EA Still Confident in BioWare

[ThunderCavalier]

Whelp, it was a good run, BioWare, but this is basically EA trying to calm down the fans while simultaneously trying to figure out what parts of BioWare can still get a game to sell.

Of course, I can't say that being under Activision's care would be any better. Honestly, I love where video games have gone today, but the horrible, horrible streamlined corporate takeover where profit > quality due to high-end graphics and processing power has really shot our creativity in the foot. Yes, there is always the Indie option, but you're kidding yourself when you're saying that something like Mass Effect couldn't be made with such a grandiose scale behind it without someone like EA providing the backing.

tbh, though, we're just going to see more stories like this unless we can find some way for game developers to make truly unique and beautiful games without having to shoot either the quality or their own ideas in the foot in the process. That, or EA and Activision suddenly have a big restructuring and the new heads actually care about what games they're making, but by that logic, I'll be getting ready for the 2012 apocalypse.

 

[anaphysik]

EA Still Confident in BioWare
Moore noted that most of the problems faced by these games had little to do with the products themselves, all of which enticed the gaming community. Mass Effect 3 alone generated over $200 million in sales while <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/111932-Star-Wars-The-Old-Republic-Breaking-EAs-Pre-Order-Records>The Old Republic was EA's most pre-ordered game ever. The difficulties were based almost entirely on the receptions of certain game elements, which Moore and BioWare can use to better develop games in the future.

WHAT?
Ok. So, first of all, Moore just said, 'Our games being mediocre at best is not the problem that keeps them from being accepted by gamers.', which is obviously incredibly untrue, and second of all, how does he differentiate between "the products themselves" and "certain game elements"? Aren't the "game elements" what make up the game, i.e., the "product"?

You have to realize that he's talking not as a man interested in games, but as a man interested in money. What he's effectively saying is "people have criticized our games into the ground but we still made tons of sales, so what's the problem?"

EDIT: To clarify, 'the product' is what EA sells; 'the game' is what we're left with. EA's primary concern is with how many units they sell and how many pre-orders they get, not with what people think of the game.

 

[greenlinkboy]

"EVERYTHING IS NORMAL, CITIZEN. IGNORE THE FLAMING WRECKAGE AND PLEASE PROCEED TO THE NEAREST BRAIN-SCRUBBING STATION."

 

[Alex Mac]

I like all three of those games? /shrug

 

[munx13]

Translation: we wont be taking Bioware outback with a shotgun like we did with the others. This year.

 

[lapan]

Sounds like they are desperate for people to buy their stocks again.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

The NAME Bioware could still be considered successful yes, (for how long that remains true could be debatable with EA sticking it on everything.) The company itself, you could make a good argument that it's still going strong. Its just that it traded in a lot of goodwill and mulitple IPs in order to do so.

What the fuck does any of this mean? Traded in a lot of goodwill and multiple IPs? Could you use any more buzzwords? Bioware has done well, the last 3 games they made have sold extremely well. They aren't going away anytime soon. Regardless of what a few forum posters say, they can't change reality.

I mean they pissed off fairly large portions of the older established fanbase with Dragon Age 2, Large amounts of the ENTIRE purchase base for Mass Effect 3, and the slow decline of The Old Republic which went form a touted "WOW killer" to going to a free to play model.


In dragon Age 2s case the alienation of the fanbase didn't even boost sales, in fact sales of DA2 are LESS than Origins

http://greywardens.com/2011/08/dragon-age-ii-how-badly-did-it-sell/
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.274668-Dragon-Age-2-Sales

The fact that they cancelled a Awakening style expansion for it as well should clue you in to how it went.


The Mass Effect 3 saga... well that rotting pile of giblets that was once a dead horse is still floating around the forums and I expect it will continue to remain that way for a long time soon. The fact that Forbes started questioning how this would affect Bioware as a brand shows that this isn't unfounded.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2012/03/13/why-fan-service-is-good-business/


TOR, A very recognisable IP, something that very well could have killed or at least very well damaged the monster that is WOW, has gone Free to Play. Many MMO's have gone this route and have been pretty little profit earners for their developers but for something as big as TOR with all those millions pored into it...


Yes those games sold well, but portions of the fanbase on both sides (longtime folks and new ones) have sworn off the Bioware brand due to the issues in them. This is the point I was trying to make, that while succesful, they damaged the brand image of Bioware. Something that isn't easily fixed.

