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[test_account]

It is just the proper thing to do. Like calling an older man you don't know 'sir.'

It takes a lot of work to become a 'doctor' in the academic sense or become president. Society likes to lay praise upon those who do very impressive things.

Becoming a doctor is a great achievement for sure. And what you say here is the reason why they're being called it indeed. I still think it sounds a bit weird to be highlighted for an education only though when they dont practice it at all. Personally i refer to ex-presidents as 'former president'. Being called for something by title sounds like they are practicing it, which isnt the case here. Maybe one reason for why i have this view is because its very uncommon in my country to refer to people like this unless it is being said in a relevant case (we pretty much never say "sir" either). I'm not trying to take anything away from them, Greg and Ray have done really great stuff within the gaming industry, so they deserve a lot of repsect for that

 

[sinseers]

I am glad they are leaving. Please start a new studio and FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, do NOT sell your studio to EA. End of today's lesson....

 

[Harlock]

If I had the money they have I would do the same. Fuck work, let's enjoy life.

 

[sflufan]

They've tried to buy both before (TTWO for $2 bil and Valve for $1 bil) and they'll try again.

They might try for Activision, too. Vivendi wants to unload them.

You're really not all that aware of EA's precarious market capitalization position, right?

 

[Sulik2]

I have a hard time imagining they would be completely quitting the gaming world if they had not been bought by EA.

 

[sinseers]

I wish them the best. Hopefully whatever they start next they'll know not to get involved with EA now.

I second that whole-heartedly.

 

[FStop7]

This is one of the first times i've seen they've not been referred to as doctors (which made little sense to me in the first place, concidering their PhD has nothing to do with games as far as i know). But interesting to see what will happen further with Bioware.

They are practicing MDs.

 

[Patryn]

Damn.

Oh well. Bioware was the past. Obsidian, takes us to the future!

They are practicing MDs.

No. They're not practicing, but they're both licensed Doctors. In fact, the original aim of Bioware was to make medical software (hence the name). They kind of stumbled into game development.

 

[Imp the Dimp]

And on a sidenote: Was Black Isle involved in the process of making Baldur's Gate 2? I mean, the difference between BG2 and the second best Bioware game is a fucking landslide - Baldur's Gate 2 was unlike anything they've done before and did ever since. It was also a huge improvement over the first one.

 

[Sipowicz]

Wow. I wonder if they'll start a new company.

if they do i cant see anyone buying their shit (and shit it will be)

both they and bioware have been trading on their past for far too long. it's time they faded into oblivion

and hopefully EA along with them

 

[test_account]

They are practicing MDs.

Really? I've always heard that they are being called doctors because of their education only. That they met eachother at the university, and then decided to go into the gaming industry instead. But if they practice it, at least then it makes more sense.

 

[Amagon]

RIP Bioware

You should had made a sequel to Jade Empire, goddammit!

 

[Sentenza]

While I agree that you could make Baldur's Gate today, for quite some time it really did seem like the market for that sort of game was gone or was in the process of evaporating.

I know many PC gamers don't like to admit this, but 2001-2006 were dark times for the platform, financially. Revenue really was going down, and the "PC is dying" meme was not some absurd claim that only console die hards make; it was a rational, plausible scenario. The PS2 took it to the PC as a gaming platform pretty hard, with that single, lone platform representing something like 70% of the entire gaming market by revenue. Think about that.

But the PS3/360 have not stuck it to PC gaming nearly as hard as their predecessors did; PC gaming has been growing year over year since 2006 or so, often by leaps and bounds. Today, there is most definitely a market for games on PC, as Obsidian's Project Eternity testifies to.

But when Bioware made their shift -- a shift not only to a console focus, but towards a specific, non-BG style of design -- it was not crazy to believe that the days of BG-esque games were numbered. PC seemed to be on its way out. Consoles and dudebro were on the rise. What may seem like an obvious mistake now seemed like an inevitable conclusion in 2005.

I think you should read these quotes from a 2010 interview with the head of Obsidian:

GB: See, as a PC gamer myself, a zoomed-out viewpoint is my first choice. The Infinity Engine had about the perfect perspective for me.

