Dragon Age 3 - Team Seconded to SWTOR?

Dhruin

SasqWatch
Joined
August 30, 2006
Messages
11,842
Location
Sydney, Australia
Take this with a grain of salt but market analyst Michael Pachter believes a "significant portion" of the Dragon Age 3 team was moved over to SW: The Old Republic to help boost end-game content, delaying DA3 into 2014. From GamesIndustry.biz:
Dragon Age III appears to have slipped to FY:14. We had previously expected the next Dragon Age to be released in Q4:13, two years after its predecessor. However, we believe that a significant portion of the BioWare team responsible for the game was reassigned to Star Wars in order to create content and fix bugs to keep the game's audience engaged," Pachter commented.
More information.
 
Joined
Aug 30, 2006
Messages
11,842
Location
Sydney, Australia
Once all the money is invested to create the cash-cow MMO, everything else in the company is secondary to it. Will happen with Zenimax as well.
 
Joined
Sep 26, 2007
Messages
3,444
I think it's great news for DA3.

It gives the writers and art team a much longer lead time to work on the story, concept art and environments.

DA2 really suffered from being cranked out so quickly.
 
Joined
Jan 15, 2011
Messages
1,477
Location
Chocovania
I think it's great news for DA3.

It gives the writers and art team a much longer lead time to work on the story, concept art and environments.

DA2 really suffered from being cranked out so quickly.

You're a "glass if half full" kinda guy aren't you? *grin*

… at least that is one positive way of looking at it :)
 
Joined
Jun 4, 2008
Messages
3,959
Location
NH
happy with the decision, the later a game ships the happier it makes me.. excluding "forever"
 
Joined
Aug 7, 2008
Messages
1,168
Location
Ro
Excellent news actually. Maybe we never get to see a DA3 after the complete disaster that was DA2
 
Joined
Jan 12, 2009
Messages
264
As much as people point to the EA/Bioware merger as the unholy union responsible for Bioware's recent decline in game quality, I'm more inclined to believe SW:TOR is the real reason.

I have a feeling that they've been skimping on the time designated for their existing game franchises to pull team members away to the MMO. Obviously a lot hinges on the success of the SWTOR for Bioware. MMOs require a lot of babysitting to make sure players get a steady stream of content/updates and that ends up taking priority over everything else to keep subscription numbers high. That's why I don't tend to cheer when a company announces a new MMO - usually it means that everything else will take a backseat (if it hasn't already).

Just my theory. Though I agree with Count Chocula that maybe this will be a blessing in disguise and allow the team working on DA3 to fine tune things a bit more. Then again, the game could sit in limbo waiting for the work on SW expansion packs to finish...
 
Joined
Mar 7, 2012
Messages
190
Once all the money is invested to create the cash-cow MMO, everything else in the company is secondary to it. Will happen with Zenimax as well.

Well it's bound to happen as you make billions instead of a few paltry million on a single game. Just look at blizzard. I don't like it but hey the suits do. Bioware's focus and manpower has been focused on TOR for years. That is probably why the other projects are always lacking recently.

As for the newsbit I wouldn't be surprised. Dragon Age II was developed by a team of castoffs and rookies. So it really doesn't give me hope.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Oct 1, 2010
Messages
36,178
Location
Spudlandia
That isn't necessarily a delay into 2014, EA's calendar and financial years are out of sync- their Q4 2012 report is already released, for example despite it being only May 2012. Most of FY2014 will be in calendar 2013.
 
Joined
Aug 11, 2008
Messages
193
Yep, this is why it's a bad idea to have one studio working on multiple projects where the costs, revenue, and demands of one are potentially orders of magnitude greater than the others. While having separate studios allows for less flexibility in moving around man-hours, it also ensures that small projects aren't easily consumed by larger ones. I mean imagine if EA had only one monolithic non-sports subsidiary developer; pretty much anything that wasn't a yearly FPS installment or The Sims would look like a tiny expendable venture by comparison in terms of revenue base.

I would view the assignment or consolidation of multiple somewhat concurrent projects to a single developer by direction of its parent company as a sign that the parent company does not consider each project's continued development to be an mid-term priority.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Nov 20, 2006
Messages
1,710
Yeah, exactly, doesn't make sense to put monthly subscriptions on some $200-300M project at risk, just to keep the schedule on (or avoid cancelling) some dinky single-player game.

Anyway, technically BioWare Austin (SWTOR) is a separate studio from their two in Canada. So I don't think it being a "separate studio" actually matters much, it needs to be a separate company. Zenimax Online vs Bethesda is the same deal, and in that case the two are both in the tiny state of Maryland as well, so there may be even tighter coordination.
 
Joined
Sep 26, 2007
Messages
3,444
Excellent news actually. Maybe we never get to see a DA3 after the complete disaster that was DA2

Yeah wouldn't that be great, one less rpg. You get the award for not the brightest comment.
 
Joined
Apr 17, 2007
Messages
5,749
So you would rather get absolute crap like DA2 than no rpg? I choose latter. At least that way, I get to save $.
 
No, I didn't say that....but if you thought it was crap why would you waste money on it? The first one was definately not crap....and the second one had some redeeming qualities. So dump the whole series instead of trying again...yeah ok.
 
Joined
Apr 17, 2007
Messages
5,749
No, I didn't say that….but if you thought it was crap why would you waste money on it? The first one was definately not crap….and the second one had some redeeming qualities. So dump the whole series instead of trying again…yeah ok.

I liked DA:O, yes, that's why I couldn't wait to get DA2 and ended up pre-ordering... then I was absolutely disgusted. I didn't play ME3 but reaction was certainly more inclined towards negative than positive. So yeah, I'm really cautious about Bioware products now. I say, if its going to be like DA2, I'd rather not see it at all. But ofcourse it will eventually come out and I guess I will wait and see how people react before I spend money on it this time... my hopes aren't too high though.
 
I don't think that ESO will effect Bethesda's games because they alreay have around 250 people working on ESO that have experience in mmo's and also ESO is much more of a risk then Bethesda's games so in-case ESO isn't successful they will need the revenue from the single player games. Also more money is more money so having both Bethesda's games and ESO be successful means far more money then each separately.
 
Joined
Oct 19, 2006
Messages
1,596
Well that may be wishful thinking, but the reality is that MMOs demand a lot more resources than single player games post-release (and maybe even pre-release), and MMOs have the potential to be much more profitable, and if not, a huge resource hole. It's looking worse for the Elder Scrolls franchise. They'll be little worthwhile left. :(
 
Joined
Aug 18, 2008
Messages
15,679
Location
Studio City, CA
normally, and after the disaster (imho) that was DA2, I'd be ecstatic about the news of DA3 being pushed back. But since its just because they have less guys doing it, instead of because they want to take their time developing it, it makes little difference.
 
Joined
Feb 3, 2011
Messages
586
Yeah wouldn't that be great, one less rpg. You get the award for not the brightest comment.

Seriosly? Well, great for you if you call things like DA2 an RPG. I however don't even remotely. While I would love to never see another so-called RPG from EAware ever again, I don't care even remotely enought anymore.
 
Joined
Jan 12, 2009
Messages
264
Any bets on how long SWTOR will last?

In just two months 400k subs are gone. Now I have no idea if that's normal or not, but it seems like a big drop to me.

Either way it doesn't matter. KOTOR is gone and will never come back. Too bad too. Loved that singleplayer game. Couldn't be less interested in this Star Wars WoW version.
 
Joined
Feb 3, 2007
Messages
5,347
Location
Taiwan
Back
Top Bottom