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Latest info on Bioware's MMO
admriker4
Member Posts: 1,070
http://www.rlmmo.com/viewtopic.php?p=72548#72548
Ive reported since Feb 2006 some information about Bioware's project. A few here know where I got my information from and have kept quiet because theyve used the same sources.
Anyway I got my info from two ways...
I had a brother-in-law that had worked in the industry for several years. He gleemed quite a bit of info for me about Bioware and its pet project over the years both from direct knowledge and from 3rd parties. He is now out of the industry and has is own business in another field. I do have one final bit of info to report from him...
The MMO is going to be big. Im basing this on the the amount of money Ive been told is being spent on the project. Bioware is spending a fortune on the game. Ive been told that Bioware is spending over 50 million dollars on development alone. This isnt counting advertising, marketing, pr, and packaging. To put this number into perspective, this amount is more than the total net revenue earned by Bioware over the past 3 years combined. In short, its a big risk by Bioware but they assume it will pay off.
My second source of information...
I will be omitting some information here to protect him from possible legal or civil ramifications. I will also be giving genral data and nothing too specific.
I have a "friend" that lives in South Texas. He has visited the Austin studio on several occasions. He has gotten access to trash legally as once it "hits the streets" to turn a phrase, its public domain. On most occasions the trash is has clearly gone through a shredder but sometimes it hasnt. Some of the stuff he has seen...
stuff labeled "conceptual art - mostly drawings of characters. My son recognized a few of the characters he's shown me. One my son says is a sith apprentice from the clone wars cartoons, she has two lightsabers that are bent. The other was an apprentice of Anikan Skywalker (i had no idea he had one). There was an interesting set of Anikan drawings, one had Anikan with no skin covering his robotic arm, another with Anikan holding two lightsabers.
The point is whatever Bioware is working on in Austin, its clear it has something to do with Star Wars.
Another interesting point, the software was microsoft all the way. I thought the artsy stuff was always done on Macs but everything seen was Microsoft stuff. I just put this information in if it helps someone with a different source to verify mine.
Some of the other trash that didnt get shredded...spreadsheets with hours accounted for. They were very detail oriented. A person didnt just put down 8 hrs on their time card, it was broken down by the minute. for example what I saw for one person was 8:00 to 8:05 am - calls for supply requests, 8:05 - 9:15 code a124556 (im guessing on the numbers but it was something long like that). 9:15 - 9:20 personal break, etc. Not very useful info probably for our purposes but it was interesting to see how Bioware tracks time for employees.
Theyre working 24 hrs a day. A chinese takeout place down the road does a lot of business with Bioware studios. They arent 24 hrs but they typically do a large order for Bioware right as they close at 11pm on weeknights. My friend has seen the lights on 24/7 and seen cars parked throughout the night many times.
Due to a recent change in the way Bioware disposes of its refuse, my friend no longer has access to any more information in this manner.
I wont be getting any new information anytime soon unfortunately. At least until I get another source. Anyway, keeping my fingers crossed we'll hear an announcement from Bioware soon
Comments
Ugh. I guess the truth behind this segment in the rumor will be confirmed by obituaries and game dedications in the game manual.
-- xpaladin
[MMOz]
AC1/2, AO, DAoC, EQ1/2, SoR, SWG, UO, WAR, WoW
My impression of Bioware has been that they take pride in their work. The "do whatever it takes to make a quick buck" doesn't seem to be the driving force there, and that's just good news regarding quality and customer satisfaction. It's also good for employees who actually care about what they produce. Not coincidentally, it's also good for business. Blizzard knows this: SOE though, I'm convinced this truth has eluded them. The Dark side: "quicker, easier, more seductive." Once you start down the dark path, "forever will it dominate your destiny." There's a lot of cool philosophy and spirituality in the Star Wars story. Some of it applies to business ethics I think.
The first would be Asajj Ventress
The second would be Anakin's apprentice Ahsoka in the upcoming CGI series:
http://www.starwars.com/theclonewars/news/img/20080212_3_bg.jpg
Would you be able to get these scanned and uploaded by any chance? If true, this is some pretty big time info
nice work agent riker lol
BOYCOTTING EA / ORIGIN going forward.
my son told me the girl was a clone war cartoon character (i never watched them). I dont recall her being bald though in the pic I saw. But she did have those wicked cool lightsabers.
Perhaps this means the MMO Bioware is making has nothing to do with KOTOR timeline.
