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MMORPG.COM News: BioWare Making MMORPG in Austin
Stradden
Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696
Canadian video game development company, BioWare, has announced that they are currently recruiting for a new MMORPG project for their office in Austin, Texas. MMORPG veterans, Richard Vogel and Gordon Walton have been brought on to help the project. Both have served terms at SOE, Vogel as VP of Porduct Development, Walton as VP, studio manager and executive producer. Their contributions to the industry do not end there, and can be read below:
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EDMONTON, Alberta--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 13, 2006--Canadian videogame developer BioWare Corp. has announced the opening of a new studio, BioWare Austin, based in Austin, Texas. It is the second of BioWare's studios and the first to be located outside of Canada.
BioWare Austin has already begun work on a Massively Multiplayer Online roleplaying game (MMORPG) title; the new game will mark BioWare's debut in the Massively Multiplayer Online space. BioWare has recruited some of the top talent in MMO and RPG development, both to manage the development efforts at BioWare Austin and to collaborate with the experienced team at BioWare Edmonton, to develop a game that combines the best of BioWare's great past games with a compelling persistent online experience. Joining the Austin team as lead designer is James Ohlen, BioWare's Creative Director, whose previous credits include lead or co-lead design roles on Star Wars®: Knights of the Old Republic(TM), Neverwinter Nights(TM), Baldur's Gate(TM) and Baldur's Gate II(TM). Also leading the BWA team are MMO veterans Richard Vogel and Gordon Walton. Richard Vogel brings 15 years of experience to BioWare Austin, previously serving as VP of Product Development for Sony Online Entertainment's Austin studio, as well as launching Ultima Online(TM) as a senior producer at Origin. Gordon Walton recently served as VP, studio manager and executive producer at Sony Online Entertainment as well as VP and Executive Producer at Electronic Arts.
"BioWare is committed to a seamless collaboration between our two studios to ensure the same high standards of quality and creativity our dedicated teams have always delivered," said Ray Muzyka, co-founder and Joint CEO of BioWare. "With our extensive heritage in the roleplaying genre, BioWare Austin is extremely well positioned to innovate in the massively multiplayer online space for BioWare's valued community of fans."
The new BioWare Austin comes soon after the formation of BioWare/Pandemic Studios, a partnership facilitated by private equity firm Elevation Partners. The new entity combines top videogame developers BioWare Corp., an industry leader in the role-playing game genre, and Pandemic Studios, an award-winning developer of best-selling action titles.
Both BioWare Austin and BioWare Edmonton currently have job openings for programmers, designers, artists, animators, world builders and writers, with new jobs being posted regularly. Applicants may view job postings and submit materials through jobs.bioware.com. BioWare Austin will also be recruiting, along with BioWare Edmonton and sister studios Pandemic Studios LA and Pandemic Australia, at the Game Developers Conference at the San Jose Convention Centre in San Jose, California, March 20-24, 2006.
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Comments
Wow this is indeed GREAT news!!!
BIOWARE MAKING MMORPG!!!!
This is surely to be the best one
"Before this battle is over all the world will know that few...stood against many." - King Leonidas
My thought when I saw Bioware jumping into MMO's was "great", then I saw names like SOE and EA listed as experience for people involved
I guess time will tell if Bioware's creativity and ability to make good games will make it through to the final game.
hmm,
Bioware are a good game company, I will be paying close attention to the progress of thier game once it has been announced.
*drools* This is indeed great news for the MMO genre, I think Bioware with it's tradition for excellent RPG games will bring in a few RPG lovers into the MMO genre.
I can't wait. I just wish Bioware would have entered the MMO industry a few years ago and picked up DDO.
Meh, we'll see. Hiring folks from SOE is a terrible move and shows that BioWare is at least partially out of touch. If nothing else, connecting your MMORPG and company with SOE will automatically make people think of SWG whether or not this individual had anything to do with that title.
They have already created a PR problem for themselves that will last years, even if the cause of that PR problem is general ignorance on the part of the potential player base.
