BioWare Austin Cuts Workforce

[Zydrate]

People cried "WoW Killer", and they're slipping subs and losing workers already.

I am not surprised in the slightest.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

It will be free to play within a year.

 

[Xenominim]

THQ screwed up with Warhammer 40k and Saint's Row. That, I can see happening. How you mess up with STAR WARS is beyond me.

The first Star Wars MMO launched with the same hoopla and fell flat on its face as well, albeit for different reasons. A strong franchise name just isn't enough to sell people on anymore, especially in a market as crowded as MMOs.

 

[Scars Unseen]

And this is why you should never accept a deal from EA or Activision. Signing on with a major publisher is akin to selling your soul, and hey! The devil's gotta eat.

 

[Pandabearparade]

Sad for those who lost their jobs.

Bad move on EA's part, too. The 1.3 million remaining subscribers aren't going to be happy about content coming more slowly, in addition to the existing problems the game has.

 

[shrekfan246]

A damn shame. I won't say I called this back when the merger/acquisition, but I believe a lot of long time gamers know what usually happens with studios when EA gets ahold of them.

RIP Westwood, Command & Conquer
RIP Bioware, Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Star Wars.
RIP Mythic, DAoC, Warhammer

Up next, Chillingo, Firemint, and Popcap!

You forgot Maxis, Bullfrog, and Pandemic.

OT: Well, this is sad news, though really not very surprising given EA's track record. I honestly hope Bioware can get away from their contract with EA, whatever it is, because they seem to be the only people in the entire industry who are oblivious to the gun being pulled up behind their heads.

 

[JEBWrench]

RIP Bioware, Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Star Wars.

Phrases like this leave me confused. Star Wars wasn't dead years ago?

Say, around the time George Lucas "remastered" the three movies?

 

[Metalrocks]

i think the title originally was "?A told BioWare to cut workforce".
not for long and bioware is gone just like bullfrog, maxis and others.

@shrekfan
sounds pretty right.

 

[Rigs83]

THQ screwed up with Warhammer 40k and Saint's Row. That, I can see happening. How you mess up with STAR WARS is beyond me.

Have you not seen episode 1 through 3?

 

[beniki]

*sigh* The cool potential SWTOR had was the possibility of regularly updated chapters. An MMO soap opera, if you want an analogy.

Sadly, it looks like the executives have missed the point.

Well, I think everyone called this one a year before release. I know I called it as soon as they released class descriptions.

 

[insanelich]

You forgot Maxis, Bullfrog, and Pandemic.

I really liked Bullfrog too. And Bioware.

But yeah, DA2 and ME3 in themselves were pretty solid evidence that Bioware's gone.

 

[Legion]

I thought about that "keeping the team together" thing too. It's easy enough when things are going well, but if the wheels come off - and I'm not saying they're off yet, but it's starting to look a little wobbly - then sooner or later, reality must intrude. And when it does, the results tend to be ugly. It's really a shame for everyone left without a job, for gamers, and even for BioWare, which I think is only now starting to look like just another EA branch plant.

Problem is, that EA and Bioware seem to like making these kinds of claims on a very frequent basis. It would be better if they could learn to keep their mouths shut and merely hope for the best. That way when things go wrong, or don't go as well as they expect and/or promise, they don't have everybody pointing to their previous statements going "Oh, really?"

It is something they seem incapable of learning.

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

Didn't they just delay Dragon Age 3 to move resources into Old Republic and now they are turning around and laying people off?

 

[blackrave]

Zenimax, see what happens when you release MMO, that is just re-skinned WoW?
Abort TES:Online while you still can, please

Screw TOR and screw StarWars, what Bioware should really do is be making BG3 or NWN3

 

[HellenicWarrior]

Yeahhhhh I think we all saw this one coming... I jumped ship quite early on

 

[Thoric485]

The sad thing is not that BioWare will die (it already has, creatively), it's that yet again, running a studio into the ground was profitable for EA.

When the next developer gets acquisitioned, I really hope gaming websites won't be spinning the "this time it will be different" tale. I hope EA will be hounded by the names Origin, Westwood, Bullfrog, Mythic, Pandemic, BioWare in every article and interview, until PR gets so bad they just give up and stick to their sports shit.