Jesus what a bunch of corporate garbage right there. Just shoving words in that make it seem like it’s the right thing to do, I freaking hate when companies think we’re so stupid to not see that they’re just laying people off.
Also “an industry that’s quickly evolving”? Uh, welcome to computing I guess? At what point has gaming not been quickly evolving. So much of this is just corporate vomit.
You know how you “ensure Dragon Age™: Dreadwolf is an outstanding game”? You invest in it. EA needs to invest in these games. If you don’t like how long it takes then invest more in them. It’s been now six years since DA:Dreadwolf was announced. It’s been 10 years since DA:Inquisition came out. EA needs to quite with the wining and penny pinching if they want to see profit out of Bioware.
last i checked, it sounded like Bioware’s recent development challenges (Andromeda, Anthem, protracted dev times) came from poor leadership. I remember Jason Schrier’s retrospective highlighted that for most of Anthem’s development, there was no strong guidance from leadership, so the devs were largely just experimenting with dead-end ideas and hoping management would latch on to something and push into that direction.
So these 50 roles we are “eliminating” must be the executives and managers from that period, right? Right?
The layoff includes Mary Kirby, who's been a core writer in the Dragon Age franchise since the first game. Saw takes that the layoffs are just eliminating multiplayer positions, but that's not true.
I've long suspected that Dreadwolf will make or break BioWare. Since it's following the same script as Andromeda and Anthem - endless delays, no public progress just lots of b-roll and concept art - I don't think development is going well. ME: Legacy might have bought BioWare some breathing room but I can't interpret this as anything other than death throes for the studio.
We've all known this was the case since Inquisition / Andromeda / Anthem, depending on how high your tolerance to bullshit is. Anyone getting hyped for Dreadwolf based on their track record of last 10 years is just setting themselves for disappointment.
Inquisition was a downturn from DA2 but it was nowhere near as bad as Andromeda or Anthem. Dragon Age was the property they had that they hadn’t messed up yet, so if Dreadwolf is bad then we’re down to 0.
Besides the technical issues, everything bad called out for Andromeda was something I had issues with in inquisition. Bland soulless story, repetitive open world, lack of proper villain, lack of complex rpg elements... Having replayed DA1 and even 2 numerous times, I couldn't bring myself to finish DA:I even once.
It is very subjective but for me inquisition was the tipping point. Even da2 had more soul and redeeming qualities IMHO.
You say “besides the technical issues” as if that was something small enough that you can just casually brush it aside. Andromeda performed like absolute trash when it came out, and that was a huge reason why people panned it.
As for the story reasons you highlight, I don’t agree with most of them personally, but they’re subjective so that’s on you.
The technical state that Andromeda released in is the biggest reason why I consider it an absolutely trash game.
Technical issues can be patched afterwards, and in case of andromeda most were. I played it a year or two after it released when they practically gave it away for $5 on a sale or sth like that. The game still remained a shallow husk of an RPG though with few redeeming qualities besides a somewhat fun combat at times, and this is with me going into it with very low expectations. I'm glad you had more fun with it but I wouldn't call it a good game even if it didn't have to compete with its predecessors.
Larian’s entire strategy seems to be to become the new BioWare. Larian basically speedran BioWare’s origin story - releasing a stellar new entry in an old BioWare franchise was more or less an announcement that they are ready for the crown.
Now they need to just not sell out to a soulless greed factory to beat BioWare at their own game. If EA comes knocking the only correct answer is to tell them to fuck off.
The industry is very different than it was when Bioware joined EA. I think these days, smaller devs are more leery of being acquired by the giants. That said, studios like Double Fine and Obsidian saw a value in being acquired, so who knows? Maybe Larian will join EA someday, when the lead designers are ready to cash out.
If they do this, they better realize that they’re siding with corporate greed and betraying those who supported them and bought their games up to that point. Selling out to a greed factory is betrayal, plain and simple. Trading your integrity for greed.
i hear you, but we live in a capitalist world. Dev studios are made up of people, and those people sometimes run out of fuel and want to move on to other adventures. Selling to a large studio is a great way to make that transition, from an individual perspective. Your studio was already going to hand the reins over to the next generation, so why not take the payout? We can’t fault our favorite artists for not wanting to keep making the same thing over and over again for the rest of their lives.
Agree, DA:DW is probably the game that EA is saying “Prove you’re worth it” but then in the same meeting they’re setting them up for failure by cutting funding and making unrealistic demands. This all reaks of review by committee, no one making decisions, no one having a clear goal - and worse is that when someone does it sounds like the business makes sure they’re removed from the picture. They want someone to go with the grain, even if that means a boring, bland, corporate garbage game.
Just give the franchise out to some third party who will actually care about it already. It’s clear EA isn’t willing to invest in it, let someone else do that for them.
Obviously BioWare is working to optimize their operational footprint and consolidate production in order to improve their return on invested capital. I’m sure they have made the difficult decision to rightsize their team as part of this effort. Certainly one of the most critical factors they consider when making the difficult decision to reduce their team size is the impact it will have on the lives of their team members, and they are committed to assisting their team with exploring alternate roles as well as providing outplacement assistance.
Disgusting corporate speak. I never heard anyone say “oh, we have too many staff to iterate quickly”. BioWare has sucked for quite a while. EA killed it. Absolute tragedy.
Can’t even read the blog post because it’s blocked by Connie preferences and then a dialogue for applying cookie preferences that takes minutes (?!) to run.
Bioware made BG1 and BG2 and other RPGs in a similar vein, but has more recently made games trying to appeal to the mass market and failed miserably (Mass Effect Andromeda and especially Anthem).
The BG name lay dormant for a couple decades until Larian acquired it and released the highly successful BG3. So they are beating Bioware at their own game.
Absolutely agree. Since EA's sticking-of-fingers into the bullet wounds they inflicted on Bioware, there have been few quality releases and numerous failed moves from the core franchises.
BG3 is a testament to what can happen when some CEO isn't trying to leech each employee and "consumer" they can find.
blog.bioware.com
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