BioWare - To Be Acquired by EA

They do - with Madden 2007 in this example !

Originally Posted by Corwin
They patch their sports games every year; Madden 2006 gets patched to Madden 2007!!

But its great business. The sales are in the millions. Its a sure bestseller every time.

EA trying to get to same playground as bioshock? EA enveils new horror game space-forgotten-alien-oneman-darkness:

http://www.joystiq.com/2007/09/14/ea…game-informer/

Those monsters look funny and the space (marine) looks ridiculous. I bet its a 100% piperun with generic scifi weapons and rated for everyone so EA can sell it for kids too. How good could horromovie if it must be rated for children?

System shock 2 had horrible sales so i doubt they are copying much from that.

games where the main character doesn't have a face are of no appeal at all to me. reasons why halo, and metroid never appealed to me in the slightest. do people honest imagine themselves more in a role if the character is masked and that helps them think it could be them inside? surely that is marketed towards kids, and people who believe in santa claus. masks hide things and i think playing a game where you go about killing things behind the comfort of a mask, while never being able to garner and emotion from the face doing the deeds then…well its a distrubing precedent to me nonetheless.

OMG… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of…nic_Arts_games
I played most of them and i dont see whats wrong with it or them game wise…
Even if they have the Bucks to buy VG_Holding Crop,!

Anyway The deal should close in January, and must be approved by regulators.
http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/…8/daily43.html only time will tell

Electronic Arts produced some real gems, and by all accounts valued their developers. Which made their transition into "EA" all the more depressing.

Independent outfits mainly in Eastern Europe is where the future of CRPG games is gonna be imho. I've given up hope seeing anything remotely innovative coming from big companies. The gaming industry atm is pretty much like the music industry. The big players putting out general drivel to suit the masses with the rare decent act while the only decent gems are the more independent artists.

Maybe it's because Im old and wornout, but overall the game industry seems to be a shadow of its former self. Money != quality.

Originally Posted by Stagnant
Independent outfits mainly in Eastern Europe is where the future of CRPG games is gonna be imho. I've given up hope seeing anything remotely innovative coming from big companies. The gaming industry atm is pretty much like the music industry. The big players putting out general drivel to suit the masses with the rare decent act while the only decent gems are the more independent artists.

Maybe it's because Im old and wornout, but overall the game industry seems to be a shadow of its former self. Money != quality.

I agree in principle.

There are always alternative paths. Let's support indie developers, the mod community and foreign developers instead of the ruthless "swallow up or destroy all smaller competitors" bloated & conformist corporatists. Our purchases have to be seen as both a monetary & artistic VOTE. Why vote for the monopolizers ? Is it so that EVERY SINGLE NEW CRPG looks & plays like Oblivion, FEAR, STALKER & Bioshock ? The life of genuine CRPG's is at stake.

Enough is enough.

Or, as the saying goes, vote with your wallet.

Originally Posted by Corwin
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.

I'm writing my next column on this.

Originally Posted by Gallifrey
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.

Employment law is a matter governed by the jursidiction in which the employees are resident -- it's also a state (or in Canada, provincial) matter rather than than Federal law. So as long as the BioWare employees are in Alberta, EA has to abide by Albertan employment standard laws, etc.

But, of course, they could always require the employees to relocate, which in Canada would also be considered constructive dismissal, given employees an entitlement to statutory or contractual severance (in Canada, employee are generally entitled to 1 week severance per year, to a cap, and they can negotiate more by contract). One of the reasons American companies typically prefer their employees to be in the U.S. is because most U.S. states don't have statutory severance - employees are "at will" and can be dismissed at any time. That's partially offset by having to pay more in health insurance though, since that's government funded in Canada.

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
I'm very sure EA will close this.

Dragon's Age is actually very far along now, after have a "not great" early development, so it shouldn't be in danger. This is the sort of stuff I'll talk about in my next column. I actually haven't written it yet, so if there's anything in particular you'd like me to discuss, post it here.

Do any of your columns find their way online, Desslock? I'd love to have access to your stuff but it just isn't worth importing a print magazine down to Australia.

In terms of Dragon Age, I guess most of us draw a bit of a line between the Baldur's Gate (and related games) era and BioWare's more recent output. There's a certain approach to plot and characters that has remained constant (or even improved) and elements such as stat checks in dialogue are much more widely implemented, but other systems have been simplified (and no, I'm not raving hysterically about pandering to the mainstream market). For example, KotOR uses lots of threes - three classes, then three Jedi classes, only three active skills at a time. I quite enjoyed it, but the micromanagement aspect has been considerably streamlined for the audiences these games have been aimed at.

I guess most of us really want to know if DA does go back to something like the BG2 era? Beyond that, will BioWare honestly have the freedom to work on this sort of game again or will DA mark the end of "hardcore" PC RPGs for BioWare?

