EA Comments On The Layoffs At Bioware Austin

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There is an update to that story about layoffs at Bioware we posted yesterday in our gaming news round-up. Electronic Arts and the co-founder of Bioware have both made statements on the issue.

BioWare has restructured its studio in Austin today. Of the employees impacted, some will be able to join other projects within EA, others will leave the company. These are very difficult decisions, but it allows us to focus our staff to maintain and grow Star Wars: The Old Republic.
 
Well...considering the ghost-town path SWTOR is going, I think those employees are getting gotten rid of or transferred for naught.
 
SWTOR could have been something good. Bioware screwed the pooch with its release, and subsequent releases of patches.
 
They took a $200million gamble, and it didn't pay off.

Sucks for all involved. How the mighty have fallen..
 
SWG players wanted the return of sandbox MMORPG, but BioWare released an MMOAG (massively multiplayer action game). When I tried the beta, my initial thought was SWG NGE 2.0.

I greatly disliked SWG CU and SWG NGE.
 
I see a circling of the drain by EA due to their own stupidity.

They will be the next Atari.
 
Honestly, what'd they expect? Star Wars is something that people have exploited over and over again. It's slowly losing relevance and market appeal so using the SW franchise to brand another otherwise uninteresting "me too" product doesn't mean a company automatically will make tons of profit.
 
SWG players wanted the return of sandbox MMORPG, but BioWare released an MMOAG (massively multiplayer action game). When I tried the beta, my initial thought was SWG NGE 2.0.

I greatly disliked SWG CU and SWG NGE.

Did you even play it? SW:TOR's combat was about as far from "action" combat as you can get, like most mmo's.

You want action in an mmo look at Vindictus or Tera for better action combat.

I WISH SW:TOR had went more action, played like Jedi Knight/Rogue squardron/X-wing vs tie fighter, then the actual gameplay would have been fun rather then mind numblingy boring like most mmo's "spam special formula over and over."

They could have released a game that played like most people want Star Wars games to play rather then just taking the EQ (WoW) style formula and then throwing star wars skins over it all and having better dilalogue/voice acting, but no, they didn't want to attract all the people out there who aore sick and tired of generic mmo's and want something new.
 
They're reducing staff, but they're also working to maintain and grow SWTOR? Which one is is? I don't think you can have both unless you are cutting out a LOT of fat in the company...
 
These idiots did it to themselves. They spent 6 years developing a game that didn't even have the basic functionality that most MMO's already have. And when the users saw how lackluster it was after all the hype, they left. Why is this hard to fathom?
 
These idiots did it to themselves. They spent 6 years developing a game that didn't even have the basic functionality that most MMO's already have. And when the users saw how lackluster it was after all the hype, they left. Why is this hard to fathom?

Because they wrote it, it has "Star Wars" in the title, and therefore people have to buy it!
 
SWG players wanted the return of sandbox MMORPG, but BioWare released an MMOAG (massively multiplayer action game). When I tried the beta, my initial thought was SWG NGE 2.0.

I greatly disliked SWG CU and SWG NGE.

Did you even play it? SW:TOR's combat was about as far from "action" combat as you can get, like most mmo's.

You want action in an mmo look at Vindictus or Tera for better action combat.

I WISH SW:TOR had went more action, played like Jedi Knight/Rogue squardron/X-wing vs tie fighter, then the actual gameplay would have been fun rather then mind numblingy boring like most mmo's "spam special formula over and over."

They could have released a game that played like most people want Star Wars games to play rather then just taking the EQ (WoW) style formula and then throwing star wars skins over it all and having better dilalogue/voice acting, but no, they didn't want to attract all the people out there who aore sick and tired of generic mmo's and want something new.

Yes I did play it for a short while. It left a sour taste in my mouth because it reminded me too much of SWG NGE. With Raph Koster behind the wheel I was truly hoping for a return to sandbox, where you could actually live in the Star Wars galaxy, not just quest and level in it.

But coming from BioWare, who made KOTOR series, it should not have came as a surprise.
 
