General Discussion

Originally posted by Abstruse

Facts:

1) BioWare now prefers it own IP's, of which it has three, Jade Empire, Mass Effect and Dragon Age.

2) Jade Empire has no known lore development beyond the original game, and there are current MMO's with a similar theme.

3) Mass Effect is XB360 exclusive for the forseeable future, and planned to be a trilogy.

4) Dragon Age has received extensive lore development over several years.

Speculation:

I conclude that Bioware's MMO is Dragon Age Online.  SP Dragon Age could be released in 2008 while DAO is being finished and polished for 2009/2010 launch.

 

The MMO is not Dragon Age, Mass Effect, or anything else completely original from Bioware. For all you people who keep harping that Bioware prefers their own IP's, do a little research. Check out this sheet detailing the IP's that are now wholly owned by EA. The MMO is not one of them. Therefore, it's someone else's IP.

library.corporate-ir.net/library/88/881/88189/items/264618/EAPres.pdf

I doubt it is star wars, how can you have 2 mmos out using the same IP even if they are completely different it wouldn't work since they would be competing against each other I doubt the people who own the star wars IP would want that. ( I think it is lucas arts but i am not 100% sure ;p )

Anyway, mass effect isn't a proven IP yet so i doubt they would start work on a mmo based on a IP that people could potentially hate.

Balders gate would be to much like all the other everquest generic fantasy mmos, i pretty sure they said they want to be very different in a keynote.

Never heard of dragon age, although i probably have and the game just escapes my memory :)

Jade empire was a crap game, but who knows they might make a good mmo out of it so i think it might choose that, especially if it was aimed at consoles first pcs after since it is a populer console rpg after all i dont think the pc game version ever did that well.

Personally i think if they make an mmo it will be their own IP since they dont have to many of their own IPs to work with so sounds like a good idea to make a new one specfically aimed at a mmo universe.

Personally I dont really care what the game is based off of, as long as it is nothing at all like any of the mmos we have now.

I got it!

Speed Racer MMO! rofl

eh, I don't think it will be Star Wars but I think it will be sci-fi.

Either Mass Effect universe or something completely new.

I cannot remember where I saw it, but will try to find it and link it... but I saw that they (Bioware) said that they were already in-game playing their MMO internally.

WHATEVER the BioWare mmo will be, EA now owns it and this is why I'm afraid for it:

"Rumors of the game's cancellation became prevalent in early 2004. EA confirmed the suspicions in March 2004 by announcing that Earth & Beyond was to be discontinued the following September, stating that it would refocus on other projects. Earth and Beyond estimated they had up to 400,000 subscribers early, with 650,000 at its peak, and later showing continually lesser numbers. This can easily be attributed to the lack of advertising it suffered from and the opening of Star Wars Galaxies by Sony Online Entertainment. It has also been rumored that Electronic Arts wished to put more money into The Sims Online and turn that into a big marketing success. Not surprisingly after the March statement, the figures which had already dropped to just over 20,000 saw their most dramatic decline, which eventually lead to the cessation of Earth & Beyond on September 22, 2004."

Originally posted by darquenblade

 

Originally posted by Abstruse

Facts:

1) BioWare now prefers it own IP's, of which it has three, Jade Empire, Mass Effect and Dragon Age.

2) Jade Empire has no known lore development beyond the original game, and there are current MMO's with a similar theme.

3) Mass Effect is XB360 exclusive for the forseeable future, and planned to be a trilogy.

4) Dragon Age has received extensive lore development over several years.

Speculation:

I conclude that Bioware's MMO is Dragon Age Online.  SP Dragon Age could be released in 2008 while DAO is being finished and polished for 2009/2010 launch.

 

The MMO is not Dragon Age, Mass Effect, or anything else completely original from Bioware. For all you people who keep harping that Bioware prefers their own IP's, do a little research. Check out this sheet detailing the IP's that are now wholly owned by EA. The MMO is not one of them. Therefore, it's someone else's IP.

