Bioware had a first few very good and original RPS's (Fallout 1+2, BG1, Planescape or icewind dale 1+2), but then they start slipping (BG2, NWN) into overhyped linear action crap (Kotor 1, +obsidian made Kotor2+NwN2). So I didnt expect much from them on MMO field anyway. Now when EA stepped in, its even more doomed.
Bioware did NOT make Fallout, Planescape or IceWind Dale! If you look on Bioware's homepage it tells you the games they actually made. After the Baldur's Gate games several of Black Isle's developers branched off and Created Bioware, they were not how ever on the project teams that created Fallout, Planescape, or Icewind Dale or you'd see those games listed! Bioware and Black Isle were always in good relations for the years that passed until Black Isle studios closed its doors permantly (it was a sad day for the RPG world)
Bioware's official list of currently published games
Jade Empires
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 1
Neverwinter Nights (and its subsequent expansions)
Baldur's Gate
Baldur's Gate : Tales of the sword coast
Baldur's Gate 2
Baldurs Gate 2 expansion
MDK2
MDK2 Armageddon
Shattered Steel
Indeed, Bioware + BlackIsle, when BlackIsle closed up most of its programmers went into Bioware. And another thing those devs that did Fallout1+2 and partially BG1 went into Troika Games that died as well later on which was even more sad day at least for me.
1) Pre EA take over Origin guys led the development of UO - EA guys took it over after release and ran it into the ground. That is a fact. I was there at beta and launch. We know who the devs are that started and led the poject and we know where they went. Most people also will know why they left. Its not a mystery.
They chose to move onto new things after Garriott messed up Origin. It wasn't EA's fault that the management at Origin hired 200 new employees (doubling their team size) and started 20-40 new projects and then just completely dropped the ball. Origin (not EA) canclled a bunch of those projects themselves and then got in trouble by wasting a ton of EA's money. 2) EA fired Origin devs for trying to come up with original ideas like they did when you know they were at origin. EA doesnt do original it does the same game over and over and over and over and over again. But they fired them, they moved them and they ruined a great gaming studio. NO EA fired ORIGIN Devs because ORIGIN MANAGEMENT messed up and didn't maintain any resemblance of control. They were out of control and EA had to step in and clean house. EA didn't come in and immediately fire a bunch of Devs or can a bunch of projects. Origin actually doubled in size and doubled in projects that they were working on after EA bought them. If they had been able to properly manage their department they would of been fine. (that all comes from Garriot himself by the way) 3) BS...either your friends who play sports games are crazy or you work for EA. I am leaning towards EA marketing guy/girl on this one. If madden is better, then why buy the license and force out the competition. Wouldn't customers just buy your better game? While 2k was new and had great ideas it wasn't as fun as Madden was. EA is going to ruin the franchises these guys bring to the table, do not doubt that. Maybe not the first one or two out of the box. But 4 years from now when the devs who made those games have moved on (they all do) EA suits will move in and mass produce crappy sequels till they cant ring any more money out of the former fans of the series. Like they did to Maxis? Oh wait the best selling PC Game of all time was created by Maxis after EA bought them. AS well as a Sequel that is as highly acclaimed. EA; Kill any good quality companies today? EA, brining you the same game we brought you last year but this time with new people on the cover. This is just plain stupid, EA tries to put out successful commercial games. That is what all big developers try to do. They are in it to make money. This is no different then what Vivendi does, or NCsoft, or SOE, or Nintendo, or Microsoft. EA put out a lot of games I know that I have tried that got great reviews for example: American McGee's Alice - Not only good reviews but an original game. Battlefield series all got 80%+ reviews with battlefield 2 being considered one of the best. Same with Medal of Honor games/ Black & White - Oh wait another Original Game from EA? No it couldn't be and it got great reviews. Clive Barker's Undying - 85% average reviews and original Command & Conquer Generals qhile not quite the same reviews and the first two C&C games it still got an average of 84%. CRYSIS - Oh wait could one of the most innovative and technically superior FPS games coming out be from EA? Freedom Force - another good original game with average reviews of 90%. Lord of the Rings Battle for Middle Earth 1+2, Both 80%+ games both real good RTS games. SimCity 4 still even got everage reviews of 84% SPORE will be coming as well, Super innovative game. Defintely not rushed. Super original. And guess what it is from EA. And of course the BEST selling PC Game series of all time and one of the best of any platform with around 90+ million sales and creative reviews of 90%+ The Sims and The Sims 2. /Sarcasm on So yeah Sure EA just puts out crap. /sarcasm off
Currently playing: LOTRO & WoW (not much WoW though because Mines of Moria rocks!!!!)
Looking Foward too: Bioware games (Dragon Age & Star Wars The Old Republic)
Your wasting your time bro... he is drinking the EA Koolaid, you cant argue with him.
More likely an EA marketing person IMO.
Are you guys obviously so blinded by your hate of EA? I have said before what I do for a living and it isn't in the Gaming genre at all.
I am so sorry that I do not fall in line with the lets hate EA crowd. I happen to like using my brain to come to my own conclusions and when the Founder of a company such as Origin places the blame squarely on his own shoulders and not on EA then why should we?
With Bulldog obviously Molyneaux (spelling?) didn't dislike EA's game practices since he was a VP their he sold them Bulldog so he could get enough money to start a new company and be rich at the same time.
People don't seem to get it. The Dev's in most of these small companies are the ones that decide to sell their company to a large conglamorate. They do so to cash out. They want to make a whole lot of money. In a lot of cases they turn around and leave the company and start up a new one because they like to be the boss. But they wanted to cash out. EA doesn't do anything to these Developers to make them leave. That is obvious by the fact that Will Wright is still with the company.
Currently playing: LOTRO & WoW (not much WoW though because Mines of Moria rocks!!!!)
Looking Foward too: Bioware games (Dragon Age & Star Wars The Old Republic)
1) Pre EA take over Origin guys led the development of UO - EA guys took it over after release and ran it into the ground. That is a fact. I was there at beta and launch. We know who the devs are that started and led the poject and we know where they went. Most people also will know why they left. Its not a mystery.