That's not including the fact that SOE simply has a bad reputation in general, anyway. Terrible customer service and very buggy releases (unfinished expansions) immediately come to mind.
...and they want to connect their MMORPG to this? That's bad business straight out of the gates and suggests uninformed corporate decisions based on what looks good on paper, not the decisions that an "in touch" company would make.
The only reason that I'm not automatically discounting them is because it's BioWare, but they sure won't get any excitement or a following from me.
They did in fact recruit some of the better folks from SOE so this is good news.
After what Turbine got us with DDO there can only be improvement.
could be Forgotten Realms Online!
We could all be good aligned dark elves called Drizzd, Drizzit, Drizut....etc
I don't think you should slam designers because they were associated with SWG. It had many great things; crafting system, unique character types, interesting character advance situation. What you don't want in the MMPORG is a WoW-clone. No issues with WoW or Blizzard, but we already have one. So, hit or miss, I want new game design ideas. and, hit or miss, SWG had loads of them.
I've no opinion on Bioware, and the announcement said nothing about the coming game. They got funded, for something, that's all.
saaaweeeeet
I will wanna be dr1iz21t
- Scaris
"What happened to you, Star Wars Galaxies? You used to look like Leia. Not quite gold bikini Leia (more like bad-British-accent-and-cinnamon-bun-hair Leia), but still Leia nonetheless. Now you look like Chewbacca." - Computer Gaming World
This is interesting news but I wish they'd say what genre their game will be. Is it sword and sorcery, futuristic, modern day? The only news that is given is the bad news of SOE folk being involved. Maybe SWG is getting cancelled and they're making a new star wars mmorpg?
And on sidenote their is nothing wrong with instancing (in moderation). I think WOW does a good job with it and so does COH/V
I for one believe this to be good news. Though I am one of those folks that were sorely disappointed with SWG, I'll hold off my slams because bioware has in the past displayed severely good judgement in thier hires and in thier development. Heck, before KOTOR i had never played a Star Wars game worth the franchise. Now i believe its one of the best things in the Star Wars franchise. That indicates to me Bioware's capabilities, being able to make a star wars anything surpass expectations.
I would love them to design a hybrid Future/Fantasy game that plays like a bioware game (levels gained by questing, not grinding. A Storyline. Etc) but has PVP (PLEASE HAVE PVP), Active involvement in combat, and cool but not overpowering items and buffs.
Ill be quiet now because i am a bit of a bioware fanboy. But i do think it is a positive that they are entering the field.
To err is human.
Thank god i'm not human!
The idea of BioWare making a MMORPG is good news. The 2 people they picked up are great additions to their team. Who gives a crap if they worked with Sony or EA - if you look at one of the guys history he was a developer from UO ( Ultima Online ) grandfather of all MMORPG's and one of the longest running / very fun mmorpgs there has been. They did lose track of somethings with carebears not wanted to get pvp'd but other than that it was a solid long earning game. The other guy worked on Neverwinter Nights which was a killer game as well. I don't think 2 people are going to change the way Bioware does things.
Two Games I would like turned into MMORPG's :
1> They make a Knights of the Republic type of MMORPG - i swear if the game play was similiar to kotor is now except you could go anywhere you wanted, more areas to explore, space travel was alittle more hands on - you would have one of the best mmorpgs out there. Before I left SWG, I mentioned to some of my friends in game that if KOTOR was made intoa MMORPG it would be the best representive of the Star Wars galaxy and fun game play ever. I am sure I dont stand alone on this thought either.
2> Baldur's Gate type MMORPG - I always had fun playing these RPG game. If done right maybe BioWare will be the first company to go away from the idea of pushing out mmorpgs to make money and actually bring the RPG back into MMORPG LOL ! I have to be honest that DDO ( Dungeon and Dragons Online ) was kinda pushed out too soon, I see great potential just needs a lot of work. So I would love to see a great dungeon and dragon bash that is not set in a work saturated with magical items.