The pics wont be uploaded. I explain why in the link on the 1st post here. Bioware is aware of where we got our info from and has changed it so we cant dumpster dive anymore. we dont want a copyright lawsuit from posting anything we got. (yes we were threatened)
actually the more I look at the pic, Im unsure if its the same sith. The lightsabers she was holding in the pic I saw had a 45 degree angle on them. The ones in the pic you posted are curved.
I recall specifically that they were angled and not curved because I remember thinking to myself that she must be able to do some tricky things with them. Like being able to switch grips to the bent part and spin them or something is what came to mind. The curved ones seen in your pick remind me of a Dooku saber and I would have remembered that.
It could be her though
Yeah best not then
That's the only girl from that cartoon I remember having curved sabers. There there is this one from the upcoming 'The Force Unleashed game:
BOYCOTTING EA / ORIGIN going forward.
definitely wasnt the new pic.
I guess it was 1st one, Im just remembering the sabers a little differently but it did look like her
An interesting find. If bioware is truley spending $50mill on an MMO project I can only begin to scratch the surface that my imagination can project with that kind of tonnage for a project.
At any rate, don't expect this game until early next year UNLESS they are going to announce it 3 months before launch. I wouldn't put it past Bioware to get all their ducks in a row (ie: shipping orders, distribution deals, advertising etc etc) before even going near a microphone for a press release.
PS: IF any of this is true, and I actually have seen some supporting evidence thus far (that I'm keeping to myself for legal reasons) I wouldn't put it past Bioware to be creating THE best StarWars game to date that could topple WoW within 3 months of release. The reason I say this, is because the concept art (along with other private supporting info) suggests post episode 6 game material for a StarWars MMO. This could get REALLY could if they did this, because after episode 6 is when the new Jedi Academy is started by Luke.
I can't wait for official word
!
The Theory of Conservative Conservation of Ignorant Stupidity:
Having a different opinion must mean you're a troll.
I called my friend, he says its definitely her with the curved sabers.
The pic we saw, she was wearing a hood over her head so we couldnt tell that she was bald. Also those black line tatoos she has, well we thought it was a scar because we could only see the one on her cheek.
definitely her
It might be a Clone Wars timeline. And I wouldnt put it past Lucas to make a game to tie in with his television show. LA did that with both expansions for SWG, they were released around the movies and had all kinda tie-ins.
Personally Id much rather see post episode 6 as well. I never got into the whole clone war thingie. My son did though. He got the comics and watched the mini cartoon episodes as well.
Sweet. If all this is true, it's exciting times for Star Wars fans! If not...
lol.
I've always claimed POST episode 6 would be the perfect setting for the MMORPG too...
BOYCOTTING EA / ORIGIN going forward.
According an this article at IGN, "Yes, we are working with BioWare. We've announced that we're working with the developer on a project, but it has nothing to do with Knights of the Old Republic."
Source: pc.ign.com/articles/852/852346p1.html
I love information gleaned from dumpsters.
A Clone Wars MMO or something around that timeline wouldnt have anything to do with KOTOR. Any setting or timeline not around the KOTOR one has technically nothing to do with KOTOR
Notice they didnt say nothing to do with Star Wars
I know what I saw. Artistic renderings of characters wielding lightsabers screams Star Wars. The Austin Bioware office is definitely making an MMO, theyve stated this publicly. Therefore to me its clear a star wars MMO is being developed.
Whether that means post episode 6, KOTOR, clone wars, etc we dont know yet
A Clone Wars MMO or something around that timeline wouldnt have anything to do with KOTOR. Any setting or timeline not around the KOTOR one has technically nothing to do with KOTOR
Notice they didnt say nothing to do with Star Wars
I know what I saw. Artistic renderings of characters wielding lightsabers screams Star Wars. The Austin Bioware office is definitely making an MMO, theyve stated this publicly. Therefore to me its clear a star wars MMO is being developed.
Whether that means post episode 6, KOTOR, clone wars, etc we dont know yet
The reason I stated it will be post episode 6 is due to the fact that if they had concept art of Anakin's Apparentice, whom was not in the clone wars or even before episode 3, then it's going to be post episode 6 definately (unless that concept was rejected and they changed focus, which they normally don't do with concept art at that point in concept phase for a game).
If your information is true, then yes, it will MOST LIKELY be post episode 6 (woot!).
The Theory of Conservative Conservation of Ignorant Stupidity:
Having a different opinion must mean you're a troll.
