101 réponses à ce sujet

[wolfhowwl]

Fast Jimmy wrote...
Being successful and being so insanely successful that developers try and copy your market are worlds of difference. Madden is a great franchise in terms of financials... yet you don't see companies making pro-football sports games left and right... simply because Madden has the name recognition as the go-to in the industry for that type of game. No one would go out and buy Rex Ryan NFL 2015, for instance. 

They used to, remember the NFL 2k series?

Then EA bought an exclusive deal from the NFL. 

[A Crusty Knight Of Colour]

http://www.winterwolves.com/

[Steelcan]

Well I'll wait and see DA:I before we see how well its been balanced.

It seems to me that BioWare REALLY wants to be a big AAA action game studio with RPG bits scattered in. And until they can nail down what to do for that they are going to have issues.

But I think it is safe to say that BioWare no longer, if indeed they ever did, has a 'style'. Their narratives are increasingly laughable, their games feel more and more rushed, they insist upon a maddening approach to expanding their audience, they cut down on RPG aspects, even their character writing is becoming a mess.

[Fast Jimmy]

Steelcan wrote...

I also think BioWare games have been suffering from a lack of clear cut genre.

ME was a pseudo RPG, part TPS, part story driven game, part character driven. This inconsistency was most apparent in ME3 where it seems to me that the game was supposed to be a massive action game ala Gears of War but still had to appeal to the fans of ME1/2 which both had a distinct feel, ME3 then tried to add its own feel but just felt like a mess.

DA2 took that then multiplied it

This is also very true.

The "Bioware" formula isn't really known, to their fans or others. This is DOUBLY so with the DA series, which seems to have an identity crisis with each release. 

ME did have a solid feel and level of expected game, but wound up leading the franchise into totally nebulous territory, such that it's sequeal is said to "not take place before OR after the ME trilogy." Which is possibly some type of alternate reality, or bizarre game that has you playing a background character in the original trilogy or whatever... point being, if DA:I doesn't perform well after all this special love and care it has received in terms of development schedules and dollars, ME isn't looking like a stellar IP franchise right now (that may change, mind you). 

And TOR is an MMO. I'm sure it gets steady content release and support, but I honestly haven't heard anyone talk about it outside of these forums in over a year.

[Fast Jimmy]

CrustyBot wrote...

http://www.winterwolves.com/

Oh Crusty... you so cray-cray.

[Fast Jimmy]

EntropicAngel wrote...

Fast Jimmy wrote...

...Bioware has more value with its names than it does with its games.

...

Thinking about developers, it's very interesting that EA gives such...power and control to its developers. I look at their (IMO) big competitor, Ubisoft (with almost as many employees), and Ubi doesn't have a Bioware. They don't have a Maxis. They don't have a DICE. They have Ubisoft Shanghai, Ubisoft Montreal, etc.

The decision to keep studios BOTH fairly independent (Bioware doesn't make sports games or Need for Speed) as well as keeping the badge (Bioware, Maxis, etc.) is probably a smart one business-wise...but I also find it vaguely noble.

Ubisoft is a developer who also publishes their own games.

EA is a publisher who owns lots of development studios.

I think it's more of a disposable asset mentality than an attempt to let companies retain their own identity. EA closing down Maxis is much different than EA closing down "EA Montreal," for example. Maxis was a developer EA bought and now owns... if they udnerperform, they sell them off or shut them down. 

Ubisoft IS their development studios. Not to say they are any more or less likely to shut down studios than EA, but I'd say it is more of a business move. EA bought Maxis for its IPs and its fanbase. EA doesn't want to confuse its fans by putting a different name on the cover of the game.

[Fast Jimmy]

EntropicAngel wrote...

Fast Jimmy wrote...

ME did have a solid feel and level of expected game, but wound up leading the franchise into totally nebulous territory, such that it's sequeal is said to "not take place before OR after the ME trilogy." Which is possibly some type of alternate reality, or bizarre game that has you playing a background character in the original trilogy or whatever...

I'll point out that you're not being fair, Jimmy. That quote did not say it would be neither. It said it COULD be either. It did not prevent a prequel or sequel.

Did it? I apologize, then. I mis-remembered what Chris had said.

[Fast Jimmy]

EntropicAngel wrote...

Fast Jimmy wrote...

Ubisoft is a developer who also publishes their own games.

EA is a publisher who owns lots of development studios.

I think it's more of a disposable asset mentality than an attempt to let companies retain their own identity. EA closing down Maxis is much different than EA closing down "EA Montreal," for example. Maxis was a developer EA bought and now owns... if they udnerperform, they sell them off or shut them down. 

Ubisoft IS their development studios. Not to say they are any more or less likely to shut down studios than EA, but I'd say it is more of a business move. EA bought Maxis for its IPs and its fanbase. EA doesn't want to confuse its fans by putting a different name on the cover of the game.

You have a point. A lot of EA's developers were aquisitions, weren't they...

I'm not an expert in EA history, but the ratio of acquired developers compared to home-grown ones is QUITE slanted in one direction over the other. Aside from many of the EA Sports developers/IPs, they don't have a lot that really stood the test of time.

[HiroVoid]

There was also that weird time when EA named the devs of the new Command and Conquer game 'Bioware Victory' at first if I remember right.

[Fast Jimmy]

EntropicAngel wrote...

HiroVoid wrote...

There was also that weird time when EA named the devs of the new Command and Conquer game 'Bioware Victory' at first if I remember right.

And then those idiots overrode fan outcry to develop it as a free to play multiplayer game, and then after over a year of fans saying 'WE DON'T WANT A FREE TO PLAY MULTIPLAYER GAME" the devs quit and refused to make the proper, real, reality-based-singleplayer-story game that C&C:G deserved.

Sorry. Little bitter about that one.

Yeah, I didn't get that. At all.

It also is like Mythic being rolled up under Bioware, as well. Two totally different developers, just thrown together. Like EA was trying to shuffle all the mediocre developers they had under Bioware, who would wind up selling units because there was a sticker with their name on it.

Modifié par Fast Jimmy, 03 janvier 2014 - 01:21 .

[Steelcan]

So who will make BioWare games when BioWare itself tanks?!?!?!

[Fast Jimmy]

Steelcan wrote...

So who will make BioWare games when BioWare itself tanks?!?!?!

CDProjekt. 

Assuming the Cyberpunk 2078 IP hits the ground running, they could become a dual-IP RPG developer that would safeguard the future balance of the universe for the years to come.

Until I win the lottery, I guess.

[Ponendus]

Fast Jimmy wrote...

Steelcan wrote...

So who will make BioWare games when BioWare itself tanks?!?!?!

CDProjekt. 

Assuming the Cyberpunk 2078 IP hits the ground running, they could become a dual-IP RPG developer that would safeguard the future balance of the universe for the years to come.

Until I win the lottery, I guess.

Actually Cyberpunk could be an IP that comes close the 'BioWare formula' from what I have read about it. Only time will tell though. I agree with you that CDProjekt is probably the closest there is though, although I really dislike fixed protagonists that offer no flexibility like with the Witcher (although I understand they had to do that with the Witcher franchise as it is based on established works).

[Rusty Sandusky]

J. Reezy wrote...

EntropicAngel wrote...
Never let it be said that I'm an EA drone, because there are definitely things like their treatment of Command and Conquer, or their destruction of the NFS franchise with Criterion Games, that I strongly dislike.

You too? Good, good...

i actually like Hot Pursuit.