http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20071011006083&newsLang=en
BioWare, responsible for awesome KOTOR and Jade Empire, and Pandemic are its latest victims.
This is a sad day. :(
My two favorite quotes from GS on this topic:
"to put the current industry into a little perspective, before more ppl go "oh no, EA, Bioware sucks now!!" (though i doubt it will stop), EA's bad rep came mostly from their sports games production which was known to work ppl nonstop to pump out game after game, year after year, without much attempt at improvement other than roster updates.
EA's actually done a lot of restructuring work recently and we really haven't seen the fruits of their labor yet. MAJOR restructuring including replacing many of their execs, dividing up their studios, gets all new blood to head those divisions.
this is a new EA frankly (at least on paper), and we have yet to see if they'll regress back to their old ways or really become something new and brilliant.
the fact that currently they're planning on generally leaving Bioware and Pandemic be is a good enough sign at least.
as for them selling out, people forget that the game industry is a business. it always has been. i get a kick out of the naive idealists that float about claiming "this is what happens when business mixes with gaming" as if its something new or strange. you want more great Bioware games, Bioware's going to need more great funding. its really as simple as that. philosophical indie gamer ideals don't pay the real world bills."
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"EA will likely have no effect on the quality of Bioware's games whatsoever. EA is *producing* the games now, not *designing* them.
Just look at Westwood. Being bought out by EA has not done a single thing to hamper the quality of their game design - Command and Conquer: Tiberium Wars is an excellent title, and every bit as good as (or better than) its predecessors."
Some great studios have been founded in recent times, too. Even if some olds ones get absorbed into bigger companies and do lose their quality, more great ones will spring up to fill the void.
Yeah Im not as anti-EA as I was before for various reasons. Bio-ware should be fine. Just letting them do their stuff alone should yeild tons for them anyhow.
How does this work?? are they considered third-party still?
Eh, Westwood Studios got absorbed into EA and still managed to produce awesome Command & Conquer games. Perhaps being with EA will get BioWare the funding they need to produce KOTOR3.
in before speedfreak's post
EA had better leave Bioware alone. I want my Baldur's Gate III.
Especially when they turn the Mass Effect trilogy into a rushed waggly Wii exclusive.
I mean, uh, they're a great publisher!