somehow i sense dejavu from AoC actually. (no offence towards the Conan, its not that bad game nowadays) But still, is this new trend of mmo-marketing these days? Put the man charge to pump some overhype for the game, after release when all hassle settle down you just fire him down and he will take all mess with him and company can wash it hands and start from the clear table. I mean...Wut? 

 We can pretty much cross the SW:TOR off the list now. Well, not completely, but still...

See, EA is good at fluke one-shots, but anything needing continued support just gets out of hand. See The Sims, for example - all of them. Good ideas, made into horrific moneybags.

Yes, I bought Sims 3. What?

SW:TOR will be made quite good, but too rushed and will be destroyed by content updates and the first expansion. 

Originally posted by catlana

Originally posted by SnarlingWolf

They should fire everyone that had any part in designing WAR, and fire Paul Barnett so they can rehire him just to fire him again. Tired of that guy always saying it's the players who are dumb and WAR is great, all while the numbers drop nonstop.

 

WAR was a huge disappointment for me. Maybe the Bioware folks can do something to improve the game.

 

In regards to the SWTOR comment, the Bioware folks are taking over and being given more power. If anything, this shows a high level of commitment and trust from EA in their work.

The same thing was said about Mythic when they joined the EA conglomerate and we now see how that ended.  To think that EA is going to give Bioware a loose leash is, in my opinion, quite naive.

Originally posted by Scalebane

Once again EA the destroyer of game companies rears its ugly head....*sigh*

When will companies learn to stay away from them.

Sad days.

Hard to stay away from money though and EA has way too much of it.

Now with Valve's L4D2 debacle and this the only decent companies left are a bunch of Japanese ones, a few indie devs, and Blizzard. :(

Originally posted by Andrus73

I'm thinking EA isn't happy with Warhammer.

Well EA was looking at bioware and mythic side by side and said, "So this is the difference between a dev team... and a Great Dev team"

Originally posted by Teiman

I love EA..  the way I love Darth Vader. Hahaa...  another studio that byte the dust.

But maybe is a good thing?  I suppose this mean the style of mmo represented in WAR has died, to fuel the development of TOR.  

Or maybe this is temporal.  Or maybe the join of both groups could mean better things?.  IMHO  WAR was a really innovative game, with lots of very good ideas and implementations and art. Joining forces could produce better things here? 

We need a game analist or something, to clarify if this is some horrible bad news  or very good news.  

 

 

Holy F*** Batman!... Yeah... like Darth Vader indeed. So much to "EA changed and learned". Well changed my ass.

It is always bad news, because divsersity is better for creativity, as if everything is under one, centralized roof. Bad bad bad.

Generally it is more that Mythic is under Bioware control now. Could be good for WAR in the long run, who knows. But this studio destroying never was good. It wasnt good with Origin, with Bullfrog, with Westwood, with ANY OTHER studio gone. With it, everytime a big part of gaming died.

Originally posted by DeserttFoxx

Originally posted by Andrus73

I'm thinking EA isn't happy with Warhammer.

 

Well EA was looking at bioware and mythic side by side and said, "So this is the difference between a dev team... and a Great Dev team"

ROLFLOL

On the Warhammer Alliance forums

From Community Coordinator Andy Belford:

"For clarity:

Mythic is not "merging" with Bioware.

Mythic and Bioware remain independent EA studios within a larger MMO/RPG group. "

Originally posted by DeserttFoxx

Originally posted by Andrus73

I'm thinking EA isn't happy with Warhammer.

 

Well EA was looking at bioware and mythic side by side and said, "So this is the difference between a dev team... and a Great Dev team"

I think it's a serious blow to Mythic, seeing as they're the only one of the two with many years of experience in running MMOs. But honestly.... who couldn't see this coming? Warhammer has continued to plummet since last year... many weren't happy at all with Mark Jacobs' and his choices.. I think we can only guess how many subscriptions have been lost since 300K was announced. I would think people would be happy with this news of restructuring and not attack EA for this.. hasn't Age of Conan turned around with new leadership?

Originally posted by murphys123

On the Warhammer Alliance forums

From Community Coordinator Andy Belford:

"For clarity:

Mythic is not "merging" with Bioware.

Mythic and Bioware remain independent EA studios within a larger MMO/RPG group. "

 

There we go. :p

Originally posted by murphys123

[ . . . ]

Mythic and Bioware remain independent EA studios within a larger MMO/RPG group. " 

Hmm, all this sounds like to me is a sugar coated form of assimilation.   If all they are doing is making a new "division" for MMOs and RPGs, why even announce it as it is pretty menial to the common customer.

