182 réponses à ce sujet

[Kantr]

Probably? No, they'd DEFINTELY need to downsize. Maybe a 75% reduction in force.

I mean, a huge success for Bioware is 5 million units sold. Yet they have a development team the size of Rockstar, which make games that have revenue that exceeds a billion dollars for titles like GTA. The math doesn't add up unless you are a large publisher who can afford to invest $40 million dollars over four years to make $50 million dollars... except you do that over three dozen development studios, while also having mammoth franchises, like FIFA or Madden, that sells 20 million units or more every year like clockwork.



Like all those cinematic scenes, flashy combat and Multiplayer? Then you need to realize that dealing with EA's shenanigans is the toll you pay.

No more Mass Effect and Dragon Age if they split either.

 

It might make them release a sequel to Jade Empire

[Il Divo]

No more Mass Effect and Dragon Age if they split either.

 

It might make them release a sequel to Jade Empire

 

Isn't Jade Empire also owned by EA?

[DarkKnightHolmes]

Bioware actually enjoys working with EA and have more funds than ever. I'm not the biggest fan of their last few games but if they enjoy working with EA then good for them.

[Shelled]

bioware isn't even bioware anymore. The important guys who worked on baldur's gate and dragon age origins don't even work there anymore.

Some still do, but not the ones who made those games what they were.
 

[AlanC9]

...but after investing hundreds of millions of dollars into Bioware products (especially the TOR MMO), they won't. Not for significantly more than the market would pay for Bioware, given its current book of business and revenue.

You figure the sunk-cost fallacy would apply here, eh?

[AlanC9]

Well, for one, CDPR owns Good Old Games, which (as I understand it) is a huge source of revenue for them.

I've also heard that CDPR has a lower cost structure. Relative wages being lower and all that.

[Captain Wiseass]

You figure the sunk-cost fallacy would apply here, eh?

Only if you accept his premise that EA is somehow losing money.

[AlanC9]

bioware isn't even bioware anymore. The important guys who worked on baldur's gate and dragon age origins don't even work there anymore.

Some still do, but not the ones who made those games what they were.

Depends on what you figure made those games "what they were."

[AlanC9]

Only if you accept his premise that EA is somehow losing money.

That wasn't where I was going with that. He thinks that EA would want more money for Bio than it's actually worth. You can make a case for EA having substantially overpaid when they bought Bio from Elevation Partners, although it's difficult to make this definitive without real numbers. So, if Bio's really worth about $300 million, but EA paid $800 million for it (plus whatever they lost on TOR), it would psychologically be very difficult for EA to sell Bio for that $300 million.

Not that there's any compelling reason for them to sell Bio in the first place, of course.

[Shelled]

Depends on what you figure made those games "what they were."

Many things, but the actual director left after origins. So yeah... they were pretty much clueless after he left. Dragon age 2 kind of proves that much... and this steaming pile ? Yeah... seems pretty obvious the old bioware died after origins.

[AlanC9]

If you like. Since I like those two games fine myself, nothing's died for me. But this is one of those YMMV things.

[In Exile]

...but after investing hundreds of millions of dollars into Bioware products (especially the TOR MMO), they won't. Not for significantly more than the market would pay for Bioware, given its current book of business and revenue.

Oh, absolutely. I just meant to give a general outline of how it could be that Bioware would split from EA.

[In Exile]

Many things, but the actual director left after origins. So yeah... they were pretty much clueless after he left. Dragon age 2 kind of proves that much... and this steaming pile ? Yeah... seems pretty obvious the old bioware died after origins.

You mean Dan Tudge? Most people pine for Brent Knowles. This is a new one.

[Rawgrim]

Bioware actually enjoys working with EA and have more funds than ever. I'm not the biggest fan of their last few games but if they enjoy working with EA then good for them.

 

Is that why most of the "old-school" Bioware employees have left the company during the last 5-6 years?

[ShinsFortress]

No.  As far as I feel, Bioware will fold if it keeps up with they way it's going.  Maybe some of it's staff will leave and form a new developer.  EA are doing a good job of killing off the ME & DA franchises.

[Lady Harlequinn]

So we all know where EA's sub divisions came from and how they were obtained, but what about EA? If EA is so awful (and I feel the same way about them like most of you) since it's so bad, how did they become so successful in the first place to be able to buy out all these game companies? Something good had to have come from something somewhere causing them their money flow right?

[Shadow Fox]

So we all know where EA's sub divisions came from and how they were obtained, but what about EA? If EA is so awful (and I feel the same way about them like most of you) since it's so bad, how did they become so successful in the first place to be able to buy out all these game companies? Something good had to have come from something somewhere causing them their money flow right?

EA is just the new Activision.

[Il Divo]

So we all know where EA's sub divisions came from and how they were obtained, but what about EA? If EA is so awful (and I feel the same way about them like most of you) since it's so bad, how did they become so successful in the first place to be able to buy out all these game companies? Something good had to have come from something somewhere causing them their money flow right?

