27765 réponses à ce sujet

[SwobyJ]

Next several months will give a bit more to speculate on, over time.
The next few months after that will give us solid details imo. (also DA:I launch period)
Then the next few months after that, we'll be just waiting for the damn launch date already.

Modifié par SwobyJ, 02 février 2014 - 08:24 .

[dead_goon]

I'm not convinced we'll get any solid details until after DA:I has launched.

[Malanek]

dead_goon wrote...

I'm not convinced we'll get any solid details until after DA:I has launched.

Any particular reason why? Do you think ME news, released 2-8 months before DAI release, would damage sales? I think they would want to focus on DA for about a month before to a month after it's release, but don't see a problem outside of this window.

I think we will get something solid (where it fits sequentially, something about protagonist, and a little bit more) within the next 6 months.

[B.Shep]

Like some people already said there was a really small time window between ME:2 and DA:2 releases so I don't believe they will hold any news about the next ME until after DA:I is released.

[Shermos]

I'll honestly be surprised if we don't get a trailer of some kind in March. If I'm wrong about that, than it's gotta be June. The game has been in development too long for Bioware not to have something out by then. And I'm sure said trailer will give us at least a rough idea of what time period the game is set in. The devs know what us fans are hoping for and they won't want to di anything too controversial after all the ME3 ending hate.

Modifié par Shermos, 03 février 2014 - 03:01 .

[Lady Sif]

Jay Watamaniuk ‏@JayWatamaniuk
At work attempting to punch sense into level using words. Unsure if successful. #Space!

[B.Shep]

He works on sunday?

[rallyfan]

Shermos wrote...

I'll honestly be surprised if we don't get a trailer of some kind in March. If I'm wrong about that, than it's gotta be June. The game has been in development too long for Bioware not to have something out by then. And I'm sure said trailer will give us at least a rough idea of what time period the game is set in. The devs know what us fans are hoping for and they won't want to di anything too controversial after all the ME3 ending hate.

I agree with you 100%.  I don't think it matters when DA:I is coming out. When Bioware is ready to show off NME they will, which should be soon considering how long its been in development.

[Shermos]

They won't tank. Both franchises are still very popular and the EA PR machine will get get the word out. I'm not an EA fan by any means, but one thing I will say is that they have the money to bankroll Bioware's games to the extent they deserve and fun advertising. I think Bioware made a bit of a Foustian bargain, but in the short term at least, they've got the money and resources to get some great games out.

[Shermos]

fund*

[EatChildren]

Fishstick wrote...

I only hope DAI is successful. If DAI and ME4 tank bioware will probably suffer the same fate as Westwood Studios.

Will be a long time before BioWare has to worry about the financial hammer coming down from EA. Mass Effect is one of their most profitable franchises, and ending hoo-haa aside Mass Effect 3 alone made EA a very healthy profit. In fact, the "Mass Effect" brand is probably EA most mass marketable and prolific BW franchise.

Dragon Age too, including Dragon Age 2, has been consistently successful in the market. Same goes for The Old Republic. The shift to F2P has lead people to believe it tanked, but from what I've heard the F2P model has been extremely successful financially.

That's something to always remember about BW. Mass Effect, Dragon Age, and TOR controversies, bad press, complaints, and very public issues aren't indicative of real world market performance. BW, issues aside, is a money maker, and a good one. The probability of a flashy next gen specific space opera via Mass Effect selling poorly is pretty low. And I think the same goes for Dragon Age: Inquisition, which upon release (assuming it doesn't get delayed into infinity) will be one of the first big open world RPGs to hit next gen systems (its only competition The Witcher 3). TOR got a new expansion pack only half a month ago, so something is clearly going right over there.

BW is in the green. When they start releasing market failures and EA no longer sees value in the franchises, then you can worry about them entering EA's fabled developer graveyard.

[laudable11]

Fishstick wrote...

I sincerely hope they don't tank either. I've been a Bioware fan since Kotor and all I want to see is them to return to that level again, but I'm just being realistic about the situation they're currently in.

                                                                                                                                      

Yeah. I hope the DA:I devs know if their game isn't any good Bioware will take a lot of heat. 

