64 réponses à ce sujet

[aries1001]

TJSolo wrote...

Bioware™ is under the jurisdication of EA.
EA picked the trademark name as to continue to ride the good reputation that name has, and place less emphasis on using EA Bioware as the moniker for this subsidiary.
Even with the Docs in matching VP seats of the MMO Group, they are directly below an EA president and low in the actual EA corporate hierarchy.
EA pays the bills and are the ones with the last call.

Yes, EA pays the bills and lay out the money (is footing the bill) for Bioware. Just as LucasArts did with KOTOR, and before that Interplay, and Activision did with Baldu's Gate. And Wizards of the Coast had in this instance the final say, the last call.There's nothing new in this; those who pay for the music also decide what music they get to hear.

The new thing is that the BioDocs actually have a seat ech on the EA board of Directors, they can directly influence decisions, and be sure that the other board members listen to them (and to Bioware). As for Bioware turning into EAWare, the only way to avoid this is to buy games from Bioware. A strong signal to EA, this will send.

[BlackFlameGhost]

Wise words Aries1001 speaks.



I'll buy the games so long as EA keeps their fingers out of the Bioware pie, the'll make more money in the long run if they keep the fans happy. Fans= verrrrrrrry important. You dont have to cater to them, but without the fans you would be nothing.



Point is EA, I know your checking up on this crap o.o



Dont get stupid and rush money making. You'll lose it in the end.

[Noilly Prat]

I know this idea has been knocked around for a while now-- pretty much ever since the EA acquisition took place-- but I really think that people are overstating the case enormously.  It's hardly the first time BioWare has ever worked with evil publishers.  LucasArts, anyone?  Microsoft, fer chrissakes?

I'll admit I don't really follow these industry shenanigans as much as some, and generally I think that one soulless corporate overlord is as good as the next, but you have to admit, LucasArts and Microsoft are pretty bad, and I bet most of us would agree they didn't drag down BioWare in any significant way.

Even before then, BioWare had associated with the likes of Interplay and Atari, who at various times have been accused of impressive feats of incompetence.  Whether you place any stock in this point of view or not, it's at least worth pointing out, I think.

I'm not saying that EA has not been or will not be a negative influence on BioWare at all; I'm just saying that I tend to doubt whether they are any worse than the company BioWare has had to keep before, and they made it through those days all right.  Personally, I suspect BioWare will be fine.  Of course, there will always be some people who will immediately jump to the conclusion that the world is coming to an end at the slightest sign of bad weather.

Edit: I must have missed aries1001's post, which I agree with.  Still, maybe the point bears repeating.

Modifié par Noilly Prat, 24 mars 2010 - 06:49 .

[FieryDove]

Realmzmaster wrote...

Without EA there would probably be no BioWare. BioWare and Pandemic Studios joined forces with a $300 million dollar cash infusion from Elevation Partners (private equity firm). Dragon Age (five years in development) along with other projects was rapidly burning through that $300 million. Elevation Partners was not seeing a return on its money fast enough. In 2007 Elevation partners sold BioWare/Pandemic for $860 million dollars to EA.. Which is how equity firms make their money.

The way I remember it is John Riccitiello left EA and headed up elevation partners got the deal for
the bioware/pandemic merge, went back to EA as CEO again and bought them.
It's possible the merger had not been good, but EP leaks money like water anyhow.
I knew the merger would not be a good idea and the whole thing just seems fishy.
As far as I know EA shut down pandemic...which is par for the course for them.
As long as they leave Bioware alone I don't care what EA does.

If wishes were free I would wish Bioware would leave EA and become independant and self-publish. EA is only slightly above the aweful publishers that Atari and Ubisoft are. imho of course

[TJSolo]

aries1001 wrote...

TJSolo wrote...

Bioware™ is under the jurisdication of EA.
EA picked the trademark name as to continue to ride the good reputation that name has, and place less emphasis on using EA Bioware as the moniker for this subsidiary.
Even with the Docs in matching VP seats of the MMO Group, they are directly below an EA president and low in the actual EA corporate hierarchy.
EA pays the bills and are the ones with the last call.

Yes, EA pays the bills and lay out the money (is footing the bill) for Bioware. Just as LucasArts did with KOTOR, and before that Interplay, and Activision did with Baldu's Gate. And Wizards of the Coast had in this instance the final say, the last call.There's nothing new in this; those who pay for the music also decide what music they get to hear.

The new thing is that the BioDocs actually have a seat ech on the EA board of Directors, they can directly influence decisions, and be sure that the other board members listen to them (and to Bioware). As for Bioware turning into EAWare, the only way to avoid this is to buy games from Bioware. A strong signal to EA, this will send.

Having a publisher and them having a role in development is one thing and par for the course.
Being owned by a publisher greatly alters the amount of influence that is now held over the developer, I hope the amount change in influence is obvious given LucasArts could not change the name of Bioware during the development of Kotor.

[TheMadCat]

Yes, EA pays the bills and lay out the money (is footing the bill) for
Bioware. Just as LucasArts did with KOTOR, and before that Interplay,
and Activision did with Baldu's Gate. And Wizards of the Coast had in
this instance the final say, the last call.There's nothing new in this;
those who pay for the music also decide what music they get to hear.

