I think it's time we stop treating BioWare as separate from EA. They are one in the same; BioWare is very much a part of the corporate pipeline now.
Yes, meaning some things may not always be their choice. If EA dictates something, they have to dance to that tune.
Perhaps I can sympathize with their potential situation better since I work in a corporate environment that has some similarities.
Take this example: I work at a newspaper in a small town. Our newspaper is owned by a larger company that owns several newspapers across several regions of the country.
Now, as long as we continue to make the company money, we are largely left alone. Our editor can redesign the paper is she so chooses, for example. The advertising director can decide to launch a new coupon book product to sell to advertisers and insert in our newspaper. Our web designer has free reign of our website to move things around, add or remove widgets, etc. Sort of like producing a game - we're allowed to choose what it is, write various quests, make landscapes based on what we think looks good/plays well, etc.
However, sometimes a decision comes down the pipeline. For example, our website was totally free since forever. An edict came down from on high - to ALL newspapers owned by this company - to put up a pay-wall. You could read five stories a month for free and, after that, you must pay to subscribe. Not everyone internally was happy about that decision. Certainly many users in the community - our version of "fans" - were unhappy as well. They just see us as us, not as our corporate owners, so that certainly strained our relationship with some of the community as a result. We were "the bad guy".
Want to know how much control we had over that decision, or if we had any ability to protest doing it? Absolutely zero.
If the timed-exclusive deal was an edict from EA anything like the pay-wall edict was for us, then I can at least empathize with BioWare's position.
Retour en haut