Seems to be a trend in every type of businesses in the past few years. I can't say if it's good news or not really. This hegemony happening everywhere definitely has pros and cons.

Originally posted by Locklain

Originally posted by murphys123

[ . . . ]

Mythic and Bioware remain independent EA studios within a larger MMO/RPG group. " 

Hmm, all this sounds like to me is a sugar coated form of assimilation.   If all they are doing is making a new "division" for MMOs and RPGs, why even announce it as it is pretty menial to the common customer.

I imagine that this is just the first step in future reorganization.

MYTHWARE!!!

Originally posted by Brif

MYTHWARE!!!

We need a Samuel L. Jackson head + Orc body holding lightsaber version of this for pure win.

Heh, you should read the two forums. The WAR fourm folks is happy and the SWTOR folks afraid. Speaks volums. ;)

Seems to me Bioware is now our last hope for a really good MMO... You better not screw this, Bioware!

What a lot of you fail to realize is that Mythic (since 2006) and Bioware (since 2007) are both rooms in the EA mansion. Rooms that have their own decor. Mythic was looking mighty good to EA back in 2007 when they had a potential hit (WAR) on their hands and DAoC under their belt. They looked like a MMO developer who knew their stuff, so EA bought them out and gave them the funds to "remodel" their room so to speak. And in 2008 they unrevealed WAR to the lords of the manor (EA) and the world. Seeing that the suits at EA didn't know jack about the MMO community (See failed EA MMOs and take your pick) they kinda backed off but was itchin to deal a blow to CEO Mark Jacobs. This maybe in part for the whole slap in the face with the name changing thing from EA Mythic and back again.

When the economy started to decline, EA saw the perfect opportunity to expand the room that Bioware was "renovating". Unlike Mythic, Bioware produced a hit right off the bat under EA's roof: Mass Effect. And although they specialized in console and PC rpgs, they had more previous hits and potential hits under their belt. EA, wanting to tap into Bioware's gift of making outstanding rpgs (and maybe the real reason for the merger) figured the next step would to combine it with the more lucrative market of P2P mmos. Bioware, seeing a opportunity to increase funds and team, decided that the flood of new games coming down the pipeline: ME2, DA: Origins, and TOR (the jewel of E3) warranted accepting this new merger as long as they were able to continue to operate as is. EA of course, didn't see this as a bad thing.

Of course this is all speculation on my part as I love both Mythic (DAoC) and Bioware(all their rpgs). But EA will never interfere with a "productive" in-house developer and Bioware has done nothing to catch the wrath of the lords of the manor. WAR on the other hand may turn out to be the F2P entry that EA uses to counter Turbine's DDO beta baby. Who knows.....

Oh damn its smells like star wars gonna be a fail now with mythic on board.

Originally posted by Otomox

Oh damn its smells like star wars gonna be a fail now with mythic on board.

If you had bothered to actually read beyond the title you'd know that's not true. :P

Holy crap, its gonna be awsm.

The worry here for me is how BioWare can keep the bean counters of EA off their doorstep.

There is a problem with BioWare's idea of how to develop a successful game and EA's idea of how to reap the rewards off any game. Bioware believes you don't ship a product unless it's actually ready to ship. Bioware has even canceled production of games if they didn't think it met their criteria. EA, as we know, will ship anything to make a buck.

I can see, in the very near future, a group of suits on BioWare's doorstep telling them to ship SW:TOR even though it's not ready, then have it fail in the customer's eyes, then have EA blame BioWare for it all and do to them what is being done to Mythic now.

I hope it doesn't happen, but history proves it to be very likely.

Originally posted by Otomox

Oh damn its smells like star wars gonna be a fail now with mythic on board.

Smelled like that months ago, just adds more proof.

Very cool,

tanks for the info

 GAH.  Please keep the Mythic program managers AWAY from TOR!

It seems like most doomsayers are missing the big picture.

EA created an MMO/RPG (note, not just an MMORPG) branch or section of the company.

That branch will be headed by a Bioware manager.

Bioware itself will be headed by another Bioware manager.

Mythic will be headed by one of the founders of Mythic.

The new head of Bioware and Mythic will report to the MMO/RPG branch manager; that person, will in turn, report to EA I guess.

-----

On a side note, I am not worried at all. Bioware is still technically in charge and in control or so it seems. EA has always seemed to me to be a company that will leave good, thriving studios alone. However, one that studio or game or whatever begins to struggle (as Mythic has with WAR), EA will get involved.

WAR is a failure going by what was said before its launch and what they needed to be deemed a success. EA is not happy and things change. SW:TOR will be fine and Bioware will be fine as long as TOR is a success. If not, then EA will do something about it.