If anyone remembers shortly after release, there were articles which were amazed that BioWare didn't follow the standard pattern of a massive layoff immediately following the release of a new MMO. Every other developer in the past has reduced their staff dedicated to a particular title after release and BioWare didn't do that with SW:TOR.

Now they are simply doing what everyone knew they had to do eventually if they want to see profitability. Reduce staff. There are problems with the game, sure. And the numbers of concurrent players is reducing, subscriptions are down. All of these things happen to every MMO ever released. They eventually stabilize at some number. In order to be successful, that number needs to be 500,000+ and SW:TOR should be able to maintain that number. Of course, they'll have to reduce their number of servers which will also be seen as a negative news item.

Let's not forget that Blizzard also recently announced a reduction of 600 people.
 
$200 Million on a game, and there is still not enough content to keep people interested.

If only they didn't pull Drew Karpshyn from the Mass Effect 3 development to waste time on SWTOR, and maybe just maybe we could have had a Mass Effect game that could have been much better, instead of diverted attention between a possible hit (and a huge dump of money at that), and a surefire profit (a series that is already well established and has a decent following...and I'm not talking about SW either).
 
I always feel like a minority, in that I've felt that the Star Wars scenario has been overworked in nearly any media. I was happy when Bioware decided to create their own universe with Mass Effect, even if I wasn't a fan of how they implemented the combat in the first game. I will give them credit, trying to make a 'story driven mmorpg' was a great concept, but it still feels like it fell at least partly into the black hole that is World of Warcraft in order to try and appeal to a mass market.

In the end, it feels like Star Wars: World of Warcraft with voice acting and dialogue choices. Developers need to stop looking at just what's successful today and try to work out what's going to be popular next. Yes, it's difficult, but you can't just make the same games over and over with some enhancements.
 
$200 Million on a game, and there is still not enough content to keep people interested.

If only they didn't pull Drew Karpshyn from the Mass Effect 3 development to waste time on SWTOR, and maybe just maybe we could have had a Mass Effect game that could have been much better, instead of diverted attention between a possible hit (and a huge dump of money at that), and a surefire profit (a series that is already well established and has a decent following...and I'm not talking about SW either).

Supposedly the official story with the problems with Mass Effect 3 (particularly the story) was a result of a leaked script involving Dark Energy and the catalyst being Javick. No, I don't mind posting spoilers for a story we'll never get.
 
$200 Million on a game, and there is still not enough content to keep people interested.

If only they didn't pull Drew Karpshyn from the Mass Effect 3 development to waste time on SWTOR, and maybe just maybe we could have had a Mass Effect game that could have been much better, instead of diverted attention between a possible hit (and a huge dump of money at that), and a surefire profit (a series that is already well established and has a decent following...and I'm not talking about SW either).

I thought Drew Karpshyn left after being pulled of Mass Effect 3? I didn't think he actually did anything with SWTOR. And yeah, it's clear that he was the main source of talent and brains behind Mass Effect. The final act of Mass Effect 3 proves that was the case.
 
yeah it's on his Bio page, he was working on SWTOR as well as Mass Effect 3 before he left. Certainly appears to have been the main guy for story continuation and attention to detail it definitely shows now...Makes you wonder how the Mass Effect movie will turn out without his guidance.
 
yeah it's on his Bio page, he was working on SWTOR as well as Mass Effect 3 before he left. Certainly appears to have been the main guy for story continuation and attention to detail it definitely shows now...Makes you wonder how the Mass Effect movie will turn out without his guidance.

The live action movie scares me. I've a feeling the Paragon Lost animated film will be fine. But the live action movie is going to be difficult to develop and would be even with Drew. The story of Mass Effect is simply too long to get condensed into a film easily. You've got to pick and choose the right elements of the story to do it right. If they go with a completely different story, that can be done well, but they'll have to contend with people hating it for being different at all.

The real key is keeping true to the spirit of the games, and some general important plot points. In my opinion, they've got to have the Reapers, Citadel, Saren, and Ashley / Kaiden's death no matter what. Everything else is just details. All the major characters need to be present in the film. Liara, Ashley / Kaiden, Tali, Wrex, Joker, Anderson, etc. Pretty much everyone else can be cameos at most for all it matters.

