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Pondering EA's Move Towards Hardcore
Posted by
Zonk
on Thu Oct 25, 2007 03:44 PM
from the object-to-the-idea-of-bioware-as-unspectacular dept.
from the object-to-the-idea-of-bioware-as-unspectacular dept.
The site GigaOM is picking up its games coverage again, and kicks off with an article speculating on just what EA was thinking when it purchased BioWare and Pandemic. On the face of it, the move doesn't make much sense. BioWare is a great development house, but from EA's perspective their games are 'small potatoes'. "So why did they spend so much? The acquisition includes several titles for the Wii and DS already in development, and those may have breakout potential. There's tremendous gamer buzz around BioWare's upcoming RPG Mass Effect, but in all likelihood, it'll do similar numbers to the studio's million-plus-selling Knights of the Old Republic -- a hit, but not a huge one. There are rumors that BioWare is developing a 'Star Wars'-themed MMO, but if that's what inspired the purchase, the mystery only deepens: Sony Online's (SNE) MMO Star Wars Galaxies was a disappointment in relation to cost and anticipation, and that was released at the height of the buzz over a movie franchise that's since become old news."
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Electronic Arts Purchases BioWare, Pandemic 232 comments
Kotaku is reporting that EA has purchased BioWare and Pandemic Studios, having offered some $620 million in cash to the Elevation Partners group to buy up VG Holding Corp. From the press release: "'We are truly excited by John Riccitiello's new vision for EA,' said Ray Muzyka, Co-founder and CEO of BioWare Corp. 'This vision is consistent with BioWare's focus on crafting the highest quality story-driven games in the world. It will enable us to further the careers of the passionate, creative and hard working teams at BioWare Edmonton and BioWare Austin.'"
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Two words (Score:4, Funny)
More words (Score:5, Funny)
Knights of the Old NCAA '09
Product Description:
Use the force as you progress through the NCAA college basketball championship and March madness! Use powers such as force speed to cross the court in less than a second, force jump to slam dunk with a white midget, force push to knock over other players without causing a foul, and more... just don't use force lightning on the ball, or you'll get a penalty for exploding the ball!
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"James going in for the dunk.... OH WHAT A FORCE PUSH BY SMITH !"
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Great, another tedious grind.
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Hmm... an instance based team RvR game. I wonder how long you'll sit in bleachers until a game opens up to play.
Lack of own creativity, maybe? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I wasn't aware that Command & Conquer: Generals plus expansion, and Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars didn't have the Command & Conquer label on them! Whether you liked Generals or not (I sure did, and I don't like the previous Westwood efforts much at all, aside from the original RTS, Dune 2, which I enjoyed) they most certainly didn't kill it off. They took it in a direction you didn't like, that's not the same thing. Coming out with a C&C3 expansio
Galaxies didn't fail, Sony did. (Score:5, Insightful)
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I've said it before, I'll say it again (Score:5, Insightful)
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Are you retarded?
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Commentators don't get it (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes.
That's because it was a bad game. Bioware is a good company because they make good games.
If you take a turd, and put a "Star Wars" label on it, you still have a turd, it's just that now you have a branded turd. It might sell a bit better but it's not going to be extraordinary. Maybe someone in EA has actually realized this?
Pondering EA's Move Towards Hardcore... (Score:5, Funny)
SWG flopped because.... (Score:4, Insightful)
That's because it sucked. Royally.
It was buggy, laggy (the commercial database that kept track of everything couldn't handle the 8 gazzilion read and writes a second their poor design called for. shocking!), the classes were boring, the progression repetitive, the rewards non-existant. You were asked to play as Background_Character_01 in a world where you wanted to be Luke or Darth. At least fantasy MMO's let you kill the occasional rare spawn, or eventually dragons and the like.
A good game is a good game. And that's no different for an MMO. WoW was a good game, that's why it did well. Most MMO's these days are just pure crap. If a company released something good, and polished, it would do fine. SW theme or no SW theme. But crap is always going to be crap.
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Just look at how PvPers whine now... imagine forums upon forums of Light Siders bitching and moaning because Force Lightning melted their face, and all they get is a stupid mind trick!
Re:SWG flopped because.... (Score:4, Interesting)
I played SWG through all that, from when we had over 300,000 players who were begging for them to FIX THE BUGS down to where it is now, 30,000 players begging for the game that we had previously back. Oh, and it's still just as buggy as ever.
SWG failed because of SOE, and I will tell you that I despise SOE for stealing my game, and watching them circle the toilet like some turd on it's way down gives me some satisfaction.
The Bioware MMO team is led by the former SWG lead producer and lead developer, Rich Vogel and Gordon Walton, who both quit SOE shortly before or after the first of 2005's twin atrocities, the CU (which we knew as the Combat Downgrade).
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Sony Online's (SNE) MMO Star Wars Galaxies was a disappointment in relation to cost and anticipation, and that was released at the height of the buzz over a movie franchise that's since become old news.
That's because it sucked. Royally.
It was buggy, laggy (the commercial database that kept track of everything couldn't handle the 8 gazzilion read and writes a second their poor design called for. shocking!), the classes were boring, the progression repetitive, the rewards non-existant. You were asked to play as Background_Character_01 in a world where you wanted to be Luke or Darth. At least fantasy MMO's let you kill the occasional rare spawn, or eventually dragons and the like.
A good game is a good game. And that's no different for an MMO. WoW was a good game, that's why it did well. Most MMO's these days are just pure crap. If a company released something good, and polished, it would do fine. SW theme or no SW theme. But crap is always going to be crap.
QFT
SWG had a lot of potential, but Sony managed to kick it in the balls every time. Then again, this is SCE we're talking about, right? Anything they touch lately seems to be a disaster.
Plus, comeon. A Star Wars MMO where you had to wait years before you could fly an X-Wing or TIE Fighter? That's just begging to fail. Add that to the "never mind what we said before, everyone can be a Jedi!" and, well, yeah.
My 11-year-old's opinion, FWIW (Score:2)
(My opinion: "Destroy 2" is too touchy-feely. I thought the name of the game was "DESTROY ALL HUMANS", not "Help humans say no to drugs and get in the tight-fitting pants of a ho
Re:Innovation (Score:4, Funny)
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I came here because I searched 'Hardcore' (Score:2)
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I think the Sims expansions make sense. The "game" is more like a doll house or train set. They're just adding to the kit because a) people like playing with it, b) people want to do more stuff with what they're doing.