 

[chainguns]

What the fuck does any of this mean? Traded in a lot of goodwill and multiple IPs? Could you use any more buzzwords? Bioware has done well, the last 3 games they made have sold extremely well. They aren't going away anytime soon. Regardless of what a few forum posters say, they can't change reality.

There are no buzzwords, just plain English. What it means is: BioWare used its solid fan loyalty (aka "Goodwill") and the reputation of its top-notch previous game series' (aka "IPs") to offload tons of copies of mediocre games (that would on their own merits - ie without the aforementioned goodwill and IP exploitation - not have sold anywhere near as well). Because people trusted BioWare and they enjoyed the previous excellent games, the mediocre ones (ME3, DA2 and SW:TOR) sold well. However, as the saying goes, you can shear a sheep many times, but you can only slaughter it once. BioWare have chosen to slaughter its sheep so there may be lots of meat now from that (and that's why Peter in this interview can see nothing wrong), but there can be no more shearing. The next BioWare games will need to actually be good to sell as well as the last cash ins.

 

[EHKOS]

I never played the Mass Effect series just out of personal taste, but I recently started playing SWTOR and I gotta say, it's a pretty damn good game.

 

[elilupe]

-snip-

WHAT?
Ok. So, first of all, Moore just said, 'Our games being mediocre at best is not the problem that keeps them from being accepted by gamers.', which is obviously incredibly untrue, and second of all, how does he differentiate between "the products themselves" and "certain game elements"? Aren't the "game elements" what make up the game, i.e., the "product"?

You have to realize that he's talking not as a man interested in games, but as a man interested in money. What he's effectively saying is "people have criticized our games into the ground but we still made tons of sales, so what's the problem?"

EDIT: To clarify, 'the product' is what EA sells; 'the game' is what we're left with. EA's primary concern is with how many units they sell and how many pre-orders they get, not with what people think of the game.

And that is exactly what depresses me heavily. It's people like Moore that make me thankful for the small group of industry leaders like Peter Molyneux, Hideo Kojima, Sid Meier, Will Wright, Lord British, etc. Yeah, maybe their games aren't always perfect shining pillars of amazing-ness, but they are motivated not by money, but by passion for gaming and the drive to do interesting things.

 

[WonderWillard]

It's a little aggravating to go to the comments and see that it is largely an EA-hate circle jerk. This statement is becoming a much bigger deal than it should be, I think it's just an EA guy going, "yeah, Bioware games have been selling pretty well." EA may have done some terrible marketing jobs, pissed off a lot of gamers with Origin, bought out smaller companies, etc, but every AAA gaming publisher out there is shitty in its own special ways. Just like Ubisoft with their pants-on-head retarded/oblivious attitude towards PC gamers and the worst fucking DRM ever, Microsoft with their... Missed-place effort in diversifying the 360, and Activision with their attempts to strangle innovation in the gaming industry.

I guess bottom line, it's hard to hate EA when every other publisher fucks up too. And anyone who thinks that EA "breathes down Bioware's necks," forces them to cut corners, or that Bioware has been corrupted blah blah blah... Go watch "The Final Hours of Mass Effect 3" app. I gained a serious amount of respect for Casey Hudson and the rest of the team after watching it.

 

[johnnnny guitar]

Yep I'm sure your still confident will Bioware now that you're milking Bioware in it's name and franchises more than ever before

 

[Zortack]

Short term thinking is EA's thing you see. The fact that Bioware has soiled it's own good name is a long term problem, so they don't see/care.

 

[CarlMin]

Good on EA for standing behind their developers.

 

[Captain Pancake]

The games are fine, fans are just whiny bitches who judge ME3 on the ending rather than the 10-20 hours of gripping gameplay that came before it.

 

[Vanitas likes Bubbles]

Man, as soon as EA says something people will jump on it like a pack of wild dogs. EA aren't as evil has you wish they were. They don't run over dogs and sue the owner then eat the dogs corpse after raping it. As for Bioware, they still make good games at least in my opinion and the majority of people that hate them are either extremely (and somewhat irrationally) butt hurt or just bandwagon haters.

 

[The Lunatic]

EA: "We're sticking firmly behind our cash cow!"

"Because, damn, it's all we've got left."