EA take over Bioware and Pandemic

steviec

Pretty shocking news really.

http://investor.ea.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=88189&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1061844&highlight=

Hard to imagine this being a positive thing for either company to be honest. Personally I don't subscribe to the 'big bad EA' school of thought because they do actually take good care of a lot of their own franchises, but in this case I think these are studios that really stand a lot more to lose from joining the EA stable and we're probably going to see a mass exodus of staff sooner or later, before inevitable restructuring.

CiDeRmAn

Oh Dear, what will this mean for these too companies, Knights Of The Old Republic '08? And almost annual Star Wars Battlefront reheats, oh wait, we're getting that already!

But it is hard to imagine what two strong studios that are so well respected and can probably afford to make any game they choose and have publishers queueing to throw money at them, its hard to see what they get put of the deal, at least creatively, I mean aside from pots and pots of cash.

Ciaran500

Ahh crap

What does this mean for Mass Effect 2 & 3 (the story is a trilogy).

thelordofcheese

Ciaran500 wrote: »

Ahh crap

What does this mean for Mass Effect 2 & 3 (the story is a trilogy).

They get EA-TRAX and a mentally stunted commentator for the next two installments. While being sponsered by pepsi.


I do buy into the EA is bad theory, mainly because if you look at the companies that do get swallowed, the talented staff tend to leave shortly after and form another company, leaving the rest behind to work on the conveyer belt of sequels.

For example i met one of Ex-Bullfrog staff that stayed at EA when the rest of the guys went to form Lionhead. By his own admission he had plenty of offers to jump ship, but decided to stay put. His job since? To work on all the harry potter games.
Granted as a producer, and i'm sure he's earning good money, but it's hardly the same calibre as the keeper games (which he claims to have worked on)

Ohh and the guy was a total shill. Trying to question him about some of EA's more bastard policies was like trying to wrestle with a greased eel.

Jack Sheehan

Oh booo. Mercenaries 09' anyone?

KdjaCL

EA playing catchup to Activision by securing Bioshock 2 and and Mass Effect 2 3 and 8 they should back on top with the FPS Driving and yearly sports titles interpesred with other bankable products.

Mate of mine used to work for EA (offered me a job in LA working on MOHAA Spearhead :cool:) now works for ID and hated working for EA as it was a means to and end. he hated working there and was part of the overtime case which went missing from wiki :rolleyes:

The Spice Girls sold more albums than the beatles, gamers are fully understanding of how that happened now.




kdjac

koneko

Bioware is one of my favourite developers

This is bullshit
<Insert many sad faces here>

Sarky

;_;

Kur4mA

This is easily the suckiest news I've heard in a while. I despise EA sooo much!

mcgovern

Bad news alright, though I wonder what the story with the IPs such as Mass Effect is.
So far Microsoft have been making sure to hang onto the IPs when a developer is taken over who owned one of their premium titles, though Mass Efect hasn't proven anything yet....

User45701

EA ..... ea ea ea.
For years i have hated you as a company, 6 days ago i started to read allot about what you where planning for CnC 3 Kanes Wrath and i dont remember being so happy about a game for so long i can remember ive been saying what Westwood studios need to do with the cnc franchise then you go and buy westwood and make CnC Generals, what a load of bollox and then you release the 1/2story that in CnC 3 not to even ****ing mention cnc Renegade which is the only cnc game not to have a NOD campaign. **** you EA. But as i was saying 6 days ago i was happy about EA, you did good work, your plans for Kanes Wrath is exeatly what i have been saying since cabal opened up a 2nd front in the war against GDI.

So happy and then i heard a roumer about kotor 3, Ive heard bioware have already started work on it, thats its a closely guarded secret and you wont mention it till after the release of mass effect (which will be amazing) and then once thats released you where due to start the kotor3 media blitz.

Now EA have bought bioware. What to do what to do. You didnt even last a week. 6 days i liked EA as a company 6 days i was happy with EA's work. Stupid ****s couldent even last a week.

Why dont we have a smiley that lets you give the finger?

Kinetic^

:(:(:(:(:(:(
:(:(:(:(:(:(

Steez

It's not all that evil and sinister hearted - bioware and pandemic were previously under the control of a venture capital group, the head honcho of which was ex-ceo of EA. He went back to being ceo of EA and brough along his toys.

It's not all part of EA's plan to control the world, although you never know.

Nevyn

First black isle and now bioware

Creature

R.I.P. Bioware

Lemming

These are bleak times ...

FranchisePlayer

Lemming wrote: »

These are bleak times ...

