EA Still Confident in BioWare

[hooksashands]

This is a company notorious for saying "Good job guys!" the day before they fire entire development teams.

Nice knowing you, Bioware.

 

[Susan Arendt]

Who announces that everything is okay?

Nobody does that

When it comes to brains and credibility, less is Moore.

I see what you did there and I love it

they didn't "announce" anything it was comments made to a magazine at a convention. It's not like they called a fucking press conference to say that Bioware is doing fine.


OT: again this isn't news Escapist. Then again I can't really argue with this being reported because the escapist likes money as much as everyone else does.

So, by that assertion, every outlet covering this story is on EA's payroll as well, correct?

Not what I said. The only reason why shit like this gets reported is because it generates pageviews, this isn't news.

Ah, I apologize for misunderstanding your point, but I have to disagree that this isn't news.

BioWare has had two huge and one smaller PR disasters with its last three releases. DA2 was met with open hatred, Mass Effect 3's ending caused all manner of outrage, and The Old Republic going free to play has attracted its own share of disdain. These are three rather dramatic and very public slaps in BioWare's face - and they have another high-profile title in the works with Dragon Age 3.

And now here comes EA saying "oh, they're awesome and we totally believe in them." As others in this thread have pointed out, no-one was really questioning EA's faith in BioWare...until EA insisted they had faith in BioWare. It's a curious thing to do. If you care to tie that into recent events like the PopCap layoffs, you have to start to wonder if BioWare will face similar downsizing, and if any of that will be an attempt to change the fate of upcoming releases.

 

[Hitchmeister]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVtinv5LSnE

That's what i get from this.

I think it's more like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejCqVyROqno

Actually, what I would have liked to read in this report (though I probably wouldn't believe it) is that EA is backing off and letting BioWare develop they way they used to as an independent company and wouldn't be pushing for specific elements to be included, or deadlines BioWare couldn't meet without bloating their staff or compromising the games.

That is EA saying, "They made great games before we got involved, so we're going to let them do what they know how to do."

 

[Drejer43]

"Hey Bioware you are good at making RPGs right?"
"Why yes EA, Mass Effect is a big hit but Dragon Age 2 despite our claims wasn't our best work and lets not talk about The Old Republic."
"Well that is good because we want you to make a multiplayer Command & Conquer game to rival StarCraft."

HOLY SHIT EA WHAT THE FLYING FUCK ARE YOU DOING!

Oh god my sides.

It really is a head-scratcher EA did that though.

 

[pffh]

On the other hand, if Bioware had been owned by Activision instead, there wouldn't be a Bioware anymore. This news post would have been Bioware being closed.

I would almost prefer that, at least Bioware's death would be quick and clean not slow and having various body parts flying off and doing unspeakable things (Bioware Command and Conquer game anyone?)

Regardless of what the forums or what the generally gaming community has to say, Bioware is still a successful developer. They aren't going to be dying any time soon.

Bullfrog/westwood is still a successful developer. They aren't going to be dying any time soon.

 

[Kargathia]

But... it's EA, not Bioware, that I'm worried about...

Why would you be worried about EA? Either they go out of business, or they continue to entertain us with hilariously overblown evil-overlord antics and PR fuckups. Either option suits me just fine.

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

Bullfrog/westwood is still a successful developer. They aren't going to be dying any time soon.

No, they weren't. Bullfrog made maybe 2 good games, made nothing but garbage for years before they were shut down.

Westwood sufferred because the last few games they made were garbage as well.

But it was EA's fault! What do you mean, we can't just say that all the good parts of a game are to the credit of the developer, and say that the bad parts are the fault of the publisher?

Seriously, though, it bugs me that every time a company owned by EA makes a game with any flaws, those flaws are blamed on EA. Anything good? Well, that's a sign that the developer is good. Anything bad? Down with the publisher!

Seriously, the publishers have two areas of responsibility: manufacturing and marketing. Mass Effect 3's ending sucked? That's on Bioware. Mass Effect 3's marketing sucking? That would be on EA.

It would be like blaming Sega for Alpha Protocol being buggy.

You could say that with DA2, EA shortened development time, screwing things up, and that's debatable. But they had 2 years to work on Mass Effect 3, and people still say EA rushed them? That's the same amount of time they had between Mass Effect 1 (counting from the PC release date) and Mass Effect 2. If Mass Effect 3 is a rush job, so is Mass Effect 2.

 

[In Search of Username]

EA still confident in Bioware.
Everyone still unconfident in EA.

