As someone who is also on the EA-hate train I also have to ask, does anyone think Bioware would still be open without EA? Was the company sustainable without them?
not if they kept putting out more and more DA:O's
referring to the development issues it had, not the final game's quality
By the way, have you guys seen the Glassdoor page for Bioware (http://www.glassdoor...iews-E22998.htm? What a hoot. Sounds like the place is circling the drain.
For real, it seems bad when they talk so candidly but doesn't seem too much different from other major tech companies around (at least here in Brazil the scenario is pretty much in the same tone of these reviews).
As someone who is also on the EA-hate train I also have to ask, does anyone think Bioware would still be open without EA? Was the company sustainable without them?
I don't hate the employees either. Except the ones who are jerks for no discernible reason and the ones with White Tears mugs.
Otherwise they're cool. But damn there is some backstage nonsense going around.
The one thing that's pretty much the opposite from what people have been thinking over the past few years is that if we're taking these reviews at face value, the problem wouldn't so much be that the old guard has been replaced with new people, but that the veterans that have gotten to positions of power jealously guard their own little corners and refuse to listen to dissenting opinions and aren't open to new ideas.
DAO was in development hell and bleeding money, so much that Gaider claims that DA2 was more profitable [despite not selling as much]. So they probably wouldn't survive for long without EA.
I still doubt that, DA2 sold a LOT less copies
As someone who is also on the EA-hate train I also have to ask, does anyone think Bioware would still be open without EA? Was the company sustainable without them?
I don't know, honestly. I think Jade Empire sold poorly and that they sunk so much into DA:O. However, they had built up great relationships with outside publishers such as LucasArts (Kotor) and Microsoft (Mass Effect 1), so maybe if they continued doing licensed work as opposed to their own IPs then they would have been sustainable.
The one thing that's pretty much the opposite from what people have been thinking over the past few years is that if we're taking these reviews at face value, the problem wouldn't so much be that the old guard has been replaced with new people, but that the veterans that have gotten to positions of power jealously guard their own little corners and refuse to listen to dissenting opinions and aren't open to new ideas.
Isn't that what totallynot!Patrick Weekes basically said about the ME3 ending disaster?
DAO took Bioware forever to release. It started dev in what, 2003? Came out in bloody 2009 and that was after EA bought them and became the publisher. It wouldn't of had a console release without EA I believe.
Great game, but I don't know if it was worth all the time that went into it. I mean quality wise it was, but financially it probably wasn't.
I don't know, honestly. I think Jade Empire sold poorly and that they sunk so much into DA:O. However, they had built up great relationships with outside publishers such as LucasArts (Kotor) and Microsoft (Mass Effect 1), so maybe if they continued doing licensed work as opposed to their own IPs then they would have been sustainable.
I like to think that had EA not picked them up Microsoft would have. Well, "like".
This thread... the drama is intensifying to the point where we may not be able to contain it.
Why contain it?
It's cool.
I still doubt that, DA2 sold a LOT less copies
Yeah, but I mean have you played DA2? Hawke and her adventures in the copy paste dungeons?
As someone who is also on the EA-hate train I also have to ask, does anyone think Bioware would still be open without EA? Was the company sustainable without them?
If Remedy somehow still exists, I think BioWare would too.
The one thing that's pretty much the opposite from what people have been thinking over the past few years is that if we're taking these reviews at face value, the problem wouldn't so much be that the old guard has been replaced with new people, but that the veterans that have gotten to positions of power jealously guard their own little corners and refuse to listen to dissenting opinions and aren't open to new ideas.
Bring back the Vince McMahon comparisons then because thats exactly why WWE has been failing so hard to be compelling television for years.
For real, it seems bad when they talk so candidly but doesn't seem too much different from other major tech companies around (at least here in Brazil the scenario is pretty much in the same tone of these reviews).
Apesar de empresa privade ter mais seriedade, Brasil é Brasil. Nepotismo, contatos, favoritismos, má gestão, etc são quase inerentes a nossa cultura. Pessoas que tem perfil de liderança também são porcamente trabalhadas ao longo de sua carreiras, então é difícil adaptar depois, ficam os vícios infectando a empresa.
Anyway, nothing is perfect, nothing is perfect for everyone but when people start to leave en masse then it's a problem. BioWare needs reform.
truly it could be held up as "how to cut corners 101" for future generations
And "How do we take a fantastic game, take away everything that made it good, make like two things better for a sequel, and have its marketing kill any sort of hype?"
Isn't that what totallynot!Patrick Weekes basically said about the ME3 ending disaster?
Oh man, I have so many totallynot!Patrick Weekes questions that will never be answered.
To be a fly on the wall in the office after that little bomb drop...
And "How do we take a fantastic game, take away everything that made it good, make like two things better for a sequel, and have its marketing kill any sort of hype?"
see that course title isn't nearly as catchy
Glassdoor
Not surprisingly, the German word is infinitely better.
I still doubt that, DA2 sold a LOT less copies
Bring back the Vince McMahon comparisons then because thats exactly why WWE has been failing so hard to be compelling television for years.
Just watch from around late 80's to the end of the 90's All Japan and know what true happiness is.
see that course title isn't nearly as catchy
iTried
I like to think that had EA not picked them up Microsoft would have. Well, "like".
Microsoft would have killed them by now or made them the new 'Rare'. Microsoft is allergic to RPG's for some stupid reason. Did you know that they had an Xbox One exclusive RPG in development by the folks at Obsidian? They pulled the rug out from under Obsidian and cancelled it at what was pretty much the last possible minute/last stage of greenlight which led to Obsidian nearly going bankrupt and the creation of Pillars of Eternity.
The N64 was released in 1996, and at the end of 1999 it was announced that Superman 64 was the 3rd best selling game of all time for the N64. You will find Superman 64 on every "Worst Game Ever" list you can find for a good reason. Quality and sales don't always correlate.
Yeah, but DA2 sold a lot less copies and was the inferior title
Microsoft would have killed them by now or made them the new 'Rare'. Microsoft is allergic to RPG's for some stupid reason. Did you know that they had an Xbox One exclusive RPG in development by the folks at Obsidian? They pulled the rug out from under Obsidian and cancelled it at what was pretty much the last possible minute/last stage of greenlight which led to Obsidian nearly going bankrupt and the creation of Pillars of Eternity.
I want to say Microsoft would recognize Bioware as being too big to do that to but who knows. All hypothetical.
What aren't hypothetical are those Glassdoor reviews.
Yeah, but DA2 sold a lot less copies and was the inferior title
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