Cheers to BioWare
Not everyone that ever worked with SOE is pure evil. The old SWG previews show all the old devs talking about how the game was going to focus on the community, among other things (basically how it will be the exact opposite of what it is now).
The good ones left. Hopefully the experience hasn't changed them.
A** Still Raw From Your Last SWG Subscription? Come join us at RLMMO.com
SWG had a LOT of good things going for it. Best character creation this side of City of Heroes, smooth graphics, interesting crafting and non-combat professions...
I only hope BioWare picked the good guys from SOE and not the ones responsible for leveling by killing rabbits and planets with no bridges.
If the rumor mill can be believed (friend of a friend of a friend + other sources like http://www.swgalaxies.net/), many prayers may be answered soon, though not in the originally hoped-for way. It sounds like LucasArts may be yanking Star Wars licensing from Sony and handing it to Bioware for the purposes of creating the next SWG MMO. If this is true, then I can take to heart the fact that LucasArts has finally heard the crying masses and made reparations, even if Sony has not.
I still hold true to the fact that, no matter how many changes / tweaks / rebalances / nerfs you feel you must perform to your MMO to make it better, you should NEVER rip out entire advancement paths and leave a healthy portion of the existing player base with alternatives that don't match what they intended for their avatar. The core definition of a class (or its very existance in the game) should forever remain immutable, I say, and I know Bioware will not make the same mistake that Sony did. I'm still of the opinion (however unfounded) that the did it in order to refurbish SWG so that it would be more playable and appealing to the Xbox 360 and PS crowd... and in doing so, considered the majority of their existing playerbase as acceptable losses.
As for Sony... well, between the rootkit fiasco, the massive nerfbats they somehow invariably end up wielding no matter the MMO, the SWG nightmare, their tactics and fallacies related to PS3 marketing and development, and myriad other bad choices... I'm ready for them to just disappear.
Its a long shot... but im really praying for a good Star wars game from this...... but then came SOE...... teh Ghey
Lucas cant posibly let the Star Wars name go down with SWG.
oops, it double posted ><
It's always interesting to speculate what the future may hold! so lets run down the possibilities...
1. bioware creates a NWN/BG MMO game...Its possible, there are multiple liscences for D&D out there (obsidion entertainment is working on NWN 2 right now)
2. bioware takes over the SWG liscence...again possible, had a hit game in KOTOR, probably the biggest hit a SW game has had...however the experiance left them unwilling to work on someone elses intelectual property again. that may have changed, but enough for them to work with the company that soured them in the first place? hmmmm..
3. bioware makes a Jade Empire MMO...possible, it was a decently recieved game though not a mega hit (at least i dont think it was. Doesnt have the draw of either SWG (redone) or D&D online games so i rate this as least likely...
4. My favorite speculation.....Bioware has combined with pandemic games. Pandemic games had the Fallout liscence and made Fallout tactics. Its possible that Bioware/pandemic made a deal with interplay (secret secret...sshhhh) and bought the rights to make a Fallout MMO...THAT would be an MMO that could potentially knock wow off of its podiuml as the top MMO dog out there.
Other possibilities...?
sigh, ANOTHER mmorpg?
I'm stuck in quicksand in the sahara desert, and this guys walks up to me and says "Great news shahib, we've gone into the sand making buziness, great news yes?".
I'm slowly growing tired from all those cloned mmorpg's. They all cling to thesame basic design like a baby orang otan to its hairy mother. I can count the mmorpg's on one hand "a tale in the desert, scifi-mmorpg's, fantasy mmorpg's", that's it.
I hope, Oh Dear God do I hope, that BioWare shows the world its big Tungsten balls and redesigns the concept of mmorpg's.
Dangerous elements like permanent death, non-instanced everything, full geo-mod, full collition, friendly fire. Everything your mother told you NOT to put into a mmorpg, DO IT. When the first wave of blood and destruction has past, things will sort itself out...
... amen.