Does anyone remember when BioWare had a legendary reputation among the gaming world?

[Dreiko]

They never did for me, they were always kinda hit and miss. I loved Dragon Age Origins but never cared much for mass effect. Only cared for bioshock infinite as well. As for Baldur's Gate, those were great but I wasn't into that style of rpg back in the day so while I enjoyed them more recently it's way better to just play BG3 and the Pathfinder rpgs by Owlcat than the old bioware games.


Oh and one game I seldom see anyone bring up is Jade Empire. That was one was such a cool game. If they ever bring it back I will give it a shot now that the person who made Veilguard has left the company.

 

[BrawlMan]

If they ever bring it back I will give it a shot now that the person who made Veilguard has left the company.

I highly doubt the person leaving is going to improve BioWare much. Still under the shit stain that's EA.

 

[FakeSympathy]

I was there when KOTOR 1 was out so that's my start with Bioware. Also really got into Jade Empire too.

The downfall began with the three-strike outs of Dragon Age 2, The poor launch of SWTOR, and Mass Effect 3's Ending debacle.

Dragon Age 2? I am willing to look the other way because they probably wanted to try something different. Mass Effect 3 I also could give a free pass, as the ending was the only thing wrong with the game, and the rest was great. SWTOR also managed to compete with WOW for years by this point, so I guess that's an achievement.

I'd like to think the "big shift" happened in 2013. Not only was it the year when Xbox permanently lost to PS, but it's also the year when that dickhead Andrew Wilson took over as the new CEO. And under this guy, EA had one fuck up another, except for success in FIFA and Madden.

Bioware also suffered. Dragon Age Inquisition, while divisive, was probably the last BW game that had more people liking it than hating it. And then the ME: Andromeda happened, then Anthem, then the ME: Legendary Edition, and now, Dragon Age Veilguard. Not to mention all the good talents leaving the company after not being able to bear witness to see what BW and EA have turned into.

"Bioware Magic" is no longer a thing. Not without all those great talents and lead figures who would've made it possible. Granted it probably involved lots of crunching and people working their asses off, but at least with those guys, everyone knew what they were doing.

I am surprised w/ EA. Given their infamous tactic of acquiring a studio, milking it, and then killing it off, I genuinely thought BW was was gonna get axed after Anthem. But here we are after all these years, along with DICE.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

If they ever bring it back I will give it a shot now that the person who made Veilguard has left the company.

I'm pretty sure more than one person made Veilguard.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

Let's face it, "just crunch forever until a game spontaneously emerges" worked for far longer than it had any right to. And even then, every game outside of Anthem ended up being Basically Fine.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Only cared for bioshock infinite as well.

Bioshock Infinite was Irrational Games.

 

[Dreiko]

Bioshock Infinite was Irrational Games.

Oh I must have mixed the various heads of the EA chimera up, thanks for that.

I'm pretty sure more than one person made Veilguard.

Yeah this was one of the head people who made decisions that others were forced to follow if they wanted to have a job, I think either a director or a producer, lemme double check.

Yep, it was the game director.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

Apparently Bioware hired the squenix guy to set expectations


EDIT: Apparently, EA wanted to sell 3 million copies of Veilgard in 2 months when the best selling game Bioware *ever made* managed 12 million in 10 years

 

[thebobmaster]

Apparently Bioware hired the squenix guy to set expectations

Or the same guy who expected Dead Space 3 to sell as many copies as Dead Space and Dead Space 2 combined.

 

[ExtraWildGames]

I could say that for a lot of Western game devs at the moment

 

[Gergar12]

Mass Effect 2 was the GOAT when it was released... So yes.

 

[BrawlMan]

I could say that for a lot of Western game devs at the moment

And quite a few Japanese game devs as well.

 

[ExtraWildGames]

And quite a few Japanese game devs as well.

oh trust, they're getting there.

