game to a downright awful piece of trash that should be hidden away. Also Origin/EA had a pretty fun game with No Remorse with very light RPG influence (The shop where you could buy different weapons) but in the next installment they totally got rid of even that tiny bit of RPG in favor of ALL ACTION. Let's just say I finished the first one and used the second one for wall art.

The future for Bioware, due to EA, will be in the end more action and less thinking in Biowares games. Hell I was going to buy an XBox 360 when Mass was released but now I'm not so sure. With EA at the wheel I think I'll steer clear and see what 1C is coming up with. I can't get enough of Space Rangers 2 or Ascension to the throne. Ascension needs a bit of work but I like the style of fighting and how my character can grow. The story just needs a bit more tweaking in the future.

There is always hope with these new developers espcially in germany and some in russia coming up with some great games. Heck who knew Gothic would be such a hit and they came out of nowhere with their first game. Let's hope more companies like them try new things other than more NONLINEAR more ACTION , more POWER WEAPONS. How about this, give me a linear story that has quality writing to suck me into the plot and make me want to see what happens next in the story not just what happens next when I level up.

Gallifrey said:

So, you think BioWare would have entered into this business arrangement without exploring EA's thoughts on current projects in development, not to mention future ones that they no doubt have planned and are in various stages of contractual and design conditions, as well as without discussion about the future of the BioWare brand and company?
And, if they did indeed discuss this, you'd think BioWare would willingly abandon a project that's been in development for years?

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I wrote this because histery taught me that EA tenbds to support ONLY what will generate profits - the biggest, best profits generated by cash-cows in the most literally sense of this word.

EA is interested in everything that sells.

From an economical point of view, this is good.

From an artistic point of view, this is not.

Because more demanding, more complex games tend to sell not as well as profit-oriented accountants would like to see it.


But we NEED demanding, complex games, because everything outside of that is just streamlined.

EA is like Burger King or McDonalds of the gaming industry. IMHO.

their food is tasty, sells well, has a good image - everything is perfect from an economical/business point of view.

The only thing this kind of food lacks are Vitamins. It's just not as healthy / nutricious as health scientists say it should be.

Reading the Sun in Great Britain or the Bild in Germany gives me in a perfect sense information, it sells good, and it has a strong, very strong brand name.

Whgat these newspapers don't give me is something like ... The Lord of the Rings kind of literature, or Franz Kadfka, or just the newest news about Quantum Mechanics. These newspapers are oriented towards a group of customers which is just not demanding at all.

I must buy expansive magazines if I wish to get to know about newest developments in my favourite hobby, the Archaeology (no joke !).
But in the gaming industry we just don't have this kind of magazines. At least the tendency is more & more away from this rather demamnding kind of "news" and literature in general.

I do hope I could explain a bit what i meant with my outcry: EA will most lyliky shut down Dragonm Age, because it will generate not as much profits as the company's accountants would like to.
In contrast, this game might seem to them to suck down too much money while giving too few profits in return.

The perfect business strategy is to make most profits with the least effort. This is perfectly what EA does.

And this is why they won't never, ever develop more demanding, more complex games wich return too few profits for them.


In Short: From a business point of view, everything is fine, if not perfect.
From an artistic point of view, it is not at all.
You must distinguish between both points of view.

I am afraid of all the side changes we may and most likely will suffer in time. Is the NWN fault going to stay open? Will patches and fixes for NWN2 continue so that new mods can be made that work for MP? And will those have a home to grab them from? EA just doesn't impress me as one to keep these player based sites going for more than a year past the purchase. One new game out from then and all the past stuff will get the ax. That is just my fear, but why would they support any of it if they can't sell it.