A Clone Wars MMO or something around that timeline wouldnt have anything to do with KOTOR. Any setting or timeline not around the KOTOR one has technically nothing to do with KOTOR
Notice they didnt say nothing to do with Star Wars
I know what I saw. Artistic renderings of characters wielding lightsabers screams Star Wars. The Austin Bioware office is definitely making an MMO, theyve stated this publicly. Therefore to me its clear a star wars MMO is being developed.
Whether that means post episode 6, KOTOR, clone wars, etc we dont know yet
The reason I stated it will be post episode 6 is due to the fact that if they had concept art of Anakin's Apparentice, whom was not in the clone wars or even before episode 3, then it's going to be post episode 6 definately (unless that concept was rejected and they changed focus, which they normally don't do with concept art at that point in concept phase for a game).
If your information is true, then yes, it will MOST LIKELY be post episode 6 (woot!).
Faded go to www.starwars.com and watch the trailer for the Clone Wars cartoon they introduce Anakin's apprentice there. So the apprentice is from Clone Wars era, not post Ep6.
This is her, Ahsoka or something: http://www.starwars.com/theclonewars/news/img/20080212_3_bg.jpg
BOYCOTTING EA / ORIGIN going forward.
do you mean apprentice or padawan, because anakin has an padawan in the new clone wars series.
Semantics? They called her his apprentice. *shrug* Padawan ... same difference.
BOYCOTTING EA / ORIGIN going forward.
Yet more rumors from unconfirmed sources. Are we seriously suppose to think your friend went dumpster diving and found some art images, that could be just very old renderings from a game they wanted to work on, and think they are making a star wars game. Until Bioware comes out to state what MMO they are working on, quit with speculations. I dont beleive your friend, i dont beleive you, and i surely dont beleive some chinese food vendor who delivers fried rice. Btw you do know how to work a scanner right? Why not show us these images, because unless i missed something, your just feeding rumors. And seriously, with all this talk about star wars, its going to be crushing when they announce its something like Harry Potter. Isnt it?
Btw i have a "friend" in dallas who drives to austin for work and drives by thier studio every night. Thier dumpsters are in a private locked area which you need a key to access. He has never seen thier lights on past 12ish am, and says the nearest chinese delivery shop close to the studio is over 2 miles away. So whos telling the truth? My friend or yours.
P.S. The second paragraph is totally false information, i just wanted you to see how ridiculous your statement sounds with no actual proof. If your friends a dumpster diver, he needs to get a better job, and take a shower might i add. You can probably smell him through the phone. Especially with all that chinese they supposively eat, heh.
sorry, you're right. I didn't remember, but I thought only sith had apprentices, light jedi had padawans... I guess not though.
Hey Mack, don't take this to great offense but why hate? I mean it might be totally bogus you might be right... but why bother with the hating? If you're not interested in it, why not move along and shrug? You have your own opinions and a RIGHT to voice them of course... All I'm saying is he SUPPOSEDLY has some info, he wanted to share... no need to attack.
We'll all see how it plays out soon enough anyway. Hopefully the GDC next week will shed some light on things... could really use it with all the wild speculation
BOYCOTTING EA / ORIGIN going forward.
Didnt EA announce theres going to be a KOTOR 3 and has nothing to do with the mmo?
www.eurogamer.net/article.php
One hundred rumors and "unverified" sources later and I still call bullshit. Sorry, but when Bioware says they are working on their own intellectual property for an MMO, that's exactly what I believe. They said sometime in 2006 that they weren't working on a Star Wars MMORPG and were working on their own intellectual property for their MMORPG. Then in 2007 after all these rumors were going around about a KoToR mmorpg, they made another statement that it wasn't a KoToR MMORPG either.
Another poster mentioned "why the hate." Probably because those of us on this forum are tired of rumor mongerers.
MMORPG's w/ Max level characters: DAoC, SWG, & WoW
Currently Playing: WAR
Preferred Playstyle: Roleplay/adventurous, in a sandbox game.
One things for sure... if Bioware isn't making another Star Wars MMO another reputable company needs to. I, and no doubt thousands or millions would gobble a good, high quality Star Wars MMO up quick like. None of these other IPs have anything on Star Wars.
Nope. They just said in a report that KotOr is or was a Bioware franchise. Some people misunderstood that this means a new game in development, but the guys from Bioware made it clear that the KotOr mentioned in the report refers to the already released game.