[Shermos]

EA needs to remember that games which focus on good stories and characters, as well as dealing with real world issues in an abstract way (like Star Trek did before Abrams) are what makes games genuinely popular and well loved. Good sales matter, but not as much as making good games. You make a good game instead of milking past success, and you will get good sales.

Publishers (especially the largest ones) are the problem with today's gaming industry, not the developers themselves imo. Publishers are obselete, worthless, and have to go. If Bioware can manage to survive and outlast EA, I am optimistic about their future and game franchises.

I've been watching Jimquisition videos from the Escapist, and he has this whole issue sussed out.

www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition/5268-Piracy-Episode-One-Copyright

www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition/8565-Copyright-War

www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition/5946-Why-Do-People-Hate-EA

(Sorry for getting a bit too far OT. I'll make a thread of it's own if anyone wants to discuss this more)

Modifié par Shermos, 03 février 2014 - 08:11 .

[ElitePinecone]

Shermos wrote...
If Bioware can manage to survive and outlast EA, I am optimistic about their future and game franchises.

I have a few issues with this, frankly. 

There's no distinction between Bioware and EA. The studio is 100% owned by the publisher. if EA ever got into financial trouble and shut down, BW wouldn't magically continue on unscathed. Even *if* lots of people weren't fired or the studio closed beforehand, all of Bioware's franchises are intellectual property of Electronic Arts. Wishing for EA's collapse means wishing that Bioware employees are gradually fired until the studio is shut down, and they never make another Mass Effect/Dragon Age game. The studio, as we know it, will never outlast its parent organisation.

Secondly, what would they even do as an independent studio? How would they get funding? This isn't the early 1990s. Games cost tens of millions of dollars to make, and studios not owned by publishers are *MUCH* more financially precarious because they're constantly relying on hitting external benchmarks. If anything, Bioware being owned by EA gives them more freedom - freedom to make bigger games with a guaranteed budget, as part of a larger organisation. Without funding from a major publisher, Bioware *could not* afford to make the games they make now. Team sizes would be smaller. The games would be less ambitious. They'd have less marketing support. 

The idea that all would be good in the world if evil publishers fell apart and game studios were free to make games is, basically, a fantasy. If you want AAA games made at the level of quality and scope that Bioware does, they have to be supported by somebody. 

[AlanC9]

ElitePinecone wrote...
The idea that all would be good in the world if evil publishers fell apart and game studios were free to make games is, basically, a fantasy. If you want AAA games made at the level of quality and scope that Bioware does, they have to be supported by somebody. 

Suddenly I find myself thinking of Gathering of Developers.....

[Sion1138]

ElitePinecone wrote...

Shermos wrote...
If Bioware can manage to survive and outlast EA, I am optimistic about their future and game franchises.

...
Team sizes would be smaller. The games would be less ambitious. They'd have less marketing support. 
...

Basically everything you said is true, but...

Games can be ambitious in more than one way. In fact, the pressure to sell past a certain number of copies and the pressure to constantly one up or at the least keep up with the graphical and cinematic quality of competing games actually hampers ambition.

Most of the money goes to surface features and marketing and therefore other elements have to be downsized. And furthermore, the games have to be made to appeal to the largest possible audience, which limits creativity.

I compare the issue to films, a larger budget doesn't guarantee a better movie.

Modifié par Sion1138, 03 février 2014 - 12:05 .

[ElitePinecone]

Sion1138 wrote...

Games can be ambitious in more than one way. In fact, the pressure to sell past a certain number of copies and the pressure to constantly one up or at the least keep up with the graphical and cinematic quality of competing games actually hampers ambition.

Most of the money goes to surface features and marketing and therefore other elements have to be downsized. And furthermore, the games have to be made to appeal to the largest possible audience, which limits creativity.

I compare the issue to films, a larger budget doesn't guarantee a better movie.

This is true - and I didn't mean to imply that smaller titles aren't being ambitious. 

I suppose the question to ask is - if "Bioware" as a hive-mind had a collective idea for a game, is it better for them to have a bigger budget, or a smaller one? Being beholden to a publisher has its downsides, but if they can make a great game of expansive scope that is compromised in some areas by having to be mass-market, that's a better outcome than having the most creative ideas in the world but no money to make them.