Indeed has many other people have quoted the calibur of games delivered by Bioware will be largely diminished because of this recent action:(:(:(:( F**k EA

shawpower

Thaedydal wrote: »

First black isle and now bioware

On one hand I'm as annoyed about this as most here seem to be. On the other I'm secretly hoping that EA continue their trend to bring out sequels and we get Baldur's Gate III! :eek::D

I'd nearly forgive them for all their other ills if they do this.

User45701

ive thought about that myself shaqpower but look at CnC Generals...
My concern is that you will get what you want, and so will i, imagine how terrible it would be if the teams that worked on baulders gate and kotor leave there respective companys and then EA hire some tream of randomers to make the sequels? what if there bollox?

User45701

Got a message back from EA today
___________________________________________________
Stephen
Thanks for taking time to send the note with your concerns about EA’s acquisition of BioWare. I just returned from meetings with the BioWare employees in Austin and Edmonton and I think I can answer most of your questions.

EA intends to manage BioWare Corp and Pandemic Studios as highly autonomous city-states within the EA Games Label. Other studios in the EA Games Label include Criterion in London where we make Burnout and Black, EA Montreal where we just finished Army of Two; Blackbox in Vancouver where we make Need for Speed; Maxis in Emeryville where Will Wright is creating Spore; EA Redwood Shores where they’re finishing The Simpsons Game; Mythic, where they’re working on the Warhammer MMO; and EA LA, where they make C&C and Medal of Honor. So BioWare is in good company with a lot of highly creative people who also make great games.

I can’t speak to the future of the Star Wars license because, as you know, that is controlled by Lucas Arts. However there are a lot of people at both BioWare and EA who love KOTOR and are anxious to make more Star Wars games in the future.

Thanks for taking time to send the note and express your concerns. I know it’s unsettling when something you love – the BioWare team – changes a little. However I think you’re going to find that not much has changed. Essentially, they’ve found a publishing partner and a corporate parent that is going to take a lot of stress out of their lives and allow them to focus on making great games. But the proof is in the actions, not the words. So you’ll give it a few months and allow us to prove it to you.

Thanks again for the note,
Jeff Brown
Vice President,
Communications / Public Affairs
Electronic Arts
_____________________________________________

muppetkiller

User45701 wrote: »

Got a message back from EA today
___________________________________________________
Stephen
Thanks for taking time to send the note with your concerns about EA’s acquisition of BioWare. I just returned from meetings with the BioWare employees in Austin and Edmonton and I think I can answer most of your questions.

EA intends to manage BioWare Corp and Pandemic Studios as highly autonomous city-states within the EA Games Label. Other studios in the EA Games Label include Criterion in London where we make Burnout and Black, EA Montreal where we just finished Army of Two; Blackbox in Vancouver where we make Need for Speed; Maxis in Emeryville where Will Wright is creating Spore; EA Redwood Shores where they’re finishing The Simpsons Game; Mythic, where they’re working on the Warhammer MMO; and EA LA, where they make C&C and Medal of Honor. So BioWare is in good company with a lot of highly creative people who also make great games.

I can’t speak to the future of the Star Wars license because, as you know, that is controlled by Lucas Arts. However there are a lot of people at both BioWare and EA who love KOTOR and are anxious to make more Star Wars games in the future.

Thanks for taking time to send the note and express your concerns. I know it’s unsettling when something you love – the BioWare team – changes a little. However I think you’re going to find that not much has changed. Essentially, they’ve found a publishing partner and a corporate parent that is going to take a lot of stress out of their lives and allow them to focus on making great games. But the proof is in the actions, not the words. So you’ll give it a few months and allow us to prove it to you.

Thanks again for the note,
Jeff Brown
Vice President,
Communications / Public Affairs
Electronic Arts
_____________________________________________

What EA replied ? well that's a first maybe things can get better..

Gizzle

Thaedydal wrote: »

First black isle and now bioware

EA working on Fallout 3?! I'm seriously out of the loop.

Vegeta

EA intends to manage BioWare Corp and Pandemic Studios as highly autonomous city-states within the EA Games Label. Other studios in the EA Games Label include Criterion in London where we make Burnout and Black, EA Montreal where we just finished Army of Two; Blackbox in Vancouver where we make Need for Speed; Maxis in Emeryville where Will Wright is creating Spore; EA Redwood Shores where they’re finishing The Simpsons Game; Mythic, where they’re working on the Warhammer MMO; and EA LA, where they make C&C and Medal of Honor. So BioWare is in good company with a lot of highly creative people who also make great games.

Great games!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This guy is hilarious, I'd consider having to play any of those titles/franchises torture.

steviec

Vegeta wrote: »

Great games!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This guy is hilarious, I'd consider having to play any of those titles/franchises torture.