Getting back to keeping with the spirit of Mass Effect and getting the right feel, I'm deeply concerned about this and have little faith this can be done given that you've got Casey Hudson and Mac Walters working on the film. They are responsible for the shitty final act that is the Priority Earth mission in ME3. They are responsible for the Starchild and all that bullshit. This tells me they have no idea what the spirit of the series ever was. It further proves that they let their real talent walk out the door. So I've got very little confidence they can bring game's essence into a faithful translation in film form.
 
No MMO will replace WoW as the big dog until they stop trying to make copies of WoW. Why would anyone bother playing a game that is 75% the same when they can just keep playing WoW and keep their long history they've built up with it?

The MMO market has to do something that is a massive departure from WoW for anything to catch on big. What it is.. I sure couldn't tell you. If I could, I still wouldn't because I'd be out trying to pitch it somewhere.
 
They sold out to EA?

If they hadn't, and didn't have the level of financial backing they did, their games wouldn't ever be on the scale they have been.

The reason why most games producers go to shit when they are being bankrolled is probably a mix of:

a) They are expected to release a game every year/few years, so run out of ideas and just release fillercrap to meet quotas, or get bored with every day making games as a 9-5 office job.
b) They get a pile of money to do everything they ever wanted but have no clue how to do a project of that scale (APB).
c) Without the threat of losing their homes and with a few hundred thousand in the bank, they don't really have the same drive to make games anymore, as even if it bombs, who cares? They still have a few hundred thousand in the bank, drive a Lamborghini and sugar daddy corporation will cover their asses till the next game.

It's unlikely that a giant corporation just buys up companies to screw them up, or would dump a studio who was still producing constant good games. Or purposefully screw up a company. It would be like you hiring some a whole new Linux specialist whatevers, paying them a few million to make a new server farm, then peeing on the machines and firing them. It just wouldn't make any kind of sense to hire them in the first place. :p
 
SWTOR wasn't great. But it will never come within a mile of Final Fantasy 14 as the worst MMO of all time.

FF14 is the king of badly done MMO's.
 
Okay would someone remind me why you'd want to work for these guys? Who in their right mind would relocate their family to Austin to work at a video game sweat shop like EA? Oh sure the pay is above the average Best Buy salesperson but if you're unemployed 6 months out of the year, then what?
 
the best star wars game I ever played was republic commando, if they made more unique games like that rather than rehashing the same damn kotor stuff people might be interested
 
They had one of the most valuable franchises in gaming history. They had enough time to do it right. They had enough examples on what works and what doesn't BUT they still managed to screw it up. I had a guild of 25 people playing readily but between the alt-o-holics I play with that can't seem to get a toon to 50, the lackluster game performance and the ghost town the servers have become this doesn't surprise me.

It's easy to fix. Work quickly to prioritize voluntary server merges and free transfers and create heavily populated servers for people to play on. The content is not the problem. The story is not the problem. It's the inability to manage the environment that's killing the game.
 
So Bioware gets the Mythic treatment. Good! Hope they take notice and start producing games that live up to their fans expectations.
 
I was so disappointed when they decided to make this MMORPG garbage than KOTOR3. Now I can't decide if I'm happy that TOR appears to be a flop or not, since I still want KOTOR3
 
the best star wars game I ever played was republic commando, if they made more unique games like that rather than rehashing the same damn kotor stuff people might be interested

I wouldn't call that the best Star Wars game ever, but it was a damned good one and a decent shooter. I would definitely like to see a sequel to it done right.
 
I wouldn't call that the best Star Wars game ever, but it was a damned good one and a decent shooter. I would definitely like to see a sequel to it done right.

I went back to that game a couple of years back, surprisingly some people still online, and the game definitely shows it's age, Jedi Knight II has held up better. I would say KOTOR set the final benchmark for any SW game, but the Dark Forces/Jedi Knight and X-Wing series certainly established the SW game franchise.
 
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