RIP BioWare: EA shuts down storied RPG studio after over three decades
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Instead of pink slips, exiting employees were asked to choose between a red slip, green slip, or blue slip.
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I feel for the people getting let go, because this is going to be a widespread thing at EA, the safest job in gaming.
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Rather than shut them down, they could have allowed them to break away as an independent company...
I can't even blame pressure from investors for this one. They're private now. This was their OWN decision. They mismanaged the company in so many ways... I'm not saying there weren't internal problems at Bioware, but I am saying EA just gets to cut and run without a care in the world.
I can't even blame pressure from investors for this one. They're private now. This was their OWN decision. They mismanaged the company in so many ways... I'm not saying there weren't internal problems at Bioware, but I am saying EA just gets to cut and run without a care in the world.
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Fare well, Bioware. I have fond memories of many of your games. Baldur's Gate I, Baldur's Gate II, The Mass Effect quartet (Yes, I did enjoy Andromeda...), even Anthem! It was (and was up until they did a rug pull) the best iron-man simulator out there. Great mechanics, interesting world, lots of cool lore and gorgeous scenery; handicapped by the microtransactions and the lack of story and progression.
A lot of great game devs worked there over the years, I wish them all the best of luck going forward.
A lot of great game devs worked there over the years, I wish them all the best of luck going forward.
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I had one reason to care about EA, so to me, EA just went the same way as Bioware now.
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And they all had to run with the most awkward running animations after getting them.
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Hopefully they sell the IP for these games. I liked the early dragon age games among others.
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The only DA I didn't log hundreds of hours into was DA2. The story had legs--but the reuse of the same exact dungeon map over and over and over....
After Veilguard I was wondering what would come next given the obvious foreshadowing--guess we'll never know.
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Bethesda/Obsidian and Blizzard aren't in great hands, either. Sad to see how far the titans of American RPGs from the past 30 years have fallen.
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This should serve as a signal to ALL studios that independence is worth more than any promises a publisher can make.
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The only way they'd consider that is if someone was gonna buy that spun-off company. Given the value of IP like Mass Effect and Dragon Age, I'm not sure who would have the funds for that buying (and buying BioWare without the IP is really just hiring a bunch of developers, which anyone can do right now after the layoffs)
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American developers may be on the out if Saber is any hint of where we're going.
It has to be said again: I fucking hate it here.
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And who is left in gaming big enough to buy them? Basically it is only Sony or Microsoft. Neither of which would be good stewards IMO
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This is a problem with Private Equity, in general. The profit/tax incentives for PE are so perverse that "Make Product, Sell Product, Earn Profit" is for Chumps, now.
Much better to carve it up, sell off the pieces, raid the equity, claim the "losses" on paper, and use the proceeds to go on to the next Victim. ¯\(ツ)/¯
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What a bunch of mealymouthed horseshit. Translation: "We're only guns and balls now, people."
I'm old enough to remember how EA started and the amazing games they once put out. It's depressing to think about what a monster they became.
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I don't expect any developer to survive under Saudi & Jared Kushner owned EA, if I'm being honest. EA will only harvest the profits and extract every last drop of money from devs then close them.
If Battlefield continues to sink, I'd expect DICE to be diced up and let go as well.
If Battlefield continues to sink, I'd expect DICE to be diced up and let go as well.
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We just saw Microsoft spin Double Fine and Compulsion back out to independence, including letting them take their IP. Worth asking why others can't do the same.
(I suspect in this case it's that BioWare is too valuable in a sense - would be hard to buy the IP value back from EA. Still. Surely BioWare could go kickstart Wyrm Era or Matter Influence or whatever and have a decent chance to find an audience.)
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Very sad news in many ways, Bioware has given us so many iconic RPGs. But the current Bioware is only a shadow of days gone past. And as much as EA is shit, Bioware have been active participants in their own demise. Reading about their internal mis-management in their later games (Andromeda, Anthem, DA4) makes it clear that EA was not the only problem. But I will miss them.
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This is the problem - my backlog will outlive me, and I am still buying games. Times get hard enough, I will pretty much stop (I'd always find something for an occasional indie.)
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I get this joke, and it's technically funny, but I'm not sure that all of the newly-jobless would laugh.
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I wanna be angry, but I've known EA to be a well of poison since they did this to Westwood back in the way-back-when. No, I'm just sad. These companies are destroying heratige for cheap payouts.
