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Rumor: Dragon Age III is targeting next-gen, delayed to 2014

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
As I recall reading somewhere that they will not be doing save importation this time (which makes sense if it's next gen, because I bet that would be a nightmare to figure out), they pretty much are.

They're trying to do it without saves, which presumably means that social site they collected achievements and stats on.

This does limit it to major things only, but you're playing a different character anyway so...
 

Patryn

Member
They're trying to do it without saves, which presumably means that social site they collected achievements and stats on.

This does limit it to major things only, but you're playing a different character anyway so...

I have no idea how that would work, given that if you played through multiple times you could have achievements for both sides of a conflict.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
I have no idea how that would work, given that if you played through multiple times you could have achievements for both sides of a conflict.

Perhaps they're tagged based on character on their end?

They didn't seem sure it would work though, so perhaps not.
 
Consider that EA is pretty wealthy now and is looking to build megahit franchises.

The need for the short term strategy is over, so it's far more worth their while to take the time to try and push toward 5-10+ million than to shove a game out the door.

Once the series is stable, they will presumably return to shorter development cycles built directly on the assets and gameplay from the last.

Is EA doing ok now? I guess I haven't checked their stock in a while, but wasn't it tanking not too long ago? And TOR was a bit of a miss, so that can't have helped.

Then again, I'm sure Battlefield, Madden, FIFA and the money from Origin are helping absorb those misses.

I guess I am just skeptical that with any amount of marketing or extra development time, something like Dragon Age would reach 5-10 million copies sold. At least without BioWare/EA fundamentally changing the nature of the game. How did Mass Effect 3 end up selling? Cause that would seem about as easily accessible and mainstream a "BioWare" game that BioWare could make, but I don't recall it lighting any sales charts on fire or anything.
 

SerRodrik

Member
Maybe it means they'll put it on PC first and then base the console versions around that, so the PC version's interface/controls aren't as shitty as DA2. Fuck the conversation wheel.

Pretty sure they've confirmed that the conversation wheel will be returning, unfortunately.
 

Patryn

Member
Maybe it means they'll put it on PC first and then base the console versions around that, so the PC version's interface/controls aren't as shitty as DA2. Fuck the conversation wheel.

People have to come to terms with the fact that Bioware is a console developer now. I don't think they'll ever have PC as lead platform again, barring a total collapse of the console market.

So what does Bioware have coming up right now for this gen? I really don't know what they have planned for next year.

More ME3 DLC. I think that's it.

From what we know, the core Bioware (Edmonton/Montreal) are working on three major games: Dragon Age 3, Mass Effect 4 and Casey Hudson's new IP.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Is EA doing ok now? I guess I haven't checked their stock in a while, but wasn't it tanking not too long ago? And TOR was a bit of a miss, so that can't have helped.

Then again, I'm sure Battlefield, Madden, FIFA and the money from Origin are helping absorb those misses.

I guess I am just skeptical that with any amount of marketing or extra development time, something like Dragon Age would reach 5-10 million copies sold. At least without BioWare/EA fundamentally changing the nature of the game. How did Mass Effect 3 end up selling? Cause that would seem about as easily accessible and mainstream a "BioWare" game that BioWare could make, but I don't recall it lighting any sales charts on fire or anything.

Well, one thing to consider is that stock price isn't necessarily reflective of a company's balance sheet.

EA's GAAP earnings waver between making a little bit and losing a little bit, but they're growing a huge amount of deferred revenue because all of their games have multiplayer, and official accounting rules require them to report that as income over the expected lifetime of a game's multiplayer.

This is why EA's cash pile grew enough that they could buy companies like PopCap and PlayFish and still do a $1.1 billion stock buyback (composed of separate $600M and $500M buybacks) while retaining billions in the bank.

The other consideration is that something that comes out and bombs has already been paid for. The bombing just means that they don't earn as much money as they would like back from the product, not that they lose the whole development cost upon release.

Mass Effect 3 did over $200 million in revenue by their May fiscal report, which if we assume EA received an average of $50 in revenue per unit (considering retailer selling price and collectors editions/DLC), we would calculate 4 million units up front. We know they shipped at least 3.5 million week one, so if the game ends up at 5 million it wouldn't surprise me.

As for Dragon Age, we know the first two games ended up at 8 million combined as per the Dragon Age 3 announcement press release, so they're pretty close to that range already.

I imagine their plan for growth is a large increase in production values, more content, and the addition of co-op, which helps get multiple people to buy games new to play together when successful.
 

Data West

coaches in the WNBA
I loved DA1, but I'm sorry, I just can't stand that 'click once on enemy and watch' combat...

DA2 combat with DA1 everything else, please.

That's what DA2's combat was on PC as well...

Also you must have been playing on easy if you could just watch.
 
That's what DA2's combat was on PC as well...

Also you must have been playing on easy if you could just watch.

Pretty sure it was normal difficulty...

Anyway, I was utilizing the pause and play aspect of the combat, but I just got tired of clicking on enemies and watching the animations carry out.
 
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