Bioware,Pandemic under EA's rule

[Thornes70]

Wow, did anyone else hear about this? I just found out that EA is going to be buying out Bioware and Pandemic. A sad thing, indeed:

— ASSIMILATED: Electronic Arts makes a lot of money, thanks to best-selling franchises like "Madden NFL" and "The Sims," but its dependence on sequels has cost it the devotion of people who like innovative video games.

The Canadian studio BioWare has developed some of the most inventive games of the last decade, titles like "Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic," "Jade Empire" and the forthcoming "Mass Effect."

So the news that BioWare and its sister studio, Pandemic, are going to be assimilated into the EA collective was greeted with howls of anguish from BioWare's passionate fans.

A typical reaction, from the Slashdot tech Web site: "No. No no no no no."

Source: FoxNews.com

[Desi Cuse]

Tis a sad day for the gaming community.

[Peench]

EA has been buying everyone lately. I think they're really making a bid for their "one console to rule them all" theory. I'm not sure what I'll do if that becomes a reality.

[The Milk Man 09]

Mediocrity for all...

Be sure that EA will demand blockbuster titles every one to two years and not be afraid to cut corners just to get a game out by a deadline.

EA has become worse over the years and I wish it would just die.

[D_Litch]

Coming soon...

Mass Effect 2:Rise of the Imperfects

and....

Pontiac's Saboteur

[The Milk Man 09]

Don't forget the new John Madden RPG's.

[Thornes70]

I spent about two hours checking out EA forums to see if they were ever gonna get around to dealing with some of the MoH online issues, and nope - nothing. They weren't even responding to people's posts (some went back from the game's launch!). If MoH would've at least had some thought and effort put into the MP, I have no doubt there'd still be people playing it today (last time I looked, I saw like 162 people. sad)...

Simply put: Hype it up, rush it out, then ignore the masses. EA sucks. The only way I'll ever buy an EA game again is after it comes out & I see what others are saying about it and maybe I'll rent it a few weeks later.

As for their plague-like gobbling up of companies, it's gonna come back to bite them in the ass.

[Peench]

I don't know how it will bite them in the ass. If they own everyone, who's gonna challenge them? It is a scary thought for sure.

[D_Litch]

Activision should have bought Pandemic. Their games fit in with what else Activison is publishing, and they have just as much money as EA.

[Lord Sam]

Ha! After seeing the word "Assimilated" in Thornes initial post I thought it would be funny to find a pic of the Borg cube with an EA logo on it. Sure enough, first pic that came up in my search was this one.

[Crippler]

Originally Posted by Lord Sam

Ha! After seeing the word "Assimilated" in Thornes initial post I thought it would be funny to find a pic of the Borg cube with an EA logo on it. Sure enough, first pic that came up in my search was this one.

Yes! I was looking for something along those lines. Awesome find.

Yeah, I shed a tear when I saw that EA took over BioWare. I really hope, for the love of gaming, the Dr.s keep a strangle hold on their creative direction and continue to produce RPGs to their high standards. Having EA on the box is NOT gonna help with street cred when it comes to quality RPGs. I love BioWare's RPGs and to see them fall into the clutches of EA was a sad day for gamers. We can forget about exclusive RPGs for MS consoles in the future too from BioWare. Mass Effect may be the last RPG I buy from BioWare. I'll support BioWare but I refuse to support EA.

[Thornes70]

Originally Posted by Peench

I don't know how it will bite them in the ass. If they own everyone, who's gonna challenge them? It is a scary thought for sure.

I can't remember which company it was, but it was a few years ago... Anyway, a bunch of people who worked for a bigger company had enough of their crap and basically quit to start up their own; sure enough - they took a bunch of business away from the company they had left. This is just one example.

Another is, so many people are already turned off by EA (not to make this a complete EA bashing thread), and just stay away from them altogether. Anything with EA on it - regardless of if it's good, is gonna have that bad rep from the get-go.

People will also go for a non-EA game if it's similar to one they're putting out. Of course, this is small change when you look at the big picture, but if they keep buying companies & they aren't making the mega-bucks like the devs were making before they were bought - it's gonna come back & bite them in the ass.

[Peench]

Thornes - I see what you're saying. You can own the company, but you can't control the employees (i.e. the people actually making the games). Good point.