Bioware Supposedly Tried to Make a KOTOR Sequel

AlphaAtlas

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Ever since Obsidian published Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II, Star Wars fans have been asking for another proper sequel to the series. While we did get The Old Republic from Bioware's Austin studio, the WoW-like MMO gameplay and other aspects tend to turn off fans of the older, singleplayer games. Last week, Jason Schreier of Kotaku tweeted that Bioware "tried to make [KOTOR] happen, more than once from what I've heard. No luck." Den of Geek, who spotted the Tweet and did some more digging, seems to think that Bioware tried to pitch KOTOR multiple times, but got shot down every time, leading to the previous rumors suggesting that Bioware was "working on" a single player KOTOR.

It seems that there was a point when BioWare had pitched the idea of a new KOTOR to the higher-ups at EA (and possibly worked on some kind of pitch for the game that might have included tech demos), but they never actually began work on such a project in earnest. The question now is: "Why has EA seemingly denied them the right to do so?" For our best guess on that, we'd direct you to that previously mentioned report in which it was seemingly determined that EA isn't really all that enthusiastic about the idea of having so many Star Wars games in development at once. That report (which EA officially disputes) indicated that EA's CEO was never really that excited about the idea of a long exclusive Star Wars agreement. If true, that would explain why EA has done the bare minimum (sometimes worse) with the license.
 
So much hearsay in this.
If it IS true (which after working for them I can believe), then EA are just biding their time until the agreement runs out so they don't have to invest too much and bring out loads of small shit using the branding to make a quick buck.
So shortsighted its comical
 
And that's why you don't sell out. You might not make millions in bonuses every year as a ceo but you still make a decent wage and do what you want.

It's easy to blame EA for this but Bioware had to agree to be acquired by EA.
 
Today's Bioware is about the last studio I'd want doing KOTOR3. Maybe Microsoft will fix Obsidian's project management issues, but being owned by Microsoft, there's no way they'll get a contract to do an EA game.
 
Bioware died the day EA bought them.
We've lost a lot of good studios to acquisition: Bullfrog, Westwood, Bioware, Blizzard...I'm sure there are many others.
If I owned a small studio that was making killer games, I'd probably sell out. I'm not judging/condemning any company that has done this. I'd be a liar to say if I could resist the money. Chances are, you are in business to make money - not just survive.
Still, sad to think of some of the games the smaller companies might have came up with that the larger company shot down. I've never worked in a gaming company, but have worked for a large software company. It's very hard to pitch ideas.
 
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It's a hard business with long hours and possibly dick for payout if your game's not well received. Ray totally sold out and got out in short order. I have been telling people for years now... Bioware was dead the moment they we're acquired by EA. Big publishers tend to kill innovation and I'm a firm believer that smaller studios are the horses you want to back in any race. They may lack some of the AAA polish but they tend to make more interesting games that cater to their respective audiences.

I was sickened when HBS sold out to paradox but that writing was on the wall the moment they partnered with them. Paradox isn't terrible, but they're not the best at managone properties either. They butchered SOTS 2, and left it for dead with no ability of the publisher (Kerberos) to ever revisit it . I have long played SOTS and it