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[Nirolak]

Yeah. That would basically be what they did with Mass Effect 3. And they sort of have a trens with their recent games all coming out in March (ME3, DA2).

Also worth noting, DA:O was originally targeted for March 2009, with Awakening following up in March 2010.

 

[Izick]

It amazes me how bitter people are over Mass Effect.

Usually happens with a franchise people become enamored with. (Star Wars)

(For the record I think ME 3 was a good game.)

 

[Aaron]

I thought ME3 was so boring I didn't even get to the ending everyone hates. I'm honestly surprised people enjoyed it. The story is dull and the combat is clunky. Multiplayer is about the only fun thing in the whole package.

 

[Gully State]

So much gif potential with that quote...

The best analogy I use, in a positive way, is EA gives you enough rope to hang yourself

 

[TheUnsunghero26]

Interesting how ME1 was supposed to be in the launch window for the 360. Got to wonder how that would've played out if it was released 9 months earlier like he said. Production on the sequel would have probably already started before EA bought them.

 

[Eusis]

I think one thing worth considering is that BioWare was one of the pioneers of DLC with NWN's premium downloadable packs.

They also had multiplayer shoved into Baldur's Gate 2.

I don't feel their later actions are really all that inconsistent here.

Yeah, NWN had those along with the Jade Empire pre-order edition, BGII LE exclusive content, and KotOR requiring Live to get a shop online (though a lot of people were doing stuff like that, and the subscription's Microsoft's fault.) I didn't know multiplayer was basically shoved into BGII though, although considering the P&P roots it actually does make some sense.

But yeah, it's why it's hard to tell if EA's really at fault for anything but maybe rushing DAII out. There was always that hint that something was kinda screwed up with Bioware, but they were generally good about these things until after joining EA, which happened to be when some of those older practices got out of control and weren't looked favorably upon anymore. Although on the flipside Atari was to blame for not getting the rest of the premium NWN modules as NWN2 was about to hit, so maybe under EA they'd have gotten the OK for that.

 

[Zukuu]

I refuse to believe any game developer produced a game like Dragon Age II on his free will and thought That's a bloody good game!"

 

[HP_Wuvcraft]

BioWare has recently insisted that Dragon Age 3 is still targeted for Fall, so perhaps remnants of that regret remain.

Oh, that's rich.

 

[ambientmystic]

I've a question, since we're in a thread discussing Bioware's acquisition and their related products;

If EA had not acquired Bioware and subsequently its properties and IPs, would the PC port of Mass Effect 1 still have been made/greenlighted?

At the time of the announcement (of the acquisition), it seemed like the best thing in the world to me lol, it meant that the previously "Only on XBOX 360" moniker for Mass Effect 1 would be rendered null and void and PC gamers could also enjoy the game. (The game was a RPG made on UE3 which was considered the next big thing at the time, and featured mindblowing graphicssss and FaceFX that was unheard off on the PC until Crysis came out lol. Also one of the first games on the PC to use UE3 besides the ill fated Unreal Tournament 3.)

 

[Basileus777]

Microsoft was the publisher, it's doubtful they would have funded a Pc port.

 

[Dennis]

I prefer working with a small creative team on something that can have a big impact but I prefer not to do it in a giant, complicated environment

What a surprise that must have been. And not long after the takeover they bail.

 

[Grief.exe]

Greg Zeschuk: No, I definitely reject it. And I can explain it too. The best analogy I use, in a positive way, is EA gives you enough rope to hang yourself. It was really interesting because we really made all the choices we wanted to make ourselves; these are all things we wanted to try.

So this whole time I have been mad at EA, and blaming them for the death of one of my favorite companies.

But, the whole time, Bioware was imploding on itself? The dumbing down? The rush jobs? The derivative writing? Day one DLC? TOR being a complete joke? All Bioware's doing the whole time.

Honestly I'm not sure if I fully believe that, Bioware isn't the company it once was, but there is plenty of circumstantial evidence here.
SimCity alone is worth pointing the finger towards dumbing down and microtransaction filled.

 

[ironcreed]

For better or worse, I still love Bioware's party-based role playing games. There is just nothing quite like them. I even think Dragon Age 2 is fun, despite being massively inferior to Origins and lazily designed in many ways.

 

[TheUnsunghero26]

I've a question, since we're in a thread discussing Bioware's acquisition and their related products;

If EA had not acquired Bioware and subsequently its properties and IPs, would the PC port of Mass Effect 1 still have been made/greenlighted?

At the time of the announcement (of the acquisition), it seemed like the best thing in the world to me lol, it meant that the previously "Only on XBOX 360" moniker for Mass Effect 1 would be rendered null and void and PC gamers could also enjoy the game. (The game was a RPG made on UE3 which was considered the next big thing at the time, and featured mindblowing graphicssss and FaceFX that was unheard off on the PC until Crysis came out lol. Also one of the first games on the PC to use UE3 besides the ill fated Unreal Tournament 3.)