You're being pretty harsh in fairness there. Actually I'm pretty sure if you took all the released games he mentioned there you'd probably get an average metacritic score of 80% or more.

The Burnout games have been great, their last offering was a little short on new ideas but they look to be making up for that in the upcoming one. Black is also a good game according to most reviews, I haven't played it personally. The newest Medal of Honor is pretty good and brings some innovation to a tired genre. Will Wright's games have been consistently high quality, even if you dislike all the expansions for the Sims you have to admit the first game was highly original, and Spore looks fantastic. And then many of the other games they mentioned are unreleased or new franchises. I think Need for Speed is the only genuinely poor franchise mentioned there, and even that has a few high spots in its history (Most Wanted, Hot Pursuit)

User45701

Im at home now, dont have my work e-mail but i got another e-mail shortly with unsettling news, It confuses me though because when micropose shut down microsoft got the rights to the birth of the federation franchise but never made a 2nd game despite a community that STILL plays the game and a large community who are working on 3 different incarnations of Birth of the federation 2, one being german 2 being engligh, but thats just a bad decision on the part of microsoft not to make a sequil. As many have pointed out EA dont have that weekness....

However what i dont get was microsoft got the rights to Birth of the federation but in buying bioware they did not get the rights to the KOTOR franchise which belongs to Lucas Arts, EA dont have the option of making a sequel unless Lucas arts allows then and i know very little of the relationship between EA and Lucas Arts, Do that make many games together?

Vegeta

steviec wrote: »

You're being pretty harsh in fairness there. Actually I'm pretty sure if you took all the released games he mentioned there you'd probably get an average metacritic score of 80% or more.

The Burnout games have been great, their last offering was a little short on new ideas but they look to be making up for that in the upcoming one. Black is also a good game according to most reviews, I haven't played it personally. The newest Medal of Honor is pretty good and brings some innovation to a tired genre. Will Wright's games have been consistently high quality, even if you dislike all the expansions for the Sims you have to admit the first game was highly original, and Spore looks fantastic. And then many of the other games they mentioned are unreleased or new franchises. I think Need for Speed is the only genuinely poor franchise mentioned there, and even that has a few high spots in its history (Most Wanted, Hot Pursuit)

While i agree people do like those games I personally find them to be generally very bland and middle of the road. There are a few exceptions but I hate need for speed and burnout games (OMG a slow mo crash whoooot :rolleyes: ). I much prefer a nice arcade/sim game like PGR series or Ridge Racer. Its not particularly EA per say its just taking a nice dump is more satisfying than playing most of the games mentioned.

Yes I am being harsh but then I am an overly harsh bastard, generally something has to be really really good for me to give it any praise. Its a character flaw.

Mitch Connor

i'm a little concerned for the futures of the games Bioware and pandemic make, such as sequels to KOTOR etc, but, i'm not overly concerned.

EA bought the companies, not just the IPs (as they did with burnout a few years back). It is possible the companies could basically remain as they are, but with the backing of EA, which has some of the biggest cash reserves in the industry. Time will, obviously, tell but i'm not going to throw my toys out of the pram immediately. Afterall, it is now in th best interests of EA for Bioware, as an example, to continue to make top quality games, along the same lines as the games that have made them as popular as they are.

projectmayhem

Gizzle wrote: »

EA working on Fallout 3?! I'm seriously out of the loop.

fallout3 is being headed up by bethesda (elder scrolls), thank god.

as for this acquisition... i don't mind tbh. EA of late have impressed me. they've had the same yearly-updated games like FIFA etc. but shook it up with crytek, valve, DICE and so on. they were in a rut a year or two ago, producing the same crap year on year and got smacked around by activision, but they're responding with good games, and an answer to every other publishers' major titles.

User45701

Well to ake me happy ea have to make the new cnc game Kanes Wrath exeatly what they have said it will be, All NOD !!!!!!!
Then burnout 5 does not have to be great, ive seen the trailers i odnt really care, its is a great game to sit down and play with mates binned for a week
KOTOR 3, this is a must so if ea pull of a good Kanes Wrath and a good KOTOR 3 im happy, Burnout is easy once they release burnout 5 im happy i dont care if there is new **** or not im happy with just nerw tracks, which is why burnout would be best on the pc new tracks/cars are what matters not new things to do the 3rd/4th burnouts where both fun

Mitch Connor

I may well be the only one who thinks the KOTOR series is over-rated.

I did like the first one, but the second was a disappointment.

humanji

Tauren wrote: »

I may well be the only one who thinks the KOTOR series is over-rated.

I did like the first one, but the second was a disappointment.

I CAST THEE OUT SATAN!!!!!