 

 

library.corporate-ir.net/library/88/881/88189/items/264618/EAPres.pdf

That certainly changes things completely.  This is probably the best evidence so far that the MMO won't be Jade Empire/Dragon Age/Mass Effect.  Still, it's not conclusive.  Good catch though.

This...combined with the Bioware quotes...I might be convinced that this may be SW/DnD after all.

Well it could be anything really. But I doubt it will be Star Wars or D&D as those licenses are already out in the market, and to put a new one out there would just create confusion. I can't see Bioware wanting to have their MMO confused with another. Most dedicated MMO'ers would obviously know the difference, but keep in mind World of Warcraft opened the MMO door to the casual gamer and all other developers are following that example. I think it's fair to say it would be risky to assume a casual player would know the difference between SOE's Star Wars and Bioware's Star Wars.

With that in mind, I just don't think Jade Empire was the commercial success Bioware hoped it would be. This is not to say it wouldn't be a good world, but I can't see them relying on that I.P. to launch a successful and desirable MMO.  Add to this the oversaturated Asian themed MMO market, and well I think it'd just get lost.

It could be Dragon Age, but I can't help but think that there's just WAY to much fantasy-based MMO's out there right now, and to do that would just come off as a me-too WoW killer type. Who knows, I mean the whole fantasy archetype works well and that genre just seems to lend it self well to an MMO environment.

Sci-fi however, still needs it's killer app. There are a few semi-successful MMO's out there with EVE, Anarchy Online, and SWG. But nothing has really skyrocketed to success. I've played Tabula Rasa, and I just don't think it has the hook that will bring in the numbers. Mass Effect the Xbox 360 experience is all about moral choices, different character types, and an explorable universe. If they are successful on the 360, they could leverage that success to the MMO market.

My vote goes to Mass Effect.

Originally posted by shrunken_man

Well it could be anything really. But I doubt it will be Star Wars or D&D as those licenses are already out in the market, and to put a new one out there would just create confusion. I can't see Bioware wanting to have their MMO confused with another. Most dedicated MMO'ers would obviously know the difference, but keep in mind World of Warcraft opened the MMO door to the casual gamer and all other developers are following that example. I think it's fair to say it would be risky to assume a casual player would know the difference between SOE's Star Wars and Bioware's Star Wars.

With that in mind, I just don't think Jade Empire was the commercial success Bioware hoped it would be. This is not to say it wouldn't be a good world, but I can't see them relying on that I.P. to launch a successful and desirable MMO.  Add to this the oversaturated Asian themed MMO market, and well I think it'd just get lost.

It could be Dragon Age, but I can't help but think that there's just WAY to much fantasy-based MMO's out there right now, and to do that would just come off as a me-too WoW killer type. Who knows, I mean the whole fantasy archetype works well and that genre just seems to lend it self well to an MMO environment.

Sci-fi however, still needs it's killer app. There are a few semi-successful MMO's out there with EVE, Anarchy Online, and SWG. But nothing has really skyrocketed to success. I've played Tabula Rasa, and I just don't think it has the hook that will bring in the numbers. Mass Effect the Xbox 360 experience is all about moral choices, different character types, and an explorable universe. If they are successful on the 360, they could leverage that success to the MMO market.

My vote goes to Mass Effect.

 

 

Click the PDF file Darquenblade linked to a few posts above.  Bioware (EA) doesn't own the IP for the MMO.  If it were Mass Effect, they could have said they owned the IP without giving away that it was Mass Effect/Jade/Dragon Age.  The fact that they're saying they don't own it leads me to believe it's third party.

Not conclusive that it's star wars/DnD though.  And I agree it would be odd for Lucas Arts or Atari to want a competing MMO for the ones out already...but keep in mind that neither DnDO or SWG is doing very well.  Also, Bioware is linked to both licenses in rather unique ways... Star Wars Online?  No... Knights of the Old Republic Online?  Maybe.  Forgotten Realms Online?  Perhaps.