 

[Baconmonster723]

Anyone who is a sports fan here knows that this is the kiss of death. Specifically in American Football an owner giving his vote of confidence in a coach means that coaches ass is getting fired in short order.

All we can hope for now is that EA cuts Bioware up, the talented people left over start their own studio, and we get a whole new line of "Bioware" games that are up to their standards. Because the crap they've been shoveling in our direction isn't fit to use as fertilizer.

 

[Susan Arendt]

Ah, I apologize for misunderstanding your point, but I have to disagree that this isn't news.

BioWare has had two huge and one smaller PR disasters with its last three releases. DA2 was met with open hatred, Mass Effect 3's ending caused all manner of outrage, and The Old Republic going free to play has attracted its own share of disdain. These are three rather dramatic and very public slaps in BioWare's face - and they have another high-profile title in the works with Dragon Age 3.

And now here comes EA saying "oh, they're awesome and we totally believe in them." As others in this thread have pointed out, no-one was really questioning EA's faith in BioWare...until EA insisted they had faith in BioWare. It's a curious thing to do. If you care to tie that into recent events like the PopCap layoffs, you have to start to wonder if BioWare will face similar downsizing, and if any of that will be an attempt to change the fate of upcoming releases.

Again, they didn't call a fucking press conference to say that Bioware is doing fine. Somebody asked and this was the answer.

The only reason why this is even news is because the Bioware controversy generates pageviews. It's a good way to rile up the community. Which is why every time some executive at EA says something it's news.

Your hostility is completely unnecessary.

 

[Spartan212]

Ah, I apologize for misunderstanding your point, but I have to disagree that this isn't news.

BioWare has had two huge and one smaller PR disasters with its last three releases. DA2 was met with open hatred, Mass Effect 3's ending caused all manner of outrage, and The Old Republic going free to play has attracted its own share of disdain. These are three rather dramatic and very public slaps in BioWare's face - and they have another high-profile title in the works with Dragon Age 3.

And now here comes EA saying "oh, they're awesome and we totally believe in them." As others in this thread have pointed out, no-one was really questioning EA's faith in BioWare...until EA insisted they had faith in BioWare. It's a curious thing to do. If you care to tie that into recent events like the PopCap layoffs, you have to start to wonder if BioWare will face similar downsizing, and if any of that will be an attempt to change the fate of upcoming releases.

Again, they didn't call a fucking press conference to say that Bioware is doing fine. Somebody asked and this was the answer.

The only reason why this is even news is because the Bioware controversy generates pageviews. It's a good way to rile up the community. Which is why every time some executive at EA says something it's news.

So, what's wrong with that? The Escapist is writing articles on things the Escapist community enjoys talking about? Should they just print stuff that nobody cares about?

OT: I still have faith in Bioware. That's all that matters

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

Your hostility is completely unnecessary.

Redirecting the subject of conversation doesn't disprove my point.

Also, you read into that hostility, it was not intended on my part.

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.

Considering your general statements in this thread she was right to view your statement as hostile.

I'll reply to your other post soon, I'm just a little busy at the moment. Or we could continue this discussion with PM's if you wish.

 

[Towels]

If companies like EA were forced to take returns on games I think they would have an entirely differant perspective on what's going on. I think this applies to Bioware also to an extent, when they look at the sales figures it has little to do with their actual reception.

Yeah, but then at the very least no one would risk innovating. That's the thing about the Entertainment industry. If everyone who wanted their money back after being disappointed with the full product got it then less and less entertainers would produce, if any at all.

I understand what you mean by Fanboys drowning out the general consensus though.

 

[VoidWanderer]

Why does it sound like it was said in the tone of "This won't hurt a bit"?

 

[El Danny]

Am I seriously the only person that not only enjoyed Dragon Age 2 and Mass effect 3, but thought they were both absolutely incredible games that showed a great deal of astounding work was put into?

I still put the Dragon Age games as my favorite RPGs of all time.

Captcha: love-hate
This thing is creepy.

Most of us fucking LOVED Mass Effect 3, EXCEPT the last ten minutes where literally hundreds of hours of fantastic gameplay is discredited and banished to the realm of shit.

I didn't find the ending that bad, I just found it a bit naff... A couple of things I was confused about, but a quick Google search cleared them up. A certainly think all the bile Bioware received for it was completely unjustified, I'm no fan boy, I didn't buy the books, I didn't buy the comics, just enjoyed the games.

 

[Susan Arendt]

Your hostility is completely unnecessary.

Redirecting the subject of conversation doesn't disprove my point.

Also, you read into that hostility, it was not intended on my part.

No, but it does explain why I won't discuss your point any further with you.