EA Deepens Its Stake In The Old Republic

[John Funk]

EA Deepens Its Stake In The Old Republic

Electronic Arts is taking over a bigger share of the burden of publishing BioWare's Star Wars MMO.

If you ignore reigning kingpin WoW, in the MMO space all eyes are on BioWare's Star Wars: The Old Republic as the Next Big Thing. It's a new take on the classic MMO concept using one of the most popular and beloved IPs of all time developed by an extraordinarily successful RPG studio - if there is a potentially more lucrative mix, I've yet to hear it.

Publisher EA is gambling on SW:TOR hitting the jackpot: The games giant has announced that it has entered into a new global publishing agreement with Star Wars empire LucasArts in which EA will be taking a larger role in the game's distribution - and presumably reaping a greater share of the profits.

While the two publishers had obviously already had an agreement in place to make The Old Republic, the new arrangement will have EA handling "certain publishing, marketing and distribution responsibilities" that were previously the realm of LucasArts.

The Old Republic could potentially be a massive hit, there's no doubt about that. With Blizzard's World of Warcraft stamping gold for rival Activision every month, it's no wonder that EA would be interested in having its own mega-MMO propping up its bottom line.

Of course, with greater reward comes greater risk - it was already known that SW:TOR is would never make money [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/100967-Star-Wars-The-Old-Republic-is-EAs-Most-Expensive-Project-in-History], there's no denying that this is a gamble for the industry giant.

If SW:TOR is a success, taking on increased responsibility could be a brilliant move for EA. If it fails, it could become a grave wound in the publisher's pocketbook. Only time will tell.

(Via CVG [http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=275071])

Permalink

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Grave? With a risk like that, it could be fatal.

Although, with Phantom Menace 3D coming out, they could ride out mediocrity - as long as it's not actually disastrous.

 

[Swaki]

despite having no interest in the game, star wars and not really believing in it being a success, i will still buy it, i love biowares rpgs and would hate for them to shut down, at least not before dragon age 2 comes out.

 

[The Lunatic]

Well, I'm normally somewhat critical of EA, but, eh, I suppose they have balls enough to stick with this game, even if a lot of people are saying "It will fail."

 

[Jonny49]

All I can say is good luck to them.

 

[SomebodyNowhere]

The question is when you pour that much money into a project how exactly do you consider it a success? A regular game can tell by its sales, but for MMOs it isn't as easy. WoW didn't get its millions upon millions of subscribers overnight. More and more it just seems like they are setting the game up for disaster.

 

[thiosk]

It makes sense that a free-to-play developer would disparage subscriptions. Their business model is based on free-to-play. So, whatevz.

NEWSFLASH: CORPORATE CONSORTIUM OF VEGETABLE GROWERS DECLARE FRUIT ORCHARDS A FOOLS ERRAND

I won't be signing up for any MMO; the kingdom of loathing keeps me plenty busy.

 

[Tarakos]

Gotta say, this game has me scared. If it fails, EA will likely dissolve BioWare or something equally as drastic. As a fan of Dragon Age, and an even bigger fan of Mass Effect, I'm rooting for this game to succeed. If only because I don't want to see my favorite studio destroyed.

 

[thiosk]

I'm sorry but.. You are a true Fanboy. And that's not a bad thing but let me explain before you waste money;

One needs not be a "true fanboy" to financially support a company in the hopes that they will continue putting out the kinds of games one likes. For instance, I bought Sins of a Solar Empire, even though I knew for a fact that it was not going to be the 4x space opera I really wanted; however, I wanted to support stardock and their general business model, which I like.

Not that its always effective, of course...

That support was more or less wasted by Elemental; they'll fix that, but it will take a year.

Gotta say, this game has me scared. If it fails, EA will likely dissolve BioWare or something equally as drastic. As a fan of Dragon Age, and an even bigger fan of Mass Effect, I'm rooting for this game to succeed. If only because I don't want to see my favorite studio destroyed.

I think thats why EA is taking the lionshare of the stake here. I'm trying to think of other mass market hits EA has put out lately; and the top entries that come to mind are bioware produced. I don't think a failure of this MMO will mean bioware will shutdown.

 

[Deathfish15]

I was interested in this game at the start. Then I dwiddled away from it.
Now, I have nil interests in it and I hope it.. How goes it..

"The Ship of failure floats on the sea of excuses"

despite having no interest in the game, star wars and not really believing in it being a success, i will still buy it, i love biowares rpgs and would hate for them to shut down, at least not before dragon age 2 comes out.