Originally Posted by Dhruin
Do any of your columns find their way online, Desslock? I'd love to have access to your stuff but it just isn't worth importing a print magazine down to Australia.

In terms of Dragon Age, I guess most of us draw a bit of a line between the Baldur's Gate (and related games) era and BioWare's more recent output. There's a certain approach to plot and characters that has remained constant (or even improved) and elements such as stat checks in dialogue are much more widely implemented, but other systems have been simplified (and no, I'm not raving hysterically about pandering to the mainstream market). For example, KotOR uses lots of threes - three classes, then three Jedi classes, only three active skills at a time. I quite enjoyed it, but the micromanagement aspect has been considerably streamlined for the audiences these games have been aimed at.

I guess most of us really want to know if DA does go back to something like the BG2 era? Beyond that, will BioWare honestly have the freedom to work on this sort of game again or will DA mark the end of "hardcore" PC RPGs for BioWare?

Re - columns -- would you like to repost them here at RPG Watch? I'd have to wait until after the colums are no longer at newstands, but could probably make them available after that.

Re - what's in store for Dragon's Age - BioWare is tight on particulars right now, although they will be available very soon. But I can confirm that the game is far enough along that it's unlikely to change as a result of the EA acquisition.

To answer your last question, I'm pretty negative on the EA acquisition, largely because of what EA's done in the past -- that said, new management now, and they have expressly stated in their shareholder presentations that they're going to keep BioWare (and Pandemic separate for now), so that's definitely at least the plan for the next year or two. But EA had similar plans with the initial acquisition of Westwood and Origin, etc., and they eventually devoured those companies.

On the plus side, while the Bioware guys will be locked into non-compete/vesting agreements for at least a couple of years, if EA treats them badly they'll just start again elsewhere, of course.

By the way here's the path of destruction:

Quote: EA History: Quick Facts - The Path of Destruction

Original HQ in San Mateo, California – moved to Redwood City in 1998

Origin Systems (Ultima, Wing Commander, System Shock) in Austin, Texas – acquired in 1992, closed in 2004

Bullfrog Productions (Dungeon Keeper, Magic Carpet, Populous, Syndicate) in Surrey, England – acquired in 1995, effectively closed in 2001

EA Baltimore in Baltimore, Maryland – established in 1996 as part of Origin, closed in 2000

Manley & Associates (Les Manley, Night Creatures, Wolf) in Seattle, Washington – renamed EA Seattle, acquired in 1996, closed in 2002

Maxis in Walnut Creek, California – acquired in 1997, moved in 2004 to Redwood City

Westwood Studios (Command & Conquer, Dune II, Land of Lores, The Legend of Kyrandia) in Las Vegas, Nevada – acquired in 1998, shut down in 2003

Westwood Pacific (Red Alert, Nox) in Irvine, California – formerly part of Virgin Interactive, renamed EA Pacific, acquired with Westwood in 1998, closed in 2003

Kesmai aka GameStorm (Air Warrior); acquired in 1999, closed in 2001.

DICE Canada (Battlefield Vietnam, Battlefield 2) in London, Ontario - acquired October 2, 2006; closed hours later.

I know someone that worked for EA for about a year. The sentence "gulag with a nice gym" was the way he used to describe the wonderful creative atmosphere of the studio he was in.

But hey, things can change, right?

Originally Posted by Desslock
Re - columns -- would you like to repost them here at RPG Watch? I'd have to wait until after the colums are no longer at newstands, but could probably make them available after that.

We'd love that.

Originally Posted by Desslock
Re - columns -- would you like to repost them here at RPG Watch? I'd have to wait until after the colums are no longer at newstands, but could probably make them available after that.

We'd love that.
--
-= RPGWatch =-

Woohoo can't wait for that!
Was just having an email discussion this past week with a few Devs where his old articles were brought up

Like many other gaming "Old Timers" I've long missed Desslock's articles and viewpoint whether you agreed with them on not.

Ubbax
"Idealism is what precedes experience; cynicism is what follows." - David T. Wolf

Originally Posted by Desslock
Re - columns -- would you like to repost them here at RPG Watch? I'd have to wait until after the colums are no longer at newstands, but could probably make them available after that.

We would love to re-post them. Especially because a significant part of our readership is from countries in which English language print mags are only available in specialized foreign press shops, if at all.

Originally Posted by Stagnant
Independent outfits mainly in Eastern Europe is where the future of CRPG games is gonna be imho. I've given up hope seeing anything remotely innovative coming from big companies. The gaming industry atm is pretty much like the music industry. The big players putting out general drivel to suit the masses with the rare decent act while the only decent gems are the more independent artists.

I agree with this wholeheartedly. North American game development has become almost totally console centric. It's up to Germany and Russia to carry the flag for the PC. I hope that EA doesn't start buying companies over there too.