Feargus: Infinity Engine games, I love them. I didn’t play as many hours as Ray did, but I put like 150 hours into Baldur’s Gate II. I loved it. The games were awesome, and it's strange because it’s not like the sales on them went like this [makes a downward slope with his hand]. We just stopped making them. It wasn’t like, "Oh, no one’s buying them anymore, let’s stop making them." It wasn’t that consumers weren’t interested, it was the publishers that weren’t interested.

also...

GB: It'd be great to see you guys go and do your own thing. I mean, look at the success of the Infinity Engine. I'd like to see BioWare release it to the community or let you guys go crazy with it with a small team of five or six guys. You wouldn’t have to sell millions of copies. Maybe just do a small project, because there’s a lot of people out there who would just love to play a new Infinity Engine-style game again.

Feargus: I don’t want to say it’s a remark on our industry or anything like that, but I remember when we started up Obsidian and I was trying to talk about a lot of different kinds of games. And one of them was to go off and do something like that. Part of it at the time - I think it would maybe be a little bit different now - but part of it was just the PC was a persona non grata in the 2003-2004 timeframe.

Everybody just wanted console. Console this, console that. The publishers, they’re seeing that GameStop doesn’t carry much PC. It’s not sexy anymore. WoW is taking all the money. I don’t know, I think it might be easier now just because you have Steam, you have Direct2Drive, and all these other distribution methods to do something like that.

Have you played A Farewell to Dragons?


GB: It's part of my Steam collection, but I haven’t tried it yet.

Feargus: Yeah. See, it’s... it’s not great. That’s kind of the gist I got out of it. I tried because I was thinking it was going to be kind of a Baldur's Gate-style/Infinity Engine kind of game and it didn’t turn out that way. There are elements that are good. It’s just kind of rough. But for a couple million dollars, I know we could make a really good Infinity Engine game.

When you read stuff like that things start looking a bit complex.
In this case it's not like developers were deserting the PC because there was no market.
It's the other way around: the market started shrinking at that time exactly *because* developers were deserting the platform.

 

[Trigger]

RIP Bioware

You should had made a sequel to Jade Empire, goddammit!

Yes plz

 

[Orca]

I am glad they are leaving. Please start a new studio and FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, do NOT sell your studio to EA. End of today's lesson....

They didn't sell BioWare to EA. It was an unintended consequence of a 2005 deal with Elevation Partners, along with Pandemic as VG Holding Corp, that they believed would help the company be stable and independent, economically speaking, as it grew.

Didn't exactly work out.

 

[BFIB]

BioWare to be renamed VaporWare.

 

[El Sloth]

Segata was completly right, holy fuck.

Talk about vindication. Too bad he doesn't post here anymore.

 

[eot]

Next one is DICE.

I think they had some major departures from the BF3 team but I guess the founders are still there.

 

[FStop7]

No. They're not practicing, but they're both licensed Doctors. In fact, the original aim of Bioware was to make medical software (hence the name). They kind of stumbled into game development.

I am pretty sure I recall at least one of them said he still has a medical practice during the press tour for either ME1 or ME2, maybe it's changed since then. Or I could be remembering it wrong.

Really? I've always heard that they are being called doctors because of their education only. That they met eachother at the university, and then decided to go into the gaming industry instead. But if they practice it, at least then it makes more sense.

They were full time physicians before BioWare and through the early days.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

When you read stuff like that things start looking a bit complex.
In this case it's not like developers were deserting the PC because there was no market.
It's the other way around: the market started shrinking at that time exactly *because* developers were deserting the platform.

It's complex? Maybe business guru Herve Caen can clear things up with his coherent plan to save interplay.

GameSpy: One thing that has taken place since Titus came into the picture about two years ago was that there has been a strong shift at Interplay to console titles. A lot less PC titles are coming out. Was that caused by Titus' strength in the console area or was it because the next-gen consoles are starting to really look appealing?

Herve Caen: Yes that was dictated by the market. The market is more console than PC these days. Interplay didn't move away from PC, Interplay is still doing PC games and RPGs, which Interplay knows how to do. But when it comes down to doing an action game or driving game on the PC, just doesn't make sense to do that.

So you have the choice to either remain a very small company and just do RPGs for PC and then you have to be really small and at that level of size, you mainly have to be a developer. You can't be a developer and publisher and distributor. And as a public company if you want to survive you have to keep a certain size and you have necessarily to move into the console business. This is not two separate businesses -- it is all about video games. Some consumers play them on PC, some others play then on console.