 

A combination of factors. Their Sports games, for one, tend to make quite a bit of money, despite having virtually identical content year to year, kind of like how people talk about Call of Duty. They also own SIMS, Battlefield, and Need for Speed. 

 

From what I've read online regarding the buyout, EA wanted a new series they could turn into a flagship, which they thought Mass Effect could serve as. Dragon Age I have no idea, since that development cycle was more prolonged going through various iterations. 

[CenturyCrow]

So we all know where EA's sub divisions came from and how they were obtained, but what about EA? If EA is so awful (and I feel the same way about them like most of you) since it's so bad, how did they become so successful in the first place to be able to buy out all these game companies? Something good had to have come from something somewhere causing them their money flow right?

I suspect that it's just another variation on investment, no different than any of the holding companies. Generally, a lot of money will make a lot of money and a lot of money can be leveraged in ways to 'encourage' small outfits to sell–encouraged in various ways . I'm sure it's the same with Microsoft or Apple, etc. I'd guess it's sometimes better to accept a buyout than weather out competition. Don't forget that EA's primary function was (is) a publisher–something that many software companies couldn't do easily back then, on their own.

 

BTW, the very first company that EA bought? A very successful Canadian software company called, "Batteries Included," bought out in 1987. I used their word processing program called Paperclip and a drawing program on the Atari. The 3rd company was Origin.

 

https://en.wikipedia...luded_(company)

 

And a list of all the gaming companies that EA has absorbed:

https://en.wikipedia...Electronic_Arts

[Lady Harlequinn]

Ah right I totally forgot about the Sims and Need for Speed! Both of which were great and games I played a lot in their way earlier days.

[Geth Supremacy]

Between the slew of complaints and issues among players who have compared pre EA Bioware to post EA Bioware, and the whole MS exclusivity thing, I wonder.... is BioWare planning to stay with EA once their contract expires? Or is BioWare waiting for the contract to run its course so they can break out of those golden handcuffs - maybe produce content on their own terms?

 

I only pose the question because I am genuinely curious!

 

edit: Thank you for clarification. I wasn't exactly clear on the BioWare-EA agreement. (Though some of the comments were unnecessarily snide.)

 

Ergo, I wonder if BioWare folks would ever break away and start a new company?

 

People forget.  If it wasn't for EA then Sony gamers would have never been able to play Bioware games in the first place unless it was on PC.

 

I hate EA and their bs practices as much as the next person, but facts are facts.

 

The only time Bioware will break away from EA is when EA decides its time for it to die because they no longer make them enough money.

[Hexoduen]

Were they? I am now curious to know of DAO's success!

 

One of my absolute favorite games of all time  Origins was a "staggering critical and commercial success " http://investor.ea.c...eleaseid=443674

 

Bio wasn't actually independent when they were bought by EA. The venture capital firm Elevation Partners bought a majority stake in 2005, and sold it to EA two years later -- making a boatload of money in the process, apparently.

Note that in 2005 Bio's new game was Jade Empire, which doesn't seem to have been a big hit. Mass Effect was years from completion, and DA:O further still. Bio was still coasting on KotOR money, but that only goes so far.

People sometimes forget that Bio was moving into action games before EA showed up.

 

With your post in mind I guess it made sense to let Bono & Co. invest in 2005, after all Bioware had to survive by sales from previous games until Mass Effect launched, and Bioware games are not among the cheapest ones to design, awesome quality

 

Being under the EA brand now I'm guessing Bioware has even more financial stability, as long as EA doesn't interfere too much I'm fine with them. But as a former Bullfrog and Dungeon Keeper fan, let's just say EA sometimes make me nervous.

 

https://www.youtube....h?v=GpdoBwezFVA

[Boogielicious]

Yep. DAoC was so awesome... if they only had run at least some advertisments. No one even knows about Dark Age of Camelot and Mythic these days.

It's still the best PvP MMORPG today. 13 years later games still haven't caught up to its brilliance.

 

You might want to check out the game in my signature.  Headed by Mark Jacobs of Mythic/DAoC.

[Sartoz]

Bioware is an EA game studio since the days of Dragon Age: Origins..

 

What you are asking, I think, is for the game staff to quit and start their own company. Unlikely they will do that, as these  are the new kids at the studio and appear to be only console experienced. To what degree is a debatable point.

 

The Bioware DA:O developers have left (I think after DA2). These are the "old" RPG and  PC knowledgeable developers and have started their own company.  Their new IP is an old style RPG called The Sword Coast : Legends.

https://swordcoast.com/

 

 

[Adanu]

Oh, but we both know that the devs should all just quit their jobs and do a Kickstarter, right?   I mean, EA isn't helping them or anything.  

 

The gaming industry would be a hell of a lot better for gamers if they did that, but meh.