Bioware enters MMPORPG market (& 2nd studio)

[DemonKing]

Sigh...I guess Bono's money isn't going to any good use after all:

http://www.bioware.com/bioware_info/press_releases/2006_03_15_Austin/

I always thought Obsidian would be the next official Bio studio. :wink:

 

[Volourn]

I'll pass.

 

[Blacklung]

Their successes were like a Blizzard's with a cracked up time interval...how could you expect anything else? Too much money too quickly will make monster's of us all.

 

[fizzelopeguss]

I hope they lose millions.

 

[Drakron]

Lose/lose situation.

MMORPG developers and publishers work exclusive for MMORPGs becaude the sheer amount of support required, in a success case they became slaves to the game and unable to do anything but support and expansions.

So we get the failure case that means lossing a lot of money but MMORPGs take a long time to die, SW:G is still around after alienate the large majority of its player base and Matrix Online continues after bad reviews and its publisher ditching it.

Its only "win" in the case its unlikely we see anything from BioWare after whatever that hell is come out.

 

[Volourn]

Yo, Mr. Idiot, did you evenwread the article? It's called expansion. It's a whole different office doing it.

As we all know, BIO has 3 NON MMO being made currently. The MMO won't effect that as its expansion to the company. It's not really taking that much existing resources. At least not enough to cry about it.

 

[Drakron]

Yes but its completly diferent that Squarenix that have 5-6 teams working at the same time on diferent projects also being a publisher and BioWare that have now 2 studios and its no publisher.

Blizzard comes to mind does it not?

 

[Volourn]

And, unlike most developers they have ALREADY 250+ employees and they're hiring even more (seems to be a bunch). Including the upcmoming MMO, they have a total of 4 games in development. Most devs have 40-50 employees. BIO has about 5x that. Do the friggin' math, genius.

On top of that, BIO is no longer 100% independent. They have financial backing from Bono Corp.

So, comparing them to your typical developer is moot at this point.

And, I say this while not even giving a damn about this new project of theirs. But, to say it'll have a huge impact (as in no more 'normal' games) and push all their focus on the MMO is just plain dumb on your part.

Again: 250+ employees is 5x > 50 or so employees.

 

[aweigh]

I agree with Volourn. Bio's MMORPG won't have any impact on their single-player titles, and it's going to be made from a completely different (new) studio.

 

[HotSnack]

I'm interested in what Bio's take on mmorpgs will be like. Seeing as how they've picked a genre that completely goes against their strengths (maybe they'll do something interesting and have heavily GM led activities).

 

[Section8]

Finally! The day when Bioware got too big for its boots. Best of luck to those poor Indian artists for their future job search.

 

[Dhruin]

We simply can't tell yet but Drakron is not entirely without a point. History shows over the long run, studio consolidation is not uncommon - even for big studios. Let's what what they have - I'll put $1 on leveraging their Dragon Age IP.

 

[DemonKing]

Any predications as to whether the game will use an established IP? I doubt it will be SW or D&D but I guess if Dragon Age is a hit then that is a possibility.

If not an existing IP, then what type of setting will they use?

You could probably bet your house on high fantasy, methinks.

 

[Vultok]

The setting will be all original steampunk. There's no doubt in my mind.

 

[roguefrog]

Didn't they register Star Citadel or some crap a while ago. Maybe that's it. Nevertheless I don't do MMOs.

 

[kris]

I agree with Volourn. Bio's MMORPG won't have any impact on their single-player titles, and it's going to be made from a completely different (new) studio.

Its not completly different, it is just a branch. None can at this point with certainty say whether this will in the longer run be the end for Biowares other franchises or not, but we all have the fate of Blizzard fresh in mind. Blizzard DID have their north studio that ended up disbanded and moved in the end... This will in the end be in the hands of the owners and maybe we will see a exodus from Bioware in the same way it happened to Blizzard.

 

[Tiliqua]

This is great news, the future of gaming (mmos), intersects with a great gaming company. Some of my favourite games have come from Bioware - I'm sure they'll deliver the mmo goods.

Lovers of SP PC games should get ready to go away and die - you're the dodos of crpgs.

 

[LlamaGod]

Lovers of SP PC games should get ready to go away and die - you're the dodos of crpgs.

Then GalCiv2 comes along and proves all this wrong.

 

[Seven]

Lovers of SP PC games should get ready to go away and die - you're the dodos of crpgs.

Then GalCiv2 comes along and proves all this wrong.

Commercial success and TB to boot.

 

[Psilon]

Followed by an MMO project.

 

[Volourn]

"Didn't they register Star Citadel or some crap a while ago."

Star Citedal was released last year.

 

[DarkSign]

Go I hope they dont do a post-apoc/cyberpunk MMO...just do the same old fantasy crap.

 

[AlanC9]

Lovers of SP PC games should get ready to go away and die - you're the dodos of crpgs.

Man, that's dumb. MP games's success doesn't imply that SP games will go away, any more than movies meant that novels would go away.

Since DA has an original setting, it's conceivable that they'll leverage it for the MMO. Though there are some rules from DA that make this unlikely -- like no healing potions and no resurrection.

 

[Tiliqua]

Man, that's dumb. MP games's success doesn't imply that SP games will go away, any more than movies meant that novels would go away.

Since DA has an original setting, it's conceivable that they'll leverage it for the MMO. Though there are some rules from DA that make this unlikely -- like no healing potions and no resurrection.

I don't know if you've noticed the console market is kicking PC butt atm, have you gone to EB lately? It's obvious that SP PC games are dying regardless of what you say, the evidence is overwhelming. Against this background, the fact that WoW created 5 million accounts for a mmo is evidence of the growth of mmos, once again this is fact not conjecture.

Perhaps a better analogy than dodos, is that SP PC games are the Macs of the gaming industry. They'll probably continue to exist but will only have a very small % of the market.

 

[aweigh]

MMO JADE EMPIRE! YAY

 

[kris]

Man, that's dumb. MP games's success doesn't imply that SP games will go away, any more than movies meant that novels would go away.

Since DA has an original setting, it's conceivable that they'll leverage it for the MMO. Though there are some rules from DA that make this unlikely -- like no healing potions and no resurrection.

I don't know if you've noticed the console market is kicking PC butt atm, have you gone to EB lately? It's obvious that SP PC games are dying regardless of what you say, the evidence is overwhelming. Against this background, the fact that WoW created 5 million accounts for a mmo is evidence of the growth of mmos, once again this is fact not conjecture.

Perhaps a better analogy than dodos, is that SP PC games are the Macs of the gaming industry. They'll probably continue to exist but will only have a very small % of the market.

All MMORPGs simply suck and are not enganging in any way. they are the "reality shows" of the gaming market.