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As sad as it is for BioWare to close, they'd been teasing the next Mass Effect for what? 5 years now? 6? I'm legitimately mad at Microsoft for killing off things like the next Senua game and Ninja Theory after showing it off in their recent game showcase... but this? If you can't make a game in six years, or at least significantly show off your vision in something more than the vaguest of teasers, then are you really in the gaming business in the first place?
It's not like RPGs are dead. Baldur's Gate 3 and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 both won game of the year in the last few years. Exodus and The Expanse: Osiris Reborn are both looking pretty good for carrying on some of the Mass Effect sci-fi rpg legacy. Are the huge mega publishers like Microsoft and EA crap at managing studios and IP? Yep. Just go ask Halo Studios how they are feeling right now. But, good teams developing good games isn't at an end.
It's not like RPGs are dead. Baldur's Gate 3 and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 both won game of the year in the last few years. Exodus and The Expanse: Osiris Reborn are both looking pretty good for carrying on some of the Mass Effect sci-fi rpg legacy. Are the huge mega publishers like Microsoft and EA crap at managing studios and IP? Yep. Just go ask Halo Studios how they are feeling right now. But, good teams developing good games isn't at an end.
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Westwood, Maxis, BioWare, BullFrog, Lionshead. So many incredibly fond childhood memories, one of which is at least receiving some food in the shape of Tempest Rising - about as close as I've found to a spiritual successor to C&C (from Saber).
As for the others, the only thing really is that I don't particularly have time for gaming anymore between the job(s) and desire to run my own venture some day. But yeh, if I had won one hell of a lottery ticket, man I'd have loved to have gobbled up some of those IPs.
As for the others, the only thing really is that I don't particularly have time for gaming anymore between the job(s) and desire to run my own venture some day. But yeh, if I had won one hell of a lottery ticket, man I'd have loved to have gobbled up some of those IPs.
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On the one hand, this really stinks, and I hate that there's no hope for more Mass Effect. On the other hand, this is somewhat different from the hasty studio closures of recent times, including studios that had just put out amazing, well-reviewed games. BioWare hasn't had a game that did well critically or commercially in over ten years. That's a lot of rope they were given, and probably more than any studio with a less legendary history would have gotten.
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If you can stay profitable. We lament big studios gobbling up smaller ones, but one ugly issue in the gaming industry was quite a few smaller ones were begging to get bought up. They were hemorrhaging money and were going to close up shop anyways.
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In accounting, goodwill is an intangible asset recognized when a firm is purchased as a going concern. It reflects the premium the buyer pays over the net value of its other assets. Goodwill is often understood to represent the firm's intrinsic ability to acquire and retain customer business, where that is not attributed more specifically to a brand name, contractual arrangements, or otherwise. It is recognized only through an acquisition; it cannot be self-created. It is classified as an intangible asset on the balance sheet because it cannot be seen or touched.
-- Wikipedia
Private equity is a one-trick pony. They buy a company which has spent years, decades, perhaps longer, building goodwill...then they convert it to quick cash and close up shop. It's like buying a train that is speeding down the track, selling tickets, dismantling the engine and selling it for parts, then jumping off before the train rolls to a stop. Then they move to the next track and do the same thing again.
I don't understand why the gaming industry in particular is such a common target for this scheme.
-- Wikipedia
Private equity is a one-trick pony. They buy a company which has spent years, decades, perhaps longer, building goodwill...then they convert it to quick cash and close up shop. It's like buying a train that is speeding down the track, selling tickets, dismantling the engine and selling it for parts, then jumping off before the train rolls to a stop. Then they move to the next track and do the same thing again.
I don't understand why the gaming industry in particular is such a common target for this scheme.
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"Had to be me. Someone else might've gotten it wrong"
Kushner and his fellow investors do not appear to be the kind of person one can count on to hold the line, and would instead say "Has to be you, because better you than me."
Kushner and his fellow investors do not appear to be the kind of person one can count on to hold the line, and would instead say "Has to be you, because better you than me."
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They weren't the same company we all remember, even before this. But like so many legacy studios that close, it still hurts. You know it wasn't a lack of passion or talented employees. EA forcing Anthem on them really started the downhill for me, but I'm surely being reductivist with that.
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Why make potentially buckets of money over a long period of time by putting in effort and giving a shit when you can make a little bit of money right now and make everyone who isn't you less happy in their life?
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ubercurmudgeon
Ars Praefectus
Why? So Jared Kushner's investment valuation will go up a quarter of a point? Let's make that valuation go down. Let's take enough money from that place that we never ever have to sit in a cubicle ever again. Human beings weren't meant to sit in little cubicles, starring at computer screens all day, filling out useless forms and listening to eight different bosses drone on about mission statements.
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