Dragon Age 2 - Video Interview @ Gamereactor

GameReactor did a video interview with Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk, the co-founders of Bioware. In the interview they talk about Mass Effect, SW:TOR and Dragon Age. A few quotes from the interview about Dragon Age courtesy of Brockolully in this thread at the Bioware DA2 forums. The talk about Dragon Age starts about the 7 minute mark.

Zeschuk: "We did some things that, maybe people didn't like as much. But it was actually all purposeful in that we wanted to make it more immediate with a larger sense of action…"

Muzyka: "The game has been very critically and commercially successful. Commercially successful in that it drew a lot of people into the universe. Critically successful with a lot of new fans and we want to take the feedback of the fans who loved Dragon Age Origins to heart as well."
Muzyka: "We're taking that feedback and actually trying to enact that in the downloadable content for Dragon Age 2. And for future products in the franchise, you know we're going to actually see the best of both worlds. Thats where we're aspiring to.

As the interview covers more than just Dragon Age, it is rather interesting to watch.
More information.

The same usual pr driven speeches we see every year. Come back when the whole company is more truthful and not always using white lies. Bioware's attitude towards it customer base is not were it once was. I'll leave it at that.

"critically and commercially successful" is a slightly doubious claim. They seemed a bit more excited talking about SW:TOR though.

Sorry Bioware, too late to try to win us DAO:O fans back.

It's always the same, regardless which interview I read in the recent times :

"Commercially successful in that it drew a lot of people into the universe. Critically successful with a lot of new fans

Commercially successful in that it drew a lot of people into the universe. Critically successful with a lot of new fans

DA:O sold 3.2 million copies, DA2 sold 2.
Muzyka is not only a doctor, he's also a mathematician. You see, he's the only mathematician in the universe who has proven that 2 is in fact larger than 3.2 . The guy is a genius.

2 > 3.2
It's called the Muzyka equation.

Bla, bla, bla… same PR speech. … no mistake…success..some mistakes, but nothing important…
DA2 is a shame in rpg land and for Bioware ! That's all. Bioware, accept it, listen to the players when it makes sense, and do what has to be done to make DA3 an awesome RPG, or an awesome action game if you want to get more money, but do not make a bastard from the worst of rpgs and from the worst of action games.

Yes 2 million is greater than 3.2 million especially if you count that DA: Origins took about 5-7 years to make while DA2 only took about 2-2½ years to make. This means that DA2 made more profit or had a higher return of investment (roi) than DA: Origins had. And so the expensives were less to produce DA2 than DA:Origins; DA2 thus made more profit than DA2: Origins.

No, DA2 took 5-7 years + 2-2½ years to make. You simply ignore the fact that they did not start everything from scratch with DA2, they used the same tech, art, etc from DA:O.
And you ignore the fact that we are not talking about sales, profit, or development-cycle/profit ratio here. We are talking about the 'hypothetical new fans' that Bioware claims they have attracted. They have lost at least 1.2 million fans (not counting the ones who bought the game but were still disappointed) and they claim they have been successful at finding 'more fans'. In their dreams, perhaps?

They found more fans. Angry fans.

Originally Posted by blackcanopus
No, DA2 took 5-7 years + 2-2½ years to make. You simply ignore the fact that they did not start everything from scratch with DA2, they used the same tech, art, etc from DA:O.
And you ignore the fact that we are not talking about sales, profit, or development-cycle/profit ratio here. We are talking about the 'hypothetical new fans' that Bioware claims they have attracted. They have lost at least 1.2 million fans (not counting the ones who bought the game but were still disappointed) and they claim they have been successful at finding 'more fans'. In their dreams, perhaps?

That is the assumption those people can talk their minds without hurting themselves.

The version they gave is the best they can tell. They made more money in a more satisfying way. The new fans in are fans who will be satisfied with the same quality of production next time. The old fans who stay will be satisfied with the same quality of production next time. The old fans who left are losses. The balance sheet is strongly positive though.

But devs can not say that directly. Devs can not tell they are driven by commercial interests first before putting out a good game. Devs can not tell about sales, profit, or development-cycle/profit ratio in front of a gamers audience save in a few cases involving self indulging.

Can we stop beating that dead horse now ? Seriously there is nothing more to add to this topic except one thing.

If DA 3 follows DA 2 route we will see how many new fans they got and how many they lost …

And no DA 2 was not succesfull (huge sale bosts were done by DA:O fans who bought the game blindly … like i did, and i doubt i was the only one), as an second game of series it shouold sale twice or three times more than he first one (with the improvements as they state), and it didnt …

Originally Posted by Fraper
Can we stop beating that dead horse now ? Seriously there is nothing more to add to this topic except one thing.

It just keeps reappearing…

It's not dead until the fat doctors sing

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
It's not dead until the fat doctors sing

And knowing them it will never happen. They rather die first than admit there wrong.