 

[EvilRoy]

Apparently Bioware hired the squenix guy to set expectations


EDIT: Apparently, EA wanted to sell 3 million copies of Veilgard in 2 months when the best selling game Bioware *ever made* managed 12 million in 10 years

This came up at work the other day oddly enough, one of my teammates had EA stocks which shit the bed, and someone pointed out that the stockholders report indicated "1.5 million players" instead of "1.5 million sales". Which is really bad because stockholders don't care about player counts, they care about sales and the report sidestepping that number implies it's worse than it looks.

At the same time though it isn't mind blowing that BioWare isn't doing good because today's BioWare isn't the same as the one that made those old games. All the original talent is long since gone doing their own shit, working at other studios or maybe not even developing games anymore. I just watched a video accusing the industry of catfishing and although I don't take that fully seriously there is no denying the big players have a habit of scooping up defunct studios with good name recognition and nostalgia boosters and then walking them around like marionettes. THQ as a whole got that treatment, while 3DO got broken down and parted out and both really sucks.

 

[BrawlMan]

oh trust, they're getting there.

Capcom and Sega are doing great.Konami is trying to get back into the swing and is doing decent so far. Square Enix is restructuring. Bandai Namco is fine, but they're restructuring too. From Software are having the constant time of their lives! Data East and Sunsoft don't exist anymore. Atlus is still doing great. Arc System Works aren't having any major problems and are doing great. Nintendo? Dominating in their own sphere as usual. The rest are small niche comapnes with most of them doing well enough.

 

[ExtraWildGames]

Capcom and Sega are doing great.Konami is trying to get back into the swing and is doing decent so far. Square Enix is restructuring. Bandai Namco is fine, but they're restructuring too. From Software are having the constant time of their lives! Data East and Sunsoft don't exist anymore. Atlus is still doing great. Arc System Works aren't having any major problems and are doing great. Nintendo? Dominating in their own sphere as usual. The rest are small niche comapnes with most of them doing well enough.

Meaning more creatively speaking, then financially.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Meaning more creatively speaking, then financially.

Whether the games are good or not is something that you pretty much just have to decide for yourself, and it's unlikely that anyone's going to change their mind from either position just on the say-so of an Internet stranger.

 

[BrawlMan]

Meaning more creatively speaking, then financially.

Capcom and Sega are still pretty creative. Especially Capcom. They've been getting creative with their IPs again, since 2016-2017. Despite all of the Souls clones, From Software know how to mix it up, and they released Armored Core 6 back in 2023.

 

[laggyteabag]

Sometimes I think it is pretty strange how much stock we put into studios in the gaming industry.

When someone mentions BioWare, my mind naturally gravitates towards the Mass Effect trilogy, and the first three Dragon Age games. If someone were to say, "Oh, BioWare is making a new game", I would think about those games and how much I liked them, and immediately have a positive outlook on whatever is coming next.

But in reality, the studio that made those games that I love, is not the same studio is making whatever is coming next. Sure, the name is the same, and i'm sure the studio's walls are studded with merch from their glory days, but aside from probably a small handful of veterans, the majority of the people working on the game likely have nothing to do with the studio's past projects.

To my knowledge, nobody really does this about movies or TV or books. If Universal or Lionsgate were to announce that they were making a new film, I don't think that would elict an emotion from anyone, until they find out who is actually working on it.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

When someone mentions BioWare, my mind naturally gravitates towards the Mass Effect trilogy, and the first three Dragon Age games. If someone were to say, "Oh, BioWare is making a new game", I would think about those games and how much I liked them, and immediately have a positive outlook on whatever is coming next.

The same's true in reverse. Everybody heard that Konami had entrusted Bloober Team with the Silent Hill 2 remake and decided immediately that it would be a travesty, and then it came out: 9.2/10 user score on Metacritic, 8.6/10 from critics [for the PS5 version]. And the least positive professional review I can remember reading [out of about five] came down to "they did the best they could with an impossible task".