So it has nothing really to do with Titus as Interplay is being run independently from Titus. My background from creating Titus fifteen years ago, I did different things at Titus before than I'm doing at Interplay now. So really it has nothing to do or dictated by Titus. Just makes sense from a business standpoint and what the consumers want. And they wanted to see Baldur's Gate on console and we had to do it.

 

[vaelic]

this didnt take long, eh?

http://www.thebeerdiaries.tv/

 

[OldJadedGamer]

The only Bioware game I boight was the original Knights of the Old Republic. Then had a game breaking bug 50 hours in so stopped playing.

 

[Sentenza]

It's complex? Maybe business guru Herve Caen can clear things up with his coherent plan to save interplay.

Well, that worked pretty well for them.

 

[B.O.O.M]

Pretty much. BOOM, now that's a Mass Effect.

you called?


bad news indeed. But best of luck to both of them in the future

 

[Huevos de Oro]

Damn that was unexpected. I wonder if their departure will have any effect in the current direction of the company, as far as game development goes.

 

[ChosenPredator]

Time for the new breed to rise

 

[Tashi]

Whoa!

Good luck to both of them in the future and thanks for the awesome games.

 

[kitzkozan]

Damn that was unexpected. I wonder if their departure will have any effect in the current direction of the company, as far as game development goes.

If EA handpick people to replace them, what do you think? :]

 

[Opiate]

I think you should read these quotes from a 2010 interview with the head of Obsidian:


also...



When you read stuff like that things start looking a bit complex.
In this case it's not like developers were deserting the PC because there was no market.
It's the other way around: the market started shrinking at that time exactly *because* developers were deserting the platform.

Right, I was talking about the PC Market as a whole, which indisputably dropped in revenue over the course of the early 2000s.

 

[Shake Appeal]

Wait, didn't they functionally retire years ago? At least we can nail the coffin shut now. Goodnight, once proud developer.

 

[AppleMIX]

Wait, didn't they functionally retire years ago? At least we can nail the coffin shut now. Goodnight, once proud developer.

That what I was thinking. Anyways best of luck to them.

 

[Terra_Ex]

Well I'm sure they made a fair bit out of the EA deal. Now the assimilation is complete its time to move on, hardly unexpected.

 

[jett]

buh-bye

 

[Acosta]

So after 5 years in EA, two guys so passionate for CRPGs that left their secure careers as doctors to make Baldur's Gate with a completely unexperienced team decide not only to leave the company they funded, but to leave videogames forever.

This company should be banned to purchase any other studio, it´s the scourge of the industry.

How many studios have been ruined by EA?

Bullfrog
Origin
Westwood
Maxis
Pandemic

And let's not forget that Mythic a shadow of itself.

The management must be so epically bad that they manage to be historically consistent on ruining some of the most talented and brilliant developers in the story. Their desperation to grow at any cost into whatever field they perceive is profitable and trendy will destroy them at long term.

Dear independent studios, don't sell yourselves to EA, for your own sake.

Said that, goodbye doctors, you made a beautiful thing. Thanks for everything (except for the mistake of trusting Riccitiello).

 

[xenist]

Wait, didn't they functionally retire years ago? At least we can nail the coffin shut now. Goodnight, once proud developer.

They kept fading to the background and doing mostly business stuff. And, surprise of surprises, the quality of the games kept going down the further the doctors were from development.

 

[Nirolak]

Wait, didn't they functionally retire years ago? At least we can nail the coffin shut now. Goodnight, once proud developer.

Well, they weren't hands on directing any projects if that's what you mean, but they were still overseeing the direction of the company.

Think a bit of like what Sakaguchi did in the FFVII-FFX era.

 

[Fjordson]

Really have no interest in BioWare's games at this point, so no clue if this is good or bad for the company. I suppose for the sake of the jobs of everyone still there I hope things stay stable.

 

[ZombieSupaStar]

Why do we automatically assume that it's EAs fault that they're both leaving? Why can't it simply be that after nearly twenty years they really do want to do something else with their lives? EA does a lot of negative things but I don't think it's fair to blame them for every single thing that happens, especially this.

If it was any other company other than EA, I could give the benefit of the doubt. But it being EA? These jokes just write themselves at this point.