Not quite the same. Unlike before they no longer have any options, no ability to negoiate specifics, no real ability to control their own product unless it's given the go ahead. They have few choices and that alone can inhibit development. We've seen what happens with previous developers once purchased by EA; Bullfrog, Westwood, Origin, Maxis, Pandemic, DICE, Mythic, and a few others. Will it happen to BIoware? Who really knows as it's still far to early to tell, Awakening would be the first large project to have it's full development cycle under EA's control and can't really make any assumptions based on a single expansion.

But things do change (Usually for the worst) when a studio becomes wholely owned, it's happen many, many times in the past and will happen many, many times in the future. Once you have a fulltime boss and people outside your studio beginning setting your budgets and laying out your roadmaps. We'll see, I do think people are blowing it out of proportion but history does tell us being owned by EA never ends well.

[Warkwright]

The expansion Rude Awakening was just that.  Im not spending another dollar on these games, Ill just go replay the old SSI  games.

[AsheraII]

Seagull111 wrote...

Dear Pinkleaf (I like the name)
EA owns Bioware"
"In 2008, BioWare/Pandemic Studios was acquired by Electronic Arts Inc., the world's leading interactive entertainment software company." (from Bioware's website)

It could've been worse, like "In 2008, BioWare/Pandemic Studios was acquired by Activision Inc., the
world's leading arcade entertainment company."
In which case, we'd be sure that that the sequel would turn out to be a shootem-up, playable using a 1986 one button Arcade Joystick..

[Bryy_Miller]

BlackFlameGhost wrote...
Dont get stupid and rush money making. You'll lose it in the end.

There are 80 billion Guitar Heroes.

[aries1001]

Bioware, as I've said before, is a well-managed company. Pandemic, as I understand it, wasn't. The other companies, Westwood, Mythic, etc. weren't that well-managed at all - again, as I understand it. Origin did get a lot of money, both from investors and EA. And they spent it all very quickly, as I understand it. This meant that they didn't have any money to pay for development in the late stages of the development of their games.



And because Bioware is a very well-managed company what happened to say Origin and Westwood won't happen to Bioware - especially if fans and gamers continue to support Bioware.

[Legbiter]

Bioware has made a mint on their DLC's. We have no one to blame but ourselves for that.

[TheMadCat]

aries1001 wrote...

Bioware, as I've said before, is a well-managed company. Pandemic, as I understand it, wasn't. The other companies, Westwood, Mythic, etc. weren't that well-managed at all - again, as I understand it. Origin did get a lot of money, both from investors and EA. And they spent it all very quickly, as I understand it. This meant that they didn't have any money to pay for development in the late stages of the development of their games.

And because Bioware is a very well-managed company what happened to say Origin and Westwood won't happen to Bioware - especially if fans and gamers continue to support Bioware.

Admitingly I'm not well educated on how well managed these companies were/are, but given their immense amount of success prior to their acquisitions by EA I find the notion that "poor management" was the biggest player leading to their downfall a bit hard to swallow. Westwood for example, was at it's peak appraised to be in the top 25 developers in terms of assets. Mythic, again their success with DaoC and Ultima kind of make me scratch my head on the poor management idea. Pandemic, considering Bioware willingly partnered with them when they went to Ricettelo and EP and they are what you deem a "well managed company", makes me feel Bioware had quite a bit of trust in the way Pandemic was run and operated. And you didn't even touch on Maxis, which was a cash printing machine and almost doubled the revenue of Bioware.

To me it seems like your grasping at straws trying to find reasoning as to what will keep Bioware in a safer place. Again, I'm not saying anything will happen. But if companies like Maxis and Infinity Ward can be trampled on I don't see anything that makes Bioware untouchable.

Modifié par TheMadCat, 25 mars 2010 - 06:54 .

[SuperBaggles1]

TheMadCat wrote...

Yes, EA pays the bills and lay out the money (is footing the bill) for
Bioware. Just as LucasArts did with KOTOR, and before that Interplay,
and Activision did with Baldu's Gate. And Wizards of the Coast had in
this instance the final say, the last call.There's nothing new in this;
those who pay for the music also decide what music they get to hear.

Not quite the same. Unlike before they no longer have any options, no ability to negoiate specifics, no real ability to control their own product unless it's given the go ahead. They have few choices and that alone can inhibit development. We've seen what happens with previous developers once purchased by EA; Bullfrog, Westwood, Origin, Maxis, Pandemic, DICE, Mythic, and a few others. Will it happen to BIoware? Who really knows as it's still far to early to tell, Awakening would be the first large project to have it's full development cycle under EA's control and can't really make any assumptions based on a single expansion.

But things do change (Usually for the worst) when a studio becomes wholely owned, it's happen many, many times in the past and will happen many, many times in the future. Once you have a fulltime boss and people outside your studio beginning setting your budgets and laying out your roadmaps. We'll see, I do think people are blowing it out of proportion but history does tell us being owned by EA never ends well.

Maybe I'm mistaken on this but wasn't a DICE developed game just released and considered one of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful games so far this year?

Wow, EA really f*cked those poor Swedes...

Oh wait...

Modifié par SuperBaggles1, 25 mars 2010 - 07:02 .

[wrdnshprd]

Behindyounow wrote...

The price tag of awakening was fine by me. £15 is nothing, especially when games cost around £40 nowadays.

must be nice   if i had to pay that, id be fine with it.. we americans have to pay $40 (i.e. 40 american).. thus the resentment on the price.. if it was consistently cheap, i doubt the majority would have an issue.