They chose to move onto new things after Garriott messed up Origin. It wasn't EA's fault that the management at Origin hired 200 new employees (doubling their team size) and started 20-40 new projects and then just completely dropped the ball. Origin (not EA) canclled a bunch of those projects themselves and then got in trouble by wasting a ton of EA's money. 2) EA fired Origin devs for trying to come up with original ideas like they did when you know they were at origin. EA doesnt do original it does the same game over and over and over and over and over again. But they fired them, they moved them and they ruined a great gaming studio. NO EA fired ORIGIN Devs because ORIGIN MANAGEMENT messed up and didn't maintain any resemblance of control. They were out of control and EA had to step in and clean house. EA didn't come in and immediately fire a bunch of Devs or can a bunch of projects. Origin actually doubled in size and doubled in projects that they were working on after EA bought them. If they had been able to properly manage their department they would of been fine. (that all comes from Garriot himself by the way) 3) BS...either your friends who play sports games are crazy or you work for EA. I am leaning towards EA marketing guy/girl on this one. If madden is better, then why buy the license and force out the competition. Wouldn't customers just buy your better game? While 2k was new and had great ideas it wasn't as fun as Madden was. EA is going to ruin the franchises these guys bring to the table, do not doubt that. Maybe not the first one or two out of the box. But 4 years from now when the devs who made those games have moved on (they all do) EA suits will move in and mass produce crappy sequels till they cant ring any more money out of the former fans of the series. Like they did to Maxis? Oh wait the best selling PC Game of all time was created by Maxis after EA bought them. AS well as a Sequel that is as highly acclaimed. EA; Kill any good quality companies today? EA, brining you the same game we brought you last year but this time with new people on the cover. This is just plain stupid, EA tries to put out successful commercial games. That is what all big developers try to do. They are in it to make money. This is no different then what Vivendi does, or NCsoft, or SOE, or Nintendo, or Microsoft. EA put out a lot of games I know that I have tried that got great reviews for example: American McGee's Alice - Not only good reviews but an original game. Battlefield series all got 80%+ reviews with battlefield 2 being considered one of the best. Same with Medal of Honor games/ Black & White - Oh wait another Original Game from EA? No it couldn't be and it got great reviews. Clive Barker's Undying - 85% average reviews and original Command & Conquer Generals qhile not quite the same reviews and the first two C&C games it still got an average of 84%. CRYSIS - Oh wait could one of the most innovative and technically superior FPS games coming out be from EA? Freedom Force - another good original game with average reviews of 90%. Lord of the Rings Battle for Middle Earth 1+2, Both 80%+ games both real good RTS games. SimCity 4 still even got everage reviews of 84% SPORE will be coming as well, Super innovative game. Defintely not rushed. Super original. And guess what it is from EA. And of course the BEST selling PC Game series of all time and one of the best of any platform with around 90+ million sales and creative reviews of 90%+ The Sims and The Sims 2. /Sarcasm on So yeah Sure EA just puts out crap. /sarcasm off
<Mod Edit>
Because not 1 of those games you noted was innovative in anyway. And that is what EA kills is innovative and creative studios.
They are good a producing sequels and games that are like other games.
Getting and 80% score is nothing to brag about. It just means your game does not suck. It does not mean it was great.
Your wasting your time bro... he is drinking the EA Koolaid, you cant argue with him.
More likely an EA marketing person IMO.
People don't seem to get it. The Dev's in most of these small companies are the ones that decide to sell their company to a large conglamorate. They do so to cash out. They want to make a whole lot of money. In a lot of cases they turn around and leave the company and start up a new one because they like to be the boss. But they wanted to cash out. EA doesn't do anything to these Developers to make them leave. That is obvious by the fact that Will Wright is still with the company.
Most of the devs from Origin were fired, they didnt leave. That is a fact. How is firing someone not making them leave?
1) Pre EA take over Origin guys led the development of UO - EA guys took it over after release and ran it into the ground. That is a fact. I was there at beta and launch. We know who the devs are that started and led the poject and we know where they went. Most people also will know why they left. Its not a mystery.
They chose to move onto new things after Garriott messed up Origin. It wasn't EA's fault that the management at Origin hired 200 new employees (doubling their team size) and started 20-40 new projects and then just completely dropped the ball. Origin (not EA) canclled a bunch of those projects themselves and then got in trouble by wasting a ton of EA's money. 2) EA fired Origin devs for trying to come up with original ideas like they did when you know they were at origin. EA doesnt do original it does the same game over and over and over and over and over again. But they fired them, they moved them and they ruined a great gaming studio. NO EA fired ORIGIN Devs because ORIGIN MANAGEMENT messed up and didn't maintain any resemblance of control. They were out of control and EA had to step in and clean house. EA didn't come in and immediately fire a bunch of Devs or can a bunch of projects. Origin actually doubled in size and doubled in projects that they were working on after EA bought them. If they had been able to properly manage their department they would of been fine. (that all comes from Garriot himself by the way) 3) BS...either your friends who play sports games are crazy or you work for EA. I am leaning towards EA marketing guy/girl on this one. If madden is better, then why buy the license and force out the competition. Wouldn't customers just buy your better game? While 2k was new and had great ideas it wasn't as fun as Madden was. EA is going to ruin the franchises these guys bring to the table, do not doubt that. Maybe not the first one or two out of the box. But 4 years from now when the devs who made those games have moved on (they all do) EA suits will move in and mass produce crappy sequels till they cant ring any more money out of the former fans of the series. Like they did to Maxis? Oh wait the best selling PC Game of all time was created by Maxis after EA bought them. AS well as a Sequel that is as highly acclaimed. EA; Kill any good quality companies today? EA, brining you the same game we brought you last year but this time with new people on the cover. This is just plain stupid, EA tries to put out successful commercial games. That is what all big developers try to do. They are in it to make money. This is no different then what Vivendi does, or NCsoft, or SOE, or Nintendo, or Microsoft. EA put out a lot of games I know that I have tried that got great reviews for example: American McGee's Alice - Not only good reviews but an original game. Battlefield series all got 80%+ reviews with battlefield 2 being considered one of the best. Same with Medal of Honor games/ Black & White - Oh wait another Original Game from EA? No it couldn't be and it got great reviews. Clive Barker's Undying - 85% average reviews and original Command & Conquer Generals qhile not quite the same reviews and the first two C&C games it still got an average of 84%. CRYSIS - Oh wait could one of the most innovative and technically superior FPS games coming out be from EA? Freedom Force - another good original game with average reviews of 90%. Lord of the Rings Battle for Middle Earth 1+2, Both 80%+ games both real good RTS games. SimCity 4 still even got everage reviews of 84% SPORE will be coming as well, Super innovative game. Defintely not rushed. Super original. And guess what it is from EA. And of course the BEST selling PC Game series of all time and one of the best of any platform with around 90+ million sales and creative reviews of 90%+ The Sims and The Sims 2. /Sarcasm on So yeah Sure EA just puts out crap. /sarcasm off
Do you work for EA?
Because not 1 of those games you noted was innovative in anyway. And that is what EA kills is innovative and creative studios.
They are good a producing sequels and games that are like other games.
Getting and 80% score is nothing to brag about. It just means your game does not suck. It does not mean it was great.
THE Sims wasn't innovative? SPORE isn't innovative?
What is your definition of innovative then? Because it must be completely different then what the industry considers innovative. Because both of those games have been heavily toted as innovative.
You might want to stop with the personal attacks and claims that I work for EA. I got a 30 day ban for doing the same thing to some posters and stating they should work for Blizzard.
