Electronic Arts, the sports-oriented game publishing giant that swallowed up and destroyed Origin (Ultima creators) and Westwood (Lands of Lore), among others, has just bought Bioware (Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights).

For people who were placing hopes on Dragon's Age, their PC RPG in development, this has to be bad news. The only possible silver lining for this is that it is possibly good news for indie developers, because Bioware was basically the last mainstream developer of CRPGs that aren't shooters in disguise. So indie developers might get some increased interest, as they'll own the market now for "real" rpgs.

Somewhere I can hear the Guardian laughing... will no one rid us of this disease of a corporate giant that destroys everything we love?!

Oh the pain........

What does EA want with owning Bioware, they don't even release those kinds of games do they?

And why would the Bioware guys sell if they were making enough money.....?

Can you say sports themed RPGs, be the player in the MMORPG, pass, tackle, etc. Hang out in the locker room, chase the cheerleaders... I saw a basketball MMO recently with points and feats recently at a convention... Bloodbowl-- sports fantasy teams.

They don't make those kind of games now, but apparently they want to. And they want to do MMORPGs (presumably because they think that's where the money is). They also ate Maxis (The Sims). Their reputation among most gamers is for putting out games on a strict schedule whether they're ready or not -- the same game engine, "updated" every year, very buggy, poorly patched, and you pay for a series of expansions to fill in the content that should have been there if they had waited until it was done to release it.

Yea they put out the madden style nfl games right? Those kinds of games must use the same engine with a few updates for a few years in a row at least. I think I had 2004 and then 2005 came out and was almost exactly the same. If I buy one I buy the old year because its like 20$ and almost the exact same game as the new one that sells for 50$.

The thing is, those madden games sell millions so I can only imagine how much they make by re-using the same game over and over.

So I guess eventually we will have 2 or 3 mega game companies that will only make titles if they sell 2 million plus copies of some crappy game? Wow, things just keep getting bleaker in the whole entertainment industry.

oh my god they kill kenn... Bioware !!

Bad times for rpg !

Someone needs to go on Bioware's Forums and give Eschalon a mention. Naw, the post would probably get deleted under their draconian no-spam rules. Anyways, Dragon Age is almost nearing the status of vaporware at this point. The last screen shots were released in 2004. Now that it's EA's hands, an XBOX 360 and Playstation 3 version are almost guaranteed because I don't think EA ever released an exclusive PC game (well, forget the fact that long ago they were once a dedicated developer of games for personal computers. When have they done an exclusive PC title in the last decade?). My point is if DA is "consolized" then I agree: you can dismiss any hope of it being the next great RPG...

Rest in Peace Bioware! A last salute!
So good to know that the Basilisk is here!

We can see the same problem with Oblivion .. adaptation for console players released a quake-like game instead of a good rpg like Morrowind, daggerfall and arena were.

Very good point, I have been wondering why the Dragon Age website has so little information on it and why we have seen so little gameplay footage. It would not surprise me if we hear it has been cancelled at this point. Sad too, because sounds like they really worked long and hard on the background story and setting and wanted to see it released.

Well, I guess this is good for Eschalon business wise....or is it? On the one hand you might not lose some sales due to people buying a Bioware RPG, but on the other hand it means less RPG's get made in general which means the genre gets even less attention. Im hoping that the indy\small studio's carve out their own niche and we see quite a few on them making "true" RPG games...I think technology is at the point that it's possible for small groups can make very good games now if they can finance it long enough to finish it.

I wonder who will be developping neverwinter nights 3 now...

I don't see anything good coming of the BioWare buyout but it's clearly what they wanted - you don't sell to a venture capital group without wanting a profitable sales down the track.

The recent GameSpot interview quotes Ray Muzyka as saying they were playing Dragon Age last week, confirming it is still in development and presumably currently in some sort of playable form. BioWare's Patrick Weekes has repeatedly said they won't starting promoting DA until Mass Effect is out the door, so the silence is expected at this point.

I've no doubt EA will screw things up in due course but I think DA will turn out to be advanced enough to escape relatively unscathed.

Oh -and BioWare wasn't interested in NWN2, so I think their interest in NWN3 is long gone.

This is kinda strange, IMO, as the two games are to be released on different platforms (Mass Effect on X360 and Dragon Age on PC) and so would not be directly competing with each other. This strategy has not done DA any good. I've considered DA to be vaporware for almost a year now, all because of the "news blackout." Not that I expect to see something new every week, but I cannot even remember when I saw or heard something new about DA since, what, 2005.

Regarding the GameSpot interview, I found it more than a bit worrisome. It left a nasty aftertaste of corporate-speak and money-grabbing. At least to me.

Quoting a part of it:

GameSpot: Going from the worlds' biggest independent developer to part of the world's biggest publisher? People are kind of taken aback. What's your reaction to that?

Ray Myzuka: Well, I'm really excited about the opportunity to integrate the great development teams we have here, the marketing teams we have here. As you said, EA is the largest, and I think, the best publisher in the world, and I think we can [add] some value to that team, and that organization as a partnership.

GS: Right, but you guys were always an icon of independent development, and were even more so after the deal with Pandemic...

Greg Zeschuk: Well, to be blunt, I don't really see ourselves as not being independent anymore. We've got a goal of making great BioWare games, and we believe in [EA CEO] John [Riccitiello]'s vision--we can't overemphasize that. We've worked with John for years, and we're looking forward to keep doing what we're doing and doing it well.

(End Quote)

Oh well, Rest in Pieces BioWare.

I put it in my sig over there. We'll see how that goes. . . .

There's a lot of frantic posting going on, but I'm not sure how much actual reading is being done.