I'm sorry but.. You are a true Fanboy. And that's not a bad thing but let me explain before you waste money;

I love Final Fantasy, but even I don't buy them all because not every game they've made is good.
Mass Effect was good. Dragon Age had a target audience of 13 year old boys. Bioware became EA Games.

I am a Nintendo fan myself. I've been going from Nintendo to Gameboy to Super Nintendo to N64, GBA - Sold GBA, got DS, bought Wii. But I don't buy every Nintendo-made game for that because they aren't all good. Just like Bioware made one game that truely threw them out there into mainstream knowledge and that game was Mass Effect. Prior to that, they made a few D&D Game that frankly was not that good at all.

What I am saying is this;
The Bioware you loved is EA Bioware now. Just as the Blizzard I once loved is Activision Blizzard now which have only ruined it's franchises ever since TBC. Don't expect Bioware to hold the same quality as you once remembered.

But I realize I'm probably speaking for deafears though.

Don't be foolish, Bioware made quite a few games prior to Mass Effect that made a name for themselves. Just look at the game this MMORPG is a squeal to: Knights of the Old Republic. They also made Baldur's Gate as well as Jade Empire.

 

[Delock]

I was interested in this game at the start. Then I dwiddled away from it.
Now, I have nil interests in it and I hope it.. How goes it..

"The Ship of failure floats on the sea of excuses"

despite having no interest in the game, star wars and not really believing in it being a success, i will still buy it, i love biowares rpgs and would hate for them to shut down, at least not before dragon age 2 comes out.

I'm sorry but.. You are a true Fanboy. And that's not a bad thing but let me explain before you waste money;

I love Final Fantasy, but even I don't buy them all because not every game they've made is good.
Mass Effect was good. Dragon Age had a target audience of 13 year old boys. Bioware became EA Games.

I am a Nintendo fan myself. I've been going from Nintendo to Gameboy to Super Nintendo to N64, GBA - Sold GBA, got DS, bought Wii. But I don't buy every Nintendo-made game for that because they aren't all good. Just like Bioware made one game that truely threw them out there into mainstream knowledge and that game was Mass Effect. Prior to that, they made a few D&D Game that frankly was not that good at all.

What I am saying is this;
The Bioware you loved is EA Bioware now. Just as the Blizzard I once loved is Activision Blizzard now which have only ruined it's franchises ever since TBC. Don't expect Bioware to hold the same quality as you once remembered.

But I realize I'm probably speaking for deafears though.

I've got no love for EA, but they at least seem to be improving themselves. While it's inevitable that they'll start pushing Bioware for things that wouldn't have happened previously, unless they start pulling some of the stuff Activision does (axing large portions of development teams, interfering with the process, being associated with Kotick, etc.), then they should be fine.

After all, another of EA Bioware's big game Mass Effect 2, was designed by listening to the complaints of the first game and addressing them. It seems unfair to assume that Bioware has completely changed just because it got a new publisher (and the comparison to Activision Blizzard is less than accurate because that seems more like a merge rather than a publishing change with the way Activision seems to be dependent on WoW funds).

It's sort of like the problem I have with music lovers: just because they've gotten themselves a new sponsor doesn't mean they've "Sold out!" just yet. They haven't just completely changed because of this, and have yet to show signs of complete change (hell, remember that they decided to do voice over for this game because their fans responded better to that, despite the fact that it ended up costing EA more).

I'd also like to point out here as a last point of all this that Bioware has worked for some of the worst Publishers over the years before this: LucasArts, Atari, and Microsoft, all the time producing stuff like KoTOR, Neverwinter Nights, and Jade Empire.

Is it possible Bioware will change it's quality? Yeah, slightly. Will they cut as many corners as Obsidian? Doesn't look like it at all.

 

[DancePuppets]

What I am saying is this;
The Bioware you loved is EA Bioware now. Just as the Blizzard I once loved is Activision Blizzard now which have only ruined it's franchises ever since TBC. Don't expect Bioware to hold the same quality as you once remembered.

But I realize I'm probably speaking for deafears though.

