It is upon us.
The day when you realize the company you cherished is a shadow of its former self.
In this case I am referring to Bioware. Who shocked the CRPG market back to life with Baldur's Gate and its follow ups.
Most CRPGer's enjoyed the BG series for its deep story and wonderful NPC's, and while the story was vanilla and characters unmemorable Neverwinter Nights 1 broke ground (however not the first with this concept just better executed) with its multi-player components.
Afterward we had the lack luster Jade Empire. Good effort just not a great concept. Or at least one the gaming community was willing to embrace.
Knights of the Old Republic & Mass Effect followed that were mostly solid outings and really solidified Bioware as one of the top CRPG developers.
Then Dragon Age was announced and things were looking up again. A original (more or less) dark (debatable) D&D style fantasy setting. While there are things I could list that was all PR hype and not reality as a whole DA was a good, solid game. The story was interesting, the NPC's had flavor, and unlike NWN1 mostly memorable and the game play for the most part worked.
Then during development, Bioware merged with a small publisher. We were told 'nothing will change at Bioware'. Fair enough and that probably was true, or at the very least the upper management believed it. However, the new entity was then bought up by EA. That was the beginning of the end.
I posted, and the bio-fanboi's ridiculed me for, shortly after that announcement that Bioware will cease to exist sooner or later as we know it. As it is only a matter of time before EA does away with the autonomy at Bioware and wants a more hands on approach of controlling it's new asset. I however stated at the time it will happen either one of two ways;
1. A natural progression. As new talent & management from EA comes over to Bioware over time then via a organic process Bioware naturally becomes absorbed into the collective of EA. Sort of like what the Borg do in Star Trek.. except without the cool phaser fights... It wouldn't be anyones specific goal or focus it would just be the nature of what happens when a smaller, weaker entity gets taken over by a larger.
2. EA would use the first major misstep as a excuse to move in and dissolve the autonomy of Bioware using said failure as a excuse to do so. The old 'you need our hand holding as you are screwing up without it' play. Used throughout history from family issues all the way up to government level power plays.
Seems if I am reading the writing on the walls correctly it is a mix of the two.
With DA 2 just released and the backlash of lack of content, dumbed down game play and reused assets from DA 1 Bioware is in a position is does not find itself on often, on the ropes.
From what is leaking out of the studio recently Bioware was overtly pressured from EA to push out the squeal in ~18 months even when Bioware asked for more time. Loss of autonomy, check. And now in a panic Bioware's response to less then heaping praise reviews? Blame fan sites. Really? Major cluster frag PR move, check. Now only need to have EA totally move in using this mess as a excuse to totally nerf Ray and Greg the alleged bosses of Bioware still in what power they still retain. Sure they won't be removed but they will have to ask for a pass to use the mens room after the dust settles in my view never mind make any kind of major exec decision.
Yes, I am going to say it.. I told you so.
Sad, but in the end not unexpected, as least from someone who looked at it from a realist perspective. Hopefully Obsidian with the momentum of New Vegas can take the reigns from Bioware. As they have some great CRPG games in the works (Wheel of Time) and are really the only studio to pick up the ball and run with it.
I never wanted Bioware's demise but they set themselves up for that as soon as Ray and Greg sold out to EA. As the borg say, resistance is futile.
UPDATE: In the Bioware history I added their ME and KotOR games which I overlooked in the first release of the article. So people can now stop asking me why I didn't mention them...
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1 Merits
Aaron
136 days ago
So sad but true. I regret every dollar spent on DA2 and lament how EA trashed what could have been a cool franchise by rushing it out the door. But now Skyrim is out and it's all water under the bridge. Skyrim is truly awesome and demonstrates why you should never sell out to the asswipes at EA.
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1 Merits
Robert
271 days ago
The hardest game to make is always the secound one and thats just what da2 are in a game series of atleast three games, and in comparance to other game in content such as racial and gender issues i think Bioware kicks alot of asses. They are really leading the way for how the future of gaming should look like when it comes to this mathers.
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1 Merits
Ajores
339 days ago
How interesting! DA2 was thrashed hard by the community from day one, with user reviews that bombed all across the board. However, an interesting note I'd like to make is that Bioware will really have to watch it's back now: They aren't the only company that can make a competent CRPG anymore. CD Projekt having released the Witcher 2 a few weeks ago had over 800 user reviews on metacritic give it a big thumbs up within ONLY 24 hours of it's release! (I might be exaggerating the time frame, but it exceeded 1000 within only a few days after, not even a week). To me, The Witcher 2 is really what you'd call a dark and mature fantasy title, and I'm really hoping they have succeeded in setting the bar for future titles that wish to call themselves dark and mature. At any rate, a competitive edge is what any good game company needs, and Bioware will need to get that back now more than ever (if DA2 hasn't been enough of a lesson for them yet) if they want to hold the crown as CRPG kings. To me though, I think with DA2 they already made that spot available for any company to seize at this point.
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1 Merits
jasleerol
1 years 8 days ago
i'm a bioware forumite myself and the bioware forums have only just calmed down remember that user ea banned for saying " have you sold your souls to the ea devil?" heh lol
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1 Merits
Anthiena
1 years 59 days ago
That really is too bad. Yeah, selling out is never a good idea, look what happened to Cadbury, it's slowly going down the tubes after Kraft did a hostile takeover. EA is also doing some incredibly stupid things, but I believe it's on purpose. They want Bioware under their thumbs, no matter that it'll be less than what it was. EA is putting on the pressure and Bioware is panicking, taking the bait instead of rising to the occasion. Those poor people. Us poor gamers.
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0 Merits
Harlequin
1 years 61 days ago
I read that bit of info on blues news a few days ago. If the info is correct they asked for a 2 yr dev time (6 more months) and EA denied the request according to their source.
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1 Merits
Rob
1 years 62 days ago
Interesting read, and what many of us predicted following the EA takeover. Sadly EA have a track record of the behaviour you describe - and although the writing isn't on the wall yet, things don't look good. In this instance it's a pretty hollow "I told you so" to the doubters, as Bioware, on their day, can make CRPG's that are a match for any other developer. How credible are your sources that Bioware asked for, and were denied, more development time?
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