Currently playing: LOTRO & WoW (not much WoW though because Mines of Moria rocks!!!!)
Looking Foward too: Bioware games (Dragon Age & Star Wars The Old Republic)
1) Pre EA take over Origin guys led the development of UO - EA guys took it over after release and ran it into the ground. That is a fact. I was there at beta and launch. We know who the devs are that started and led the poject and we know where they went. Most people also will know why they left. Its not a mystery.
They chose to move onto new things after Garriott messed up Origin. It wasn't EA's fault that the management at Origin hired 200 new employees (doubling their team size) and started 20-40 new projects and then just completely dropped the ball. Origin (not EA) canclled a bunch of those projects themselves and then got in trouble by wasting a ton of EA's money. 2) EA fired Origin devs for trying to come up with original ideas like they did when you know they were at origin. EA doesnt do original it does the same game over and over and over and over and over again. But they fired them, they moved them and they ruined a great gaming studio. NO EA fired ORIGIN Devs because ORIGIN MANAGEMENT messed up and didn't maintain any resemblance of control. They were out of control and EA had to step in and clean house. EA didn't come in and immediately fire a bunch of Devs or can a bunch of projects. Origin actually doubled in size and doubled in projects that they were working on after EA bought them. If they had been able to properly manage their department they would of been fine. (that all comes from Garriot himself by the way) 3) BS...either your friends who play sports games are crazy or you work for EA. I am leaning towards EA marketing guy/girl on this one. If madden is better, then why buy the license and force out the competition. Wouldn't customers just buy your better game? While 2k was new and had great ideas it wasn't as fun as Madden was. EA is going to ruin the franchises these guys bring to the table, do not doubt that. Maybe not the first one or two out of the box. But 4 years from now when the devs who made those games have moved on (they all do) EA suits will move in and mass produce crappy sequels till they cant ring any more money out of the former fans of the series. Like they did to Maxis? Oh wait the best selling PC Game of all time was created by Maxis after EA bought them. AS well as a Sequel that is as highly acclaimed. EA; Kill any good quality companies today? EA, brining you the same game we brought you last year but this time with new people on the cover. This is just plain stupid, EA tries to put out successful commercial games. That is what all big developers try to do. They are in it to make money. This is no different then what Vivendi does, or NCsoft, or SOE, or Nintendo, or Microsoft. EA put out a lot of games I know that I have tried that got great reviews for example: American McGee's Alice - Not only good reviews but an original game. Battlefield series all got 80%+ reviews with battlefield 2 being considered one of the best. Same with Medal of Honor games/ Black & White - Oh wait another Original Game from EA? No it couldn't be and it got great reviews. Clive Barker's Undying - 85% average reviews and original Command & Conquer Generals qhile not quite the same reviews and the first two C&C games it still got an average of 84%. CRYSIS - Oh wait could one of the most innovative and technically superior FPS games coming out be from EA? Freedom Force - another good original game with average reviews of 90%. Lord of the Rings Battle for Middle Earth 1+2, Both 80%+ games both real good RTS games. SimCity 4 still even got everage reviews of 84% SPORE will be coming as well, Super innovative game. Defintely not rushed. Super original. And guess what it is from EA. And of course the BEST selling PC Game series of all time and one of the best of any platform with around 90+ million sales and creative reviews of 90%+ The Sims and The Sims 2. /Sarcasm on So yeah Sure EA just puts out crap. /sarcasm off
Do you work for EA?
Because not 1 of those games you noted was innovative in anyway. And that is what EA kills is innovative and creative studios.
They are good a producing sequels and games that are like other games.
Getting and 80% score is nothing to brag about. It just means your game does not suck. It does not mean it was great.
THE Sims wasn't innovative? SPORE isn't innovative?
What is your definition of innovative then? Because it must be completely different then what the industry considers innovative. Because both of those games have been heavily toted as innovative.
You might want to stop with the personal attacks and claims that I work for EA. I got a 30 day ban for doing the same thing to some posters and stating they should work for Blizzard.
Sims - thats 1. Marginally great game, but probably not in anyone's top 25 of all time.
how innovative was sims 2.
You still have not answered how firing employees is not forcing them to leave?
Or how moving them to other projects outside the studio they worked might contribute to them wanting to leave.
Edit: I have my doubts about spore being anything other than a rehashing of other game designs with different graphics. I wait to be astounded by the brilliance of Will Wright.
Sims - thats 1. Marginally great game, but probably not in anyone's top 25 of all time.
how innovative was sims 2. You still have not answered how firing employees is not forcing them to leave? Or how moving them to other projects outside the studio they worked might contribute to them wanting to leave.
The sims not being in anyone's top 25 of all time? It is THE best selling PC GAME of all time and the 3rd best selling FRANCHISE of all time.
Let me try to explain this simpler to you.
You buy a company you give them money to run their division with out overt control by you. At this point you are only financing but are not controlling how they do business. They proceed to double their staff and double their workload. As Richard Garriot said they went from 200 to 400 employees and from 5-10 projects to 20+ projects. Then that company proceeds to tell you that half of those 20+ projects you gave them money for aren't going to work out and they are cancelling them. What would you do? Would you proceed to keep letting them spend your money and give nothing in return or would you go in and clean up shop?
So sure they fired a whole bunch of Origin employeers a lot of which weren't with the company before EA bought them. All of the big devs left on their own. they were not fired. Warren Spector, Chris Roberts, Richard Garriot, Starr Long, etc. Of those Warren Spector stated that he felt EA was right and that he should aim for Bigger budget games. Richard Garriot felt that it was his fault that Origin got messed up and Chris Roberts disappeared from the gaming scene.
So once again EA doesn't mess with you unless you are falling apart on your own. Will Wright considered by many to be one of the most innovative and brightest developers of all time still works at EA. This is the guy that designed SimCity, The Sims, The Upcoming Spore game.
Currently playing: LOTRO & WoW (not much WoW though because Mines of Moria rocks!!!!)
Looking Foward too: Bioware games (Dragon Age & Star Wars The Old Republic)
I doubt there are so people who hate EA, you're confusing EA with SOE And EA is one of the most trust-worthy companies imo, but you're underestimating NCsoft/Arenanet and Blizzard when you're saying only Nintendo has better game quality then EA! You can't really see the latest Pokémon games as 'quality' as they're just copies of the older, and honestly quite good games.
And they're business practices are nothing to be upset off, as every big company does exacly the same...
You know it, the best way to realize your dreams is waking up and start moving, never lose hope and always keep up.
Bioware eventually will disappear, but not because EA incapacity.............
See the issue here is really clear.
Indie developers, like Bioware are successful because of the "vision" of few people who make those kind of companies succeed.
Usually those kind of people coincide with the Founder or Co-founders of the company, those are the people with the talent.
Once those Companies lose those people, they cease to be successful, that's straight.