I realize that every time I pay my subscription to Blizzard a sizeable portion of it goes to Activision and they are, at best, morally dubious; however I wouldn't say the quality of their games has decreased. The argument has been put for Starcraft 2 in that it only includes 1 campaign as opposed to 3, but that campaign is very good and I've been informed so is the multiplayer, I'd argue the reason for only including one campaign has nothing to do with the merger with Activision (Blizzard was still trying to make as much profit as possible before), but that the nature of the industry has changed dramatically since the 1st Starcraft came out and the length of a game is now noticeably shorter (perhaps due to the feeling that multiplayer makes up for it). Starcraft 2 is a shorter game than it's predecessor but is of similar, if not greater length, than it's competitors in the market place. I also find your off-hand refusal to accept the existence of Wrath of The Lich King (WOTLK) as a worthwhile expansion within the World of Warcraft (WoW) universe a little odd. The amount of content in WOTLK is similar in scope (if not larger) than that seen within The Burning Crusade (BC) and there are far more, and better, links between solo questlines, group quests, dungeons and raids than in BC or Vanilla WoW. Plus the overarching story in WOTLK introduces you to the characters far more than in BC, so you can enjoy the interactions without necessarily looking into the lore online.

Now with Cataclysm coming, I have no idea what to expect, I'm hoping it will be just as good as WOTLK and judging by the fact that Blizzard has, once again, been allowed to take it's time by Activision I'm expecting a pretty good expansion, but I will wait and see before jumping to it's defence as I have no evidence whatsoever. From where I'm standing Blizzard continues to be a pretty amazing developer and I'm glad Activision is generally taking a hands-off approach to it's development schedule.

 

[Grey_Focks]

The thought of a world without BioWare would be a sad world indeed...and this mmo just has such potential! I for one will be getting it in whatever super-special collector's edition they offer, and if they were to go a "star trek" route of giving you the option of buying the game with a life-time subscription (for a very high amount, ofcourse) I'd probably even get that. BioWare have never let me down before, and the thought of them getting shut down by the failure of an mmo would just be a kick in the balls. That, and WoW (and by extension ActiBlizzard) going so long without any "real" competition can't be a good thing.

Yes, but what was it they did in Mass Effect 2?
They removed the storyline element in favor of action oriented elements.
I think you're confusing RPG elements for story elements. I'd also note that another product of "EA BioWare" is Dragon Age: Origins, a game marketed to a rather niche crowd (hardcore RPG fans) that still ended up having pretty damn good commercial success, thanks in part to EA's marketing budget.

 

[DancePuppets]

You disregard one aspect with your claim there; The Lore.
Now, I can play WoW without caring a bit about the lore and just focus on PVP and RP, but what good does that make if I started playing it precisely because I loved the lore that was established from Wc1 til Wc3?

If you don't care about the lore, you'll find frustrating unfair PvP in WoW and boring PvE elements.
But even so, sometimes it was fun to PvP.
But I'd rather put my money into a company that tends and cares for it's franchise rather than using it as a milking cow.

The lore in World of Warcraft is as strong as it's ever been, stronger even (at least within the MMORPG), the WOTLK goes into more depth on the motivations of each of the characters than either Vanilla or BC WoW ever did. Now if you feel the lore isn't deep enough then that is your right, but the original poster claimed that since BC Blizzard was no longer producing games of the same quality, which is where I disagree very strongly. It sounds to me like you probably didn't like BC either and maybe not even Vanilla, in which case I doubt it's Blizzard's acquisition by Activision that has resulted in the perceived drop of quality by you, more the introduction of World of Warcraft itself.

I agree entirely on the PvP, since having played Warhammer Online the PvP in WoW doesn't match up at all, but then I still chose to continue playing WoW, while dropping WAR because I prefer the environment in WoW. On a PvE basis, boring is, I suppose, an entirely subjective thing, where to me being sent to another part of the gameworld to do something is inherently interesting as it gives me a chance to look at a new area I probably wouldn't have bothered passing through otherwise, to you the fact that once you get there you need to kill 30 Rhinos and nick their livers is inherently dull. One of the reasons I think WOTLK is superior to BC is that many of the quest chains tell interesting (in my opinion) stories about the main characters involved in the battles in Northrend and, in many cases, explain the reason why you have to take them down within an instance.

And here is a bit of irony; The Star Wars cow have been milked over and over and over, yet most of the games are actually very good. Even from a lore prespective, they are really good. That is a well taken care of cow.

This I find very odd and cannot agree with at all, the last "good" Star Wars game I played was KOTOR and before that the X-Wing series, most of the rest have been mediocre at best, the rest of them, like The Force Unleashed have had plots that make little sense when related to the films and are just not as fun to play. Not saying there haven't been some gems like the Jedi Knight series, just that the Universe is being milked dry.

 

[Orcus The Ultimate]

IF it wasn't a Payable MMORPG, i would have bought it.