It would have happened, but not as soon I bet. Microsoft has a history of letting games they've published go on PC if the developer can get funding for it. Alan Wake, ME1, and Jade Empire are examples of this.

 

[Astery]

The best analogy I use, in a positive way, is EA gives you enough rope to hang yourself.

so much meme potential right here.

 

[Eusis]

So this whole time I have been mad at EA, and blaming them for the death of one of my favorite companies.

But, the whole time, Bioware was imploding on itself? The dumbing down? The rush jobs? The derivative writing? Day one DLC? TOR being a complete joke? All Bioware's doing the whole time.

Honestly I'm not sure if I fully believe that, Bioware isn't the company it once was, but there is plenty of circumstantial evidence here.
SimCity alone is worth pointing the finger towards dumbing down and microtransaction filled.

On the other hand BG2 pioneered LE exclusive in-game content and Jade Empire locked away a potential player character and martial arts style behind a pre-order LE, so there were signs there. And it may well be the inverse, that Bioware managed to make some shit REALLY catch on within EA (I don't think they were universally called online passes when DA:O did it.)

 

[Bedlam]

Give him a few more years and he won't be in this state of denial anymore.

 

[TheUnsunghero26]

The last time he talked about this I didn't get the feeling he liked it.

 

[Call Me Maybe]

BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk has spoken out in defence of EA, saying the mega-publisher doesn't force changes onto developers but rather gives them enough freedom to make their own mistakes.

In an interview with Games Industry, Zeschuk explained that his experience with EA had been a largely positive one, though the greater resources that became available through EA were slightly overwhelming at first.

"The best analogy I use, in a positive way, is EA gives you enough rope to hang yourself," he revealed.

"It was really interesting because we really made all the choices we wanted to make ourselves; these are all things we wanted to try. And that's something to remember - while we were independent we didn't have quite the resources we had as part of EA, and then we got to EA and it was like "wow we can do all this stuff." We had to be really thoughtful about what we wanted to focus on."

Zeschuk goes on to describe that he clearly understood how stuff worked with EA about six months after joining the company, and it wasn't a case of being dictated to; quite the opposite.

"We were sitting around asking how do we do stuff [and] it dawned on us, you just do it," he explained. "That was the biggest revelation, that rope that EA gives you; they don't second-guess you, they don't say you shouldn't do that. We had complete creative control over a lot of it; some fans didn't like some of it and some of it was experimental, quite frankly."

Despite this, Zeschuk does acknowledge that working for a larger company did mean BioWare had to think about profitability a lot more, admitting, "While you're taking all these creative risks in trying crazy stuff you almost have to simultaneously focus on the bottom line. The top line is not enough.

"In some ways, being independent I would say we had to be more conservative - being part of a big company, you could be more aggressive and try stuff. I think that's something people [struggle with] when they join EA; they do too much or they do too little."

EA acquired BioWare back in 2007, just before the release of the hugely successful Mass Effect Franchise. This isn't the first time that Zeschuk has spoken out about the experience of joining EA; earlier this year, he spoke about the "bear hug" BioWare experience upon joining EA, explaining that the studio was thankfully strong enough to survive.

EA's come under a lot of flack lately; the company was named "Worst Company in America" for the second year running yesterday. Upon discovering the nomination, company COO Peter Moore responded with a blog post engaging with some of the most common criticisms levelled at EA.

SOURCE

As usual, lock if old.

But yeah, this is interesting, more so because this guy isn't associated with EA anymore, so it isn't like the company is propping him up.

It's hard to try and figure out how all of EA's studios can be so exploitative, then, is it the company culture?

 

[Randolph Freelander]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=537462

 

[Cake Boss]

.

 

[Call Me Maybe]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=537462

Whoops, sorry.
I did a search for EA, and missed it.
Please lock!

 

[Flying Toaster]

Good read, thanks for posting.

 

[Kenaras]

I still see no reason to pay with real money when your rewards are entirely random. It's pointless really. Why pay for something random? I'd rather use ingame currency for that so i don't feel like i'm wasting MY own money. Nothing would piss me off more than wasting 5$ and earning a bunch of Ammo Power IV instead of, say a Particle Rifle VIII and Javelin V.

But eh... there's enough impatient people that waste their money on this to make the DLCs free... so i'm not gonna complain too much.

Mass Effect 3's multiplayer unlocks work perfectly fine, without paying a single cent. I'm convinced that all the griping is simply starting from a "microtransactions bad" position, then rationalizing backwards. The oft-parroted assertion that the entire system was designed from the ground up to force people into paying for the microtransactions is completely absurd.

(It was clearly designed to tap into the same reward mechanisms found in random loot drops in MMOs or ARPGs, but that has nothing to do with the microtransactions.)