(And personally, I've largely had no problems with the ways in which Bioware's games have tried to appeal to the largest possible audience. Occasionally ridiculous marketing aside, I'd much prefer them to have a larger budget - if only because I've played so many wonderfully innovative games that are basically hamstrung by the developers having no money to polish or finish them.)

I think there's a place for both, but I currently enjoy "big behemoth Bioware making AAA games" more than I think I'd enjoy "indie Bioware making cool niche games with tiny budgets".

[ElitePinecone]

Fishstick wrote...
Alright, if we can't put in multiple race selection can we try an go for space combat?

Back on topic!

I'd love to have both, honestly. I was looking at Geoff Keighley's Final Hours of ME3 the other day and he actually mentions that the team considered space combat in the early days of Mass Effect 2. 

Given how much the studio is talking about "fresh" and "new" experiences, and seeing all of the new things they're doing for Dragon Age, I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of things that were planned but cut for the original trilogy end up making it into MENext instead. If it's going to be for next-gen consoles, and if they're rebuilding every system from the ground up for Frostbite, it's a great opportunity to totally rethink the series and break away from everything that was familiar about ME/ME2/ME3.

There was a whole system which was described in Casey Hudson's original design for Mass Effect (back in 2003) where the galaxy would have a dynamic online economy and players could trade items. Nothing like it ever made it into the games, but I wouldn't be surprised if something like that is in MENext - especially if they're focusing a lot on customisation this time around.

[bayofangels]

Space combat would have been stretching the fiction in ME2, let alone ME3. Who is there to fight, mercs? And in ME3, it's about co-operation between races - you are actively trying to avoid factions getting into wars. In both games you have a bigger overall mission to keep on track of.

MENext on the other hand, if set in new areas of galaxy on fresh frontiers... that'd be prime ground for space combat.

[Beerfish]

bayofangels wrote...

Space combat would have been stretching the fiction in ME2, let alone ME3. Who is there to fight, mercs? And in ME3, it's about co-operation between races - you are actively trying to avoid factions getting into wars. In both games you have a bigger overall mission to keep on track of.

MENext on the other hand, if set in new areas of galaxy on fresh frontiers... that'd be prime ground for space combat.

I've been calling for a space combat component to the next ME multiplayer for some time.  Not every one likes MP obviously but I think it could be a big addition if they had ground based and space based multiplayer.  BioWare has stuck this kind of thing in single player as well as in making the player use a gun turret, facing the reaper in ME3 etc.

[ElitePinecone]

bayofangels wrote...

Space combat would have been stretching the fiction in ME2, let alone ME3. Who is there to fight, mercs? And in ME3, it's about co-operation between races - you are actively trying to avoid factions getting into wars. In both games you have a bigger overall mission to keep on track of.

MENext on the other hand, if set in new areas of galaxy on fresh frontiers... that'd be prime ground for space combat.

It's also a bit unrealistic that an Alliance frigate (or a souped-up version like the SR2) could ever be challenged by anything short of a rival species' military or the Reapers/Collectors, true. 

I'm hoping in the next game that we have a smaller ship, maybe a freighter or a corvette if it has to be military again. I sorta miss the style of KoTOR, where the companion characters were the crew, and the ship wasn't a hulking great thing that everybody recognised at first sight. 

[Sion1138]

ElitePinecone wrote...

I think there's a place for both, but I currently enjoy "big behemoth Bioware making AAA games" more than I think I'd enjoy "indie Bioware making cool niche games with tiny budgets".

It's a matter of personal taste then. I'd still wait in line for a KotOR 3 on the Odyssey Engine.

Modifié par Sion1138, 04 février 2014 - 11:19 .

[Shermos]

The thing is that publisher backed studios vs small budget indie devs is really a false dichotomy. The days of giant publishers are coming to an end. They are obsolete and they know it. The entire entertainment industry is changing, thanks to the internet. The nail in the coffin will be a change in copyright laws in favour of IP creators rather than the publisher. That's how Bioware can survive EA; a change in law which invalidates EA's 'ownership' and gives Bioware control of it's own IPs. We don't need the middle man anymore.

[dreamgazer]

Fishstick wrote...

Whatever they do, they must do it well.

What's "well"?  The entire Mass Effect series has seen its share of criticism from certain long-standing BioWare/RPG fans.

[Lady Sif]

Corey Gaspur ‏@CGaspur
What do you want, or want to see in next gen games??