 

[Dakota47]

This was just posted by @TychoBrahe from PA:

Khoo and I looked at the date of the Bioware buyout/today's announcement. Probably isn't a coincidence that it's almost 5 years exactly.

As somebody with a company people are always trying to buy, this is almost textbook. Acquisition with a five year "backend" payout.

Makes sense. Business sense that is.

 

[Mysterious Stranger]

Wow. That's all can you say.

 

[Sysgen]

How long did it take such an elite brand to be destroyed. Perhaps a new industry record.

 

[Woorloog]

Why do we automatically assume that it's EAs fault that they're both leaving? Why can't it simply be that after nearly twenty years they really do want to do something else with their lives? EA does a lot of negative things but I don't think it's fair to blame them for every single thing that happens, especially this.

This is NeoGAF dude, can't like EA or assume anything other than that EA is responsible.
People don't change, they'll stick with whatever they're doing, if not, they were fired or pressured to changing...

Hope they're happy whatever they choose to do now.

 

[Technosteve]

Is this bad or good thing they left? I don't know how to feel as the last game i wholly enjoyed was mass effect 1 and not a fan of the sequels.

 

[Sentenza]

Is this bad or good thing they left?

Let's put it in this way: regardless of their contribution to direct development (probably close to zero in the last years) if they still had any sort of grip over the company, if they had any decision-making power left, now they are definitely gone and what's left of Bioware will be directly controlled and managed by EA executives.

If you think something good could come from this, good luck with that.

 

[dr_rus]

Is this bad or good thing they left?

Neither unless they decide to start a new company (which might be good). This won't have any effect on a current (shitty) Bioware direction since it's pretty obvious that they wasn't in charge there for quite some time.

 

[kuroshiki]

RIP Bioware

You should had made a sequel to Jade Empire, goddammit!

NO.

Jade Empire was worst, if not the worst RPG I ever played.

 

[Goldenroad]

You did this Mass Effect 3 haters. Why couldn't you just leave well enough alone?

I'm sure they are doing this for personal reasons outside of what is in the public view, but I know that all they hate they received from self-claimed "fans" had to have had something to do with it, and it makes me sick.

If you don't like something you can not consider yourself a "fan" of it, so you have no right to complain when something that does appeal to fans of a product/company does not appeal to you.

Dammit.


Sad day for Canadian Game development. Best wishes Dr's.

 

[Sentenza]

NO.

Jade Empire was worst, if not the worst RPG I ever played.

I still think it's probably the worst Bioware game, but it's a fierce fight with Dragon Age 2 since that shipped.

You did this Mass Effect 3 haters. Why couldn't you just leave well enough alone?

I'm sure they are doing this for personal reasons outside of what is in the public view, but I know that all they hate they received from self-claimed "fans" had to have had something to do with it, and it makes me sick.

If you don't like something you can not consider yourself a "fan" of it, so you have no right to complain when something that does appeal to fans of a product/company does not appeal to you.

Dammit.

What the hell am I reading here?

 

[Mutanthands]

You did this Mass Effect 3 haters. Why couldn't you just leave well enough alone?

I'm sure they are doing this for personal reasons outside of what is in the public view, but I know that all they hate they received from self-claimed "fans" had to have had something to do with it, and it makes me sick.

If you don't like something you can not consider yourself a "fan" of it, so you have no right to complain when something that does appeal to fans of a product/company does not appeal to you.

Dammit.


Sad day for Canadian Game development. Best wishes Dr's.

Step away from the computer. Blaming disappointed fans is a sign of a major disconnect from reality.

 

[Derrick01]

You did this Mass Effect 3 haters. Why couldn't you just leave well enough alone?

I'm sure they are doing this for personal reasons outside of what is in the public view, but I know that all they hate they received from self-claimed "fans" had to have had something to do with it, and it makes me sick.

If you don't like something you can not consider yourself a "fan" of it, so you have no right to complain when something that does appeal to fans of a product/company does not appeal to you.

Dammit.


Sad day for Canadian Game development. Best wishes Dr's.

What is this apologist bullshit? The doctors are responsible for everything that happened to Bioware. If the reason they're choosing to bail really was because of the ME3 hate then you should be thanking us for doing gaming a public service.