Origin, Bullfrog, Westwood...............after the aquisition by EA at a certain point , those developers lost their "Jewels" (Es. Garriot and Molineux) and they stop being productive.
The reasons why those talented people leave, is not necessarily fault of EA, I would actually blame the huge egoes those kind of people have, they need space, they cannot work under the pressure of someone else breathing behind their neck.
EA will squeeze everything they can from Bioware, then the name will disappear.
But fear not, the people who led Bioware so far, will soon move to found another Company and we will know about it.
Basically in the next few years we will have a new indipendent Bioware company, but with a different name
I doubt there are so people who hate EA, you're confusing EA with SOE And EA is one of the most trust-worthy companies imo, but you're underestimating NCsoft/Arenanet and Blizzard when you're saying only Nintendo has better game quality then EA! You can't really see the latest Pokémon games as 'quality' as they're just copies of the older, and honestly quite good games. And they're business practices are nothing to be upset off, as every big company does exacly the same...
Below are the top 20 video game publishers, ranked by Game Developer Magazine in October 2006, in order of overall score in six factors: annual turnover, number of releases, average review score, quality of producers, reliability of milestone payments and the quality of staff pay and perks. Note that this is not a ranking by revenue, but of the quality of experience of working with the publishers according to staff, and some video game development companies. 2005 positions have been maintained. Buena Vista Games and NCsoft are new to the list, bumping Codemasters off the list.
2006 Position
Name of Publisher
2005 Position
1st
Nintendo
3rd
2nd
Electronic Arts
1st
3rd
Activision
2nd
4th
Sierra Entertainment
5th
5th
Take-Two Interactive
10th
6th
Microsoft Game Studios
4th
7th
THQ
8th
8th
Ubisoft
6th
9th
Konami
8th
10th
Sega
9th
11th
Namco Bandai
N/A (merger - Namco previously 11th)
12th
Sony Computer Entertainment
12th
13th
Square Enix
16th
14th
Capcom
15th
15th
NCsoft
N/A (new entry)
16th
SCi/Eidos Interactive
N/A (merger - SCi previously 14th)
17th
Lucasarts
20th
18th
Buena Vista Games
N/A (new entry)
19th
Atari
13th
20th
Midway Games
19th
Currently playing: LOTRO & WoW (not much WoW though because Mines of Moria rocks!!!!)
Looking Foward too: Bioware games (Dragon Age & Star Wars The Old Republic)
EA is paying over 850 million USD in cash and stock to buy VG Holding Corp., which is a portfolio company owned by Elevation Partners.
Elevation Partners bought both Bioware and Pandemic in '05 and combined them to create BioWare/Pandemic Studios.
For THAT much money, over 3/4th of a BILLION dollars...
EA will NOT be scrapping or altering Bioware/Pandemic in any significant way. They bought them because they make good products that make lots of money. EA just wants a piece of their pie, NOT to change the way either studio does business....
Unless Bioware/Pandemic start releasing crappy products that don't make money, I can gaurantee that EA won't lay I finger on any Bioware/Pandemic product in development.
BioWare / Pandemic were NOT indy companies, as they were privately held companies owned by a portfolio management firm. Maybe they were before they were bought in 2005, but since then both companies have been very corporately owned and operated.
This EA deal mean nothing to Bioware/Pandemic. They just have to have to pay different stock holders now. Only difference.
Cabe have some very imformative posts in this thread. Almost makes me curious enough to ask how envolved in the gaming / programming world you are. If at all. Seems to be quite a bit more knowledge flowing out of your posts than your everyday player that spends time on this site.
Cabe have some very imformative posts in this thread. Almost makes me curious enough to ask how envolved in the gaming / programming world you are. If at all. Seems to be quite a bit more knowledge flowing out of your posts than your everyday player that spends time on this site.
Reguardless the case well written posts.
Thank you. I am not involved in the gaming world at all. I am actually in the US Navy. I just have a love of video games and so I read a lot about them.
Currently playing: LOTRO & WoW (not much WoW though because Mines of Moria rocks!!!!)
Looking Foward too: Bioware games (Dragon Age & Star Wars The Old Republic)
Here's the problem with EA, they discourage innovation in favor of the same ole tried-and-true formulas that have worked in the past. They stifle innovation within their in-house dev teams, and/or they won't take a chance on a game that is breaking the mold. Look at their library of games from the last few years, and their list of titles currentely in development, there is very little innovation. The bottom line is they make 99% of all their games for the least common denominator, which is sound business practice but in the end hurts the video game industry.
There's nothing wrong w/ being succesfull or wanting to continue success, but there IS most definately something wrong w/ repackaging a game year after year while only adding one or two new features and charging full price for it ala Madden, NASCAR, NHL, MLB and the NBA games. Or pumping out tiny little content additions every 3 months and slapping an expansion label on it while charging nearly full retail price of the original game like they did with virtually every single one of the Sims "expansions".
And since it's been documented extensively elsewhere, I won't go into the negative impact that their mis-treatment of their devs has on the industry as a whole.
Yeah, alot of the EA hate has to do with jealously of their size and success. It's just like all the Microsoft hate. Alot of it stems from nothing but petty jealousy and Americas love for the underdog, coupled w/ the cool "rebel factor" people feel when they speak out against "the Man". But there are also many valid reasons for people to dislike EA.
Here's the problem with EA, they discourage innovation in favor of the same ole tried-and-true formulas that have worked in the past. They stifle innovation within their in-house dev teams, and/or they won't take a chance on a game that is breaking the mold. Look at their library of games from the last few years, and their list of titles currentely in development, there is very little innovation. The bottom line is they make 99% of all their games for the least common denominator, which is sound business practice but in the end hurts the video game industry. There's nothing wrong w/ being succesfull or wanting to continue success, but there IS most definately something wrong w/ repackaging a game year after year while only adding one or two new features and charging full price for it ala Madden, NASCAR, NHL, MLB and the NBA games. Or pumping out tiny little content additions every 3 months and slapping an expansion label on it while charging nearly full retail price of the original game like they did with virtually every single one of the Sims "expansions". And since it's been documented extensively elsewhere, I won't go into the negative impact that their mis-treatment of their devs has on the industry as a whole. Yeah, alot of the EA hate has to do with jealously of their size and success. It's just like all the Microsoft hate. Alot of it stems from nothing but petty jealousy and Americas love for the underdog, coupled w/ the cool "rebel factor" people feel when they speak out against "the Man". But there are also many valid reasons for people to dislike EA.
Except for the fact that their old CEO retired and the new one has already spoken out against making sequels. he actually called it boring. So the fact that their new CEO doesn't agree with that style of developing and coupled with him going out and getting Bioware makes me think that EA will definitely be the place for some great original games here in the future.
Currently playing: LOTRO & WoW (not much WoW though because Mines of Moria rocks!!!!)
