Gaming EA Buys BioWare + Pandemic

[Hero of Zero]

[COLOR="SlateGray"]Argh!

October 11th may well mark the final blow to the single-player RPG. EA paid a whopping eight-hundred sixty-five million dollars to buy the company that owns both BioWare and Pandemic.

Basically, they get Mass Effect. ****. I don't think they can seriously harm the game at this point - to far along - but we can expect the usual in regards to support and patches. I.E. none. And the two sequels, yea they'll be rushed out the door as per EA mantra.

Not to mention the coming layoffs and other cost-cutting measures EA always uses to maximize profits. If I worked at BioWare or Pandemic I'd be scared ********.

The worst part is that this is a back-door move. EA didn't buy either of the two companies, they just bought the company that owned them. Dirty bastards.

EA has a history of doing this. They bought Westwood Studios - creator of the peerless Command and Conquer series - and turned them from innovator to ugly face in the crowd. Ever since taking over Maxis, there's been nothing but ****** Sims rehashes. Down and down the list it's no different - EA is where good ideas go to die. The innovation and unique, immersive gameplay that made BioWare franchises like Jade Empire and SW:KOTOR so damn fun are a thing of the past.

As someone I know eloquently put it - they're like the Borg! RESISTANCE IS FUTILE!

...

Discuss.[/COLOR]

[Panache]

Wow um your going a tad overboard aren't you? Most of the games that ive bought from EA have been quality titles. So I think this is a good thing rather than a bad one. I am sure bio ware will continue making good products as always. Oh and in my opinion the sims franchise has always been crap.

[Gavin]

[SIZE="1"]Argh indeed.

There really is nothing positive to be said about this situation. Whenever EA has taken over a company before, the games that have been produced have been inarguably inferior compared to games produced by the company prior to takeover, Westwood's Command & Conquer series being a prime example. This is going to be the same case with Bioware, which is a damn shame, because they've been the benchmark for all RPGs for God knows how many years at this point.[/SIZE]

[DeathKnight]

[quote name='Avenged666fold']Wow um your going a tad overboard aren't you?[/QUOTE]

[color=crimson]No, EA is a notorious publisher not only from a gamer perspective but as an employer. The stories out of their development houses are pretty hard to take. Video game design can be sweatshop levels of hours sometimes, but some of the things that trickles out from EA is crazy.

I don't believe that BioWare could ever make a ****** game, but EA's monolithic presence over them might cause the quality to dip a bit.

I could use KOTOR2 as an example funnily enough. Obsidian was pressured by LucasArts to release it in time for the holidays. They cut out some content and released a slimmer product that wasn't finished as they had wanted it to be. After playing through it twice, you can really tell how cramped they were.[/color]

[Panache]

It's not like their the only company that makes rpgs. Even if EA does screw the company bioware haven't come out with anything I actually enjoyed in quite a while. The last game I played from them that I actually liked was Jade empire and how many years ago did that come out? Also didn't they say they wouldn't make any more kotor? If that is in fact the case then in my opinion they had no future products to look forward to.

[James]

[color=#606060]This is definitely an overreaction, at least in part.

While many of the negative stories about EA are true, it's not all bad news.

I think you will find that EA probably won't dip into these smaller developers too much. They may exercise certain controls, but usually EA's size allows smaller developers to gain access to resources that would otherwise be unavailable.

So it's a double-edged sword really.

As far as Westwood Studios goes...I didn't particularly support their amalgamation into EA LA, but having said that, Command & Conquer 3 is a pure gem.[/color]

[Guest The Blue Jihad]

EA can redeem their sorry ***** by bringing back the most bad-asseriest of bad-assery sports games:

Mutant League Hockey. That's right. Mutant League Hockey. The only hockey game where you can flail the goalie till he's writhing in pain, then shoot the puck in, and then beat that fat **** till he [I]exploddddessss[/I].

[color=darkred][size=1][i]Pleeeeease[/i] don't bypass the language filter. -- BlueYoshi.[/size][/color]

[Allamorph]

[quote name='James][color=#606060']I think you will find that EA probably won't dip into these smaller developers too much. They may exercise certain controls, but usually EA's size allows smaller developers to gain access to resources that would otherwise be unavailable.[/color][/quote]
[FONT=Arial]That's what I'm hoping, but I won't be optimistic about it for a long while.

Friggin' sports games. I'd rather play sports.

Like Frisbee. (Or baseball.)[/FONT]

[James]

[quote name='Allamorph'][FONT=Arial]That's what I'm hoping, but I won't be optimistic about it for a long while.

Friggin' sports games. I'd rather play sports.

Like Frisbee. (Or baseball.)[/FONT][/QUOTE]

[color=#606060]It could go either way, but EA has some inherent benefits (as in the case of Valve).

In any case, I still think that EA's ownership of so many studios is an overall negative thing for the industry. [/color]

[Gavin]

[quote name='James'][color=#606060]As far as Westwood Studios goes...I didn't particularly support their amalgamation into EA LA, but having said that, Command & Conquer 3 is a pure gem.[/color][/QUOTE]

[SIZE="1"]Compared to previous incarnations of C&C, I'm just going to have to disagree with you there Jeh. Sure Tiberium Wars was a decent enough RTS, with some pretty graphics, but in reality it introduced absolutely nothing new to a series which pretty much defined the genre of RTS in terms of innovation and quality.

And Ken, you hit the nail on the head with KOTOR 2, fun game, but infinitely inferior to the original due to the time restraints put on it. If Bioware choose to do KOTOR 3, it'll be much the same situation. I mean we got two patches for a game as bug riddled as KOTOR 2 from Obsidian, so how few will we get from EA ?[/SIZE]

[James]

[quote name='Gavin'][SIZE="1"]Compared to previous incarnations of C&C, I'm just going to have to disagree with you there Jeh. Sure Tiberium Wars was a decent enough RTS, with some pretty graphics, but in reality it introduced absolutely nothing new to a series which pretty much defined the genre of RTS in terms of innovation and quality.
[/SIZE][/QUOTE]

[color=#606060]I think the reviews would tend to disagree with that. C&C 3 was pretty much critically acclaimed everywhere for being the absolute pinnacle of the series.

I think it's an example that the core developers are still very much in control of the franchise. It's largely the same team and the emphasis is still on quality.

The last C&C game was Generals...and C&C 3 really blows Generals out of the water in terms of the various improvements. That's a pretty good thing, considering that Generals itself really made up for the disaster that was Tiberium Sun (and considering that Generals pretty much defined 3D RTS games when it launched).

So if anything I think C&C 3 really brings the franchise back on track even further, especially with the introduction of the Scrin. It's not as innovative as Generals was, but then again, it's more of an evolution of the Generals design than a revolution (Generals really had to be more revolutionary by virtue of its design, I think).

The overall point is that many quality games are still being produced under EA. One look at Spore will probably bear that out as well, when it arrives.

As I said though, I'd be more concerned about one company owning many studios in general - the drying up of competition is always an issue no matter what the industry.[/color]