Looking Foward too: Bioware games (Dragon Age & Star Wars The Old Republic)
Here's the problem with EA, they discourage innovation in favor of the same ole tried-and-true formulas that have worked in the past. They stifle innovation within their in-house dev teams, and/or they won't take a chance on a game that is breaking the mold. Look at their library of games from the last few years, and their list of titles currentely in development, there is very little innovation. The bottom line is they make 99% of all their games for the least common denominator, which is sound business practice but in the end hurts the video game industry. There's nothing wrong w/ being succesfull or wanting to continue success, but there IS most definately something wrong w/ repackaging a game year after year while only adding one or two new features and charging full price for it ala Madden, NASCAR, NHL, MLB and the NBA games. Or pumping out tiny little content additions every 3 months and slapping an expansion label on it while charging nearly full retail price of the original game like they did with virtually every single one of the Sims "expansions". And since it's been documented extensively elsewhere, I won't go into the negative impact that their mis-treatment of their devs has on the industry as a whole. Yeah, alot of the EA hate has to do with jealously of their size and success. It's just like all the Microsoft hate. Alot of it stems from nothing but petty jealousy and Americas love for the underdog, coupled w/ the cool "rebel factor" people feel when they speak out against "the Man". But there are also many valid reasons for people to dislike EA.
Except for the fact that their old CEO retired and the new one has already spoken out against making sequels. he actually called it boring. So the fact that their new CEO doesn't agree with that style of developing and coupled with him going out and getting Bioware makes me think that EA will definitely be the place for some great original games here in the future.
Makes alot of sense. They keep soaking up all these good resources. Their bound to spit out a monster sooner or later. Even if its by accident , for those who hate "The Man" as teddyboy so elegantly put it.
Here's the problem with EA, they discourage innovation in favor of the same ole tried-and-true formulas that have worked in the past. They stifle innovation within their in-house dev teams, and/or they won't take a chance on a game that is breaking the mold. Look at their library of games from the last few years, and their list of titles currentely in development, there is very little innovation. The bottom line is they make 99% of all their games for the least common denominator, which is sound business practice but in the end hurts the video game industry. There's nothing wrong w/ being succesfull or wanting to continue success, but there IS most definately something wrong w/ repackaging a game year after year while only adding one or two new features and charging full price for it ala Madden, NASCAR, NHL, MLB and the NBA games. Or pumping out tiny little content additions every 3 months and slapping an expansion label on it while charging nearly full retail price of the original game like they did with virtually every single one of the Sims "expansions". And since it's been documented extensively elsewhere, I won't go into the negative impact that their mis-treatment of their devs has on the industry as a whole. Yeah, alot of the EA hate has to do with jealously of their size and success. It's just like all the Microsoft hate. Alot of it stems from nothing but petty jealousy and Americas love for the underdog, coupled w/ the cool "rebel factor" people feel when they speak out against "the Man". But there are also many valid reasons for people to dislike EA.
Except for the fact that their old CEO retired and the new one has already spoken out against making sequels. he actually called it boring. So the fact that their new CEO doesn't agree with that style of developing and coupled with him going out and getting Bioware makes me think that EA will definitely be the place for some great original games here in the future.
The rest of your posts talked about how great EA was in the past. Making awesome innovative games every year.
If that is the case, why the new direction by the new CEO?
Still have not answered how firing people is not forcing them to leave the company, with regard to Origin.
Based on pass practices of EA. The most likely thing to happen is for EA to push out games in the pipe for these 2 companies, develop sequels and other titles tied to the IP of the acquired companies for a few years.
Most of the development teams from these 2 companies leaving in about 3-5 years. EA driving the franchise into the ground.
Calling something great because it sold more copies then something else is kinda like saying knickleback is the greatest rock band of all time. A lot of great games never sold well when they first came out. Doesnt change the fact that they were great games.
For all your talk of UO being a UO project, Were you there around the time of UO launch? Because nobody viewed that thing as an EA project. It when EA peeps started running the game that it went to shit. You can trace the timeline of UO's downfall to the departure and replacement of key people in the company.
And if some company fired every single one of my friends that I had worked with for 10-15 years, i would say they pretty much puttting up a huge sign that they didnt want me around anymore, but couldnt fire me because I had a better contact then my friends they fired.
Edit: yes I am a bitter ex UO player and I loved old most of the old Origin games. EA fooled me once with this line that they are new company, and they are going to do things different. Nope, i am not buying it this time.
Bioware MMORPG = gonna be a complete rehashing of WOW with different graphics...this move just guarantees that. And it also makes it less and less likely that its a SW MMO; because no way a LA license is surviving this buyout.
He then worked in a variety of consumer product companies including the The Clorox Company (Brand Manager]], PepsiCo (Group Marketing Director), Haagen-Dazs International (Managing Director), Wilson Sporting Goods (President and Chief Executive Officer), and Sara Lee Corporation (President and Chief Executive Officer, Bakery Division) [2].
From October 1997 though April 2004, President and Chief Operating Officer of Electronic Arts[2]. He then left Electronic Arts and co-founded Elevation Partners[2] , where Riccitiello served as Managing Director."
from Wikkipedia
NOW- if you do some research, you see that Elevation Partners owned VG Holdings which is the portfolio company for the joint BioWare/Pandemic studios.
So they guy that left EA (used to be COE of EA) left and founded Elevation Partners, which in 2005 BOUGHT BioWare and Pandemic.
Then was re-hired as the CEO of EA and bought his old company's property back to keep it in the EA family.
There, my friends, is the reason this whole thing happened.
Here's the problem with EA, they discourage innovation in favor of the same ole tried-and-true formulas that have worked in the past. They stifle innovation within their in-house dev teams, and/or they won't take a chance on a game that is breaking the mold. Look at their library of games from the last few years, and their list of titles currentely in development, there is very little innovation. The bottom line is they make 99% of all their games for the least common denominator, which is sound business practice but in the end hurts the video game industry. There's nothing wrong w/ being succesfull or wanting to continue success, but there IS most definately something wrong w/ repackaging a game year after year while only adding one or two new features and charging full price for it ala Madden, NASCAR, NHL, MLB and the NBA games. Or pumping out tiny little content additions every 3 months and slapping an expansion label on it while charging nearly full retail price of the original game like they did with virtually every single one of the Sims "expansions". And since it's been documented extensively elsewhere, I won't go into the negative impact that their mis-treatment of their devs has on the industry as a whole. Yeah, alot of the EA hate has to do with jealously of their size and success. It's just like all the Microsoft hate. Alot of it stems from nothing but petty jealousy and Americas love for the underdog, coupled w/ the cool "rebel factor" people feel when they speak out against "the Man". But there are also many valid reasons for people to dislike EA.
Except for the fact that their old CEO retired and the new one has already spoken out against making sequels. he actually called it boring. So the fact that their new CEO doesn't agree with that style of developing and coupled with him going out and getting Bioware makes me think that EA will definitely be the place for some great original games here in the future.
The rest of your posts talked about how great EA was in the past. Making awesome innovative games every year.
If that is the case, why the new direction by the new CEO?
He didn't leave he took a position as Executive Chairman, the dude was getting old.
Still have not answered how firing people is not forcing them to leave the company, with regard to Origin.
Actually I did answer it. Origin themselves caused the problem and caused all of the firings.
Based on pass practices of EA. The most likely thing to happen is for EA to push out games in the pipe for these 2 companies, develop sequels and other titles tied to the IP of the acquired companies for a few years.
Most of the development teams from these 2 companies leaving in about 3-5 years. EA driving the franchise into the ground.
Calling something great because it sold more copies then something else is kinda like saying knickleback is the greatest rock band of all time. A lot of great games never sold well when they first came out. Doesnt change the fact that they were great games.
Actually it would be like calling The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Elvis, Led Zepplin, etc great. They all sold tons of albums and were considered great.
For all your talk of UO being a UO project, Were you there around the time of UO launch? Because nobody viewed that thing as an EA project. It when EA peeps started running the game that it went to shit. You can trace the timeline of UO's downfall to the departure and replacement of key people in the company.
Yes I was around at the UO launch I was a UO beta Tester. No one cared back then about who was running what because back then it didn't matter. That is why people didn't pay attention to who the owners were. Not until after the whole SOE thing with SWG did people really start paying attention.
And if some company fired every single one of my friends that I had worked with for 10-15 years, i would say they pretty much puttting up a huge sign that they didnt want me around anymore, but couldnt fire me because I had a better contact then my friends they fired.
What if that company fired every single one of your friends because of you. You caused them to get fired, would you still blame yourself? Because that is what Garriot did.
Edit: yes I am a bitter ex UO player and I loved old most of the old Origin games. EA fooled me once with this line that they are new company, and they are going to do things different. Nope, i am not buying it this time.
Bioware MMORPG = gonna be a complete rehashing of WOW with different graphics...this move just guarantees that. And it also makes it less and less likely that its a SW MMO; because no way a LA license is surviving this buyout.
There wasn't much of a chance of this game being a SW MMO anyways. Why on earth would LA license someone else to make a Star Wars MMO. The first one bombed commercially and even though there are a ton of PRE-NGE fans on these boards there aren't all that many to play the game. Star Wars just didn't translate well into an MMO. Their better choice would be to make one of their own IPs into a MMO.
Currently playing: LOTRO & WoW (not much WoW though because Mines of Moria rocks!!!!)
Looking Foward too: Bioware games (Dragon Age & Star Wars The Old Republic)
Comments
Bioware did NOT make Fallout, Planescape or IceWind Dale! If you look on Bioware's homepage it tells you the games they actually made. After the Baldur's Gate games several of Black Isle's developers branched off and Created Bioware, they were not how ever on the project teams that created Fallout, Planescape, or Icewind Dale or you'd see those games listed! Bioware and Black Isle were always in good relations for the years that passed until Black Isle studios closed its doors permantly (it was a sad day for the RPG world)
Bioware's official list of currently published games
Jade Empires
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 1
Neverwinter Nights (and its subsequent expansions)
Baldur's Gate
Baldur's Gate : Tales of the sword coast
Baldur's Gate 2
Baldurs Gate 2 expansion
MDK2
MDK2 Armageddon
Shattered Steel
Indeed, Bioware + BlackIsle, when BlackIsle closed up most of its programmers went into Bioware. And another thing those devs that did Fallout1+2 and partially BG1 went into Troika Games that died as well later on which was even more sad day at least for me.
REALITY CHECK
Currently playing:
LOTRO & WoW (not much WoW though because Mines of Moria rocks!!!!)
Looking Foward too:
Bioware games (Dragon Age & Star Wars The Old Republic)
Crysis?
hmm installed something , played a little bit, logged off, didnt log in yet.
More i cant say
---------------------------------------
No Userbar here, sorry to disappoint.
More likely an EA marketing person IMO.
Are you guys obviously so blinded by your hate of EA? I have said before what I do for a living and it isn't in the Gaming genre at all.
I am so sorry that I do not fall in line with the lets hate EA crowd. I happen to like using my brain to come to my own conclusions and when the Founder of a company such as Origin places the blame squarely on his own shoulders and not on EA then why should we?
With Bulldog obviously Molyneaux (spelling?) didn't dislike EA's game practices since he was a VP their he sold them Bulldog so he could get enough money to start a new company and be rich at the same time.
People don't seem to get it. The Dev's in most of these small companies are the ones that decide to sell their company to a large conglamorate. They do so to cash out. They want to make a whole lot of money. In a lot of cases they turn around and leave the company and start up a new one because they like to be the boss. But they wanted to cash out. EA doesn't do anything to these Developers to make them leave. That is obvious by the fact that Will Wright is still with the company.
Currently playing:
LOTRO & WoW (not much WoW though because Mines of Moria rocks!!!!)
Looking Foward too:
Bioware games (Dragon Age & Star Wars The Old Republic)
<Mod Edit>
Because not 1 of those games you noted was innovative in anyway. And that is what EA kills is innovative and creative studios.
They are good a producing sequels and games that are like other games.
Getting and 80% score is nothing to brag about. It just means your game does not suck. It does not mean it was great.
Oh really?
More likely an EA marketing person IMO.
People don't seem to get it. The Dev's in most of these small companies are the ones that decide to sell their company to a large conglamorate. They do so to cash out. They want to make a whole lot of money. In a lot of cases they turn around and leave the company and start up a new one because they like to be the boss. But they wanted to cash out. EA doesn't do anything to these Developers to make them leave. That is obvious by the fact that Will Wright is still with the company.
Most of the devs from Origin were fired, they didnt leave. That is a fact. How is firing someone not making them leave?
Do you work for EA?Because not 1 of those games you noted was innovative in anyway. And that is what EA kills is innovative and creative studios.
They are good a producing sequels and games that are like other games.
Getting and 80% score is nothing to brag about. It just means your game does not suck. It does not mean it was great.
THE Sims wasn't innovative? SPORE isn't innovative?What is your definition of innovative then? Because it must be completely different then what the industry considers innovative. Because both of those games have been heavily toted as innovative.
You might want to stop with the personal attacks and claims that I work for EA. I got a 30 day ban for doing the same thing to some posters and stating they should work for Blizzard.
Currently playing:
LOTRO & WoW (not much WoW though because Mines of Moria rocks!!!!)
Looking Foward too:
Bioware games (Dragon Age & Star Wars The Old Republic)
Do you work for EA?Because not 1 of those games you noted was innovative in anyway. And that is what EA kills is innovative and creative studios.
They are good a producing sequels and games that are like other games.
Getting and 80% score is nothing to brag about. It just means your game does not suck. It does not mean it was great.
THE Sims wasn't innovative? SPORE isn't innovative?What is your definition of innovative then? Because it must be completely different then what the industry considers innovative. Because both of those games have been heavily toted as innovative.
You might want to stop with the personal attacks and claims that I work for EA. I got a 30 day ban for doing the same thing to some posters and stating they should work for Blizzard.
Sims - thats 1. Marginally great game, but probably not in anyone's top 25 of all time.
how innovative was sims 2.
You still have not answered how firing employees is not forcing them to leave?
Or how moving them to other projects outside the studio they worked might contribute to them wanting to leave.
Edit: I have my doubts about spore being anything other than a rehashing of other game designs with different graphics. I wait to be astounded by the brilliance of Will Wright.
Even that article makes it sound like Bioware doesn't see this as a horrible thing. They see it as an opportunity.
Currently playing:
LOTRO & WoW (not much WoW though because Mines of Moria rocks!!!!)
Looking Foward too:
Bioware games (Dragon Age & Star Wars The Old Republic)
Even that article makes it sound like Bioware doesn't see this as a horrible thing. They see it as an opportunity.
yeah i am sure all those ex-EA devs are loving this. I wonder how long their contracts are.
Let me try to explain this simpler to you.
You buy a company you give them money to run their division with out overt control by you. At this point you are only financing but are not controlling how they do business. They proceed to double their staff and double their workload. As Richard Garriot said they went from 200 to 400 employees and from 5-10 projects to 20+ projects. Then that company proceeds to tell you that half of those 20+ projects you gave them money for aren't going to work out and they are cancelling them. What would you do? Would you proceed to keep letting them spend your money and give nothing in return or would you go in and clean up shop?
So sure they fired a whole bunch of Origin employeers a lot of which weren't with the company before EA bought them. All of the big devs left on their own. they were not fired. Warren Spector, Chris Roberts, Richard Garriot, Starr Long, etc. Of those Warren Spector stated that he felt EA was right and that he should aim for Bigger budget games. Richard Garriot felt that it was his fault that Origin got messed up and Chris Roberts disappeared from the gaming scene.
So once again EA doesn't mess with you unless you are falling apart on your own. Will Wright considered by many to be one of the most innovative and brightest developers of all time still works at EA. This is the guy that designed SimCity, The Sims, The Upcoming Spore game.
Currently playing:
LOTRO & WoW (not much WoW though because Mines of Moria rocks!!!!)
Looking Foward too:
Bioware games (Dragon Age & Star Wars The Old Republic)
I doubt there are so people who hate EA, you're confusing EA with SOE
And EA is one of the most trust-worthy companies imo, but you're underestimating NCsoft/Arenanet and Blizzard when you're saying only Nintendo has better game quality then EA! You can't really see the latest Pokémon games as 'quality' as they're just copies of the older, and honestly quite good games.
And they're business practices are nothing to be upset off, as every big company does exacly the same...
You know it, the best way to realize your dreams is waking up and start moving, never lose hope and always keep up.
Bioware eventually will disappear, but not because EA incapacity.............
See the issue here is really clear.
Indie developers, like Bioware are successful because of the "vision" of few people who make those kind of companies succeed.
Usually those kind of people coincide with the Founder or Co-founders of the company, those are the people with the talent.
Once those Companies lose those people, they cease to be successful, that's straight.
Origin, Bullfrog, Westwood...............after the aquisition by EA at a certain point , those developers lost their "Jewels" (Es. Garriot and Molineux) and they stop being productive.
The reasons why those talented people leave, is not necessarily fault of EA, I would actually blame the huge egoes those kind of people have, they need space, they cannot work under the pressure of someone else breathing behind their neck.
EA will squeeze everything they can from Bioware, then the name will disappear.
But fear not, the people who led Bioware so far, will soon move to found another Company and we will know about it.
Basically in the next few years we will have a new indipendent Bioware company, but with a different name
Below are the top 20 video game publishers, ranked by Game Developer Magazine in October 2006, in order of overall score in six factors: annual turnover, number of releases, average review score, quality of producers, reliability of milestone payments and the quality of staff pay and perks. Note that this is not a ranking by revenue, but of the quality of experience of working with the publishers according to staff, and some video game development companies. 2005 positions have been maintained. Buena Vista Games and NCsoft are new to the list, bumping Codemasters off the list.
Currently playing:
LOTRO & WoW (not much WoW though because Mines of Moria rocks!!!!)
Looking Foward too:
Bioware games (Dragon Age & Star Wars The Old Republic)
EA is paying over 850 million USD in cash and stock to buy VG Holding Corp., which is a portfolio company owned by Elevation Partners.
Elevation Partners bought both Bioware and Pandemic in '05 and combined them to create BioWare/Pandemic Studios.
For THAT much money, over 3/4th of a BILLION dollars...
EA will NOT be scrapping or altering Bioware/Pandemic in any significant way. They bought them because they make good products that make lots of money. EA just wants a piece of their pie, NOT to change the way either studio does business....
Unless Bioware/Pandemic start releasing crappy products that don't make money, I can gaurantee that EA won't lay I finger on any Bioware/Pandemic product in development.
BioWare / Pandemic were NOT indy companies, as they were privately held companies owned by a portfolio management firm. Maybe they were before they were bought in 2005, but since then both companies have been very corporately owned and operated.
This EA deal mean nothing to Bioware/Pandemic. They just have to have to pay different stock holders now. Only difference.
Cabe have some very imformative posts in this thread. Almost makes me curious enough to ask how envolved in the gaming / programming world you are. If at all. Seems to be quite a bit more knowledge flowing out of your posts than your everyday player that spends time on this site.
Reguardless the case well written posts.
Thank you. I am not involved in the gaming world at all. I am actually in the US Navy. I just have a love of video games and so I read a lot about them.
Currently playing:
LOTRO & WoW (not much WoW though because Mines of Moria rocks!!!!)
Looking Foward too:
Bioware games (Dragon Age & Star Wars The Old Republic)
Here's the problem with EA, they discourage innovation in favor of the same ole tried-and-true formulas that have worked in the past. They stifle innovation within their in-house dev teams, and/or they won't take a chance on a game that is breaking the mold. Look at their library of games from the last few years, and their list of titles currentely in development, there is very little innovation. The bottom line is they make 99% of all their games for the least common denominator, which is sound business practice but in the end hurts the video game industry.
There's nothing wrong w/ being succesfull or wanting to continue success, but there IS most definately something wrong w/ repackaging a game year after year while only adding one or two new features and charging full price for it ala Madden, NASCAR, NHL, MLB and the NBA games. Or pumping out tiny little content additions every 3 months and slapping an expansion label on it while charging nearly full retail price of the original game like they did with virtually every single one of the Sims "expansions".
And since it's been documented extensively elsewhere, I won't go into the negative impact that their mis-treatment of their devs has on the industry as a whole.
Yeah, alot of the EA hate has to do with jealously of their size and success. It's just like all the Microsoft hate. Alot of it stems from nothing but petty jealousy and Americas love for the underdog, coupled w/ the cool "rebel factor" people feel when they speak out against "the Man". But there are also many valid reasons for people to dislike EA.
Except for the fact that their old CEO retired and the new one has already spoken out against making sequels. he actually called it boring. So the fact that their new CEO doesn't agree with that style of developing and coupled with him going out and getting Bioware makes me think that EA will definitely be the place for some great original games here in the future.
Currently playing:
LOTRO & WoW (not much WoW though because Mines of Moria rocks!!!!)
Looking Foward too:
Bioware games (Dragon Age & Star Wars The Old Republic)
Except for the fact that their old CEO retired and the new one has already spoken out against making sequels. he actually called it boring. So the fact that their new CEO doesn't agree with that style of developing and coupled with him going out and getting Bioware makes me think that EA will definitely be the place for some great original games here in the future.
Makes alot of sense. They keep soaking up all these good resources. Their bound to spit out a monster sooner or later. Even if its by accident , for those who hate "The Man" as teddyboy so elegantly put it.
Except for the fact that their old CEO retired and the new one has already spoken out against making sequels. he actually called it boring. So the fact that their new CEO doesn't agree with that style of developing and coupled with him going out and getting Bioware makes me think that EA will definitely be the place for some great original games here in the future.
The rest of your posts talked about how great EA was in the past. Making awesome innovative games every year.
If that is the case, why the new direction by the new CEO?
Still have not answered how firing people is not forcing them to leave the company, with regard to Origin.
Based on pass practices of EA. The most likely thing to happen is for EA to push out games in the pipe for these 2 companies, develop sequels and other titles tied to the IP of the acquired companies for a few years.
Most of the development teams from these 2 companies leaving in about 3-5 years. EA driving the franchise into the ground.
Calling something great because it sold more copies then something else is kinda like saying knickleback is the greatest rock band of all time. A lot of great games never sold well when they first came out. Doesnt change the fact that they were great games.
For all your talk of UO being a UO project, Were you there around the time of UO launch? Because nobody viewed that thing as an EA project. It when EA peeps started running the game that it went to shit. You can trace the timeline of UO's downfall to the departure and replacement of key people in the company.
And if some company fired every single one of my friends that I had worked with for 10-15 years, i would say they pretty much puttting up a huge sign that they didnt want me around anymore, but couldnt fire me because I had a better contact then my friends they fired.
Edit: yes I am a bitter ex UO player and I loved old most of the old Origin games. EA fooled me once with this line that they are new company, and they are going to do things different. Nope, i am not buying it this time.
Bioware MMORPG = gonna be a complete rehashing of WOW with different graphics...this move just guarantees that. And it also makes it less and less likely that its a SW MMO; because no way a LA license is surviving this buyout.
"John Riccitiello is the CEO of Electronic Arts[1].
He received his B.S. degree from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. [2]
He then worked in a variety of consumer product companies including the The Clorox Company (Brand Manager]], PepsiCo (Group Marketing Director), Haagen-Dazs International (Managing Director), Wilson Sporting Goods (President and Chief Executive Officer), and Sara Lee Corporation (President and Chief Executive Officer, Bakery Division) [2].
From October 1997 though April 2004, President and Chief Operating Officer of Electronic Arts [2]. He then left Electronic Arts and co-founded Elevation Partners[2] , where Riccitiello served as Managing Director."
from Wikkipedia
NOW- if you do some research, you see that Elevation Partners owned VG Holdings which is the portfolio company for the joint BioWare/Pandemic studios.
So they guy that left EA (used to be COE of EA) left and founded Elevation Partners, which in 2005 BOUGHT BioWare and Pandemic.
Then was re-hired as the CEO of EA and bought his old company's property back to keep it in the EA family.
There, my friends, is the reason this whole thing happened.
Except for the fact that their old CEO retired and the new one has already spoken out against making sequels. he actually called it boring. So the fact that their new CEO doesn't agree with that style of developing and coupled with him going out and getting Bioware makes me think that EA will definitely be the place for some great original games here in the future.
The rest of your posts talked about how great EA was in the past. Making awesome innovative games every year.
If that is the case, why the new direction by the new CEO?
He didn't leave he took a position as Executive Chairman, the dude was getting old.
Still have not answered how firing people is not forcing them to leave the company, with regard to Origin.
Actually I did answer it. Origin themselves caused the problem and caused all of the firings.
Based on pass practices of EA. The most likely thing to happen is for EA to push out games in the pipe for these 2 companies, develop sequels and other titles tied to the IP of the acquired companies for a few years.
Most of the development teams from these 2 companies leaving in about 3-5 years. EA driving the franchise into the ground.
Calling something great because it sold more copies then something else is kinda like saying knickleback is the greatest rock band of all time. A lot of great games never sold well when they first came out. Doesnt change the fact that they were great games.
Actually it would be like calling The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Elvis, Led Zepplin, etc great. They all sold tons of albums and were considered great.
For all your talk of UO being a UO project, Were you there around the time of UO launch? Because nobody viewed that thing as an EA project. It when EA peeps started running the game that it went to shit. You can trace the timeline of UO's downfall to the departure and replacement of key people in the company.
Yes I was around at the UO launch I was a UO beta Tester. No one cared back then about who was running what because back then it didn't matter. That is why people didn't pay attention to who the owners were. Not until after the whole SOE thing with SWG did people really start paying attention.
And if some company fired every single one of my friends that I had worked with for 10-15 years, i would say they pretty much puttting up a huge sign that they didnt want me around anymore, but couldnt fire me because I had a better contact then my friends they fired.
What if that company fired every single one of your friends because of you. You caused them to get fired, would you still blame yourself? Because that is what Garriot did.
Edit: yes I am a bitter ex UO player and I loved old most of the old Origin games. EA fooled me once with this line that they are new company, and they are going to do things different. Nope, i am not buying it this time.
Bioware MMORPG = gonna be a complete rehashing of WOW with different graphics...this move just guarantees that. And it also makes it less and less likely that its a SW MMO; because no way a LA license is surviving this buyout.
There wasn't much of a chance of this game being a SW MMO anyways. Why on earth would LA license someone else to make a Star Wars MMO. The first one bombed commercially and even though there are a ton of PRE-NGE fans on these boards there aren't all that many to play the game. Star Wars just didn't translate well into an MMO. Their better choice would be to make one of their own IPs into a MMO.
Currently playing:
LOTRO & WoW (not much WoW though because Mines of Moria rocks!!!!)
Looking Foward too:
Bioware games (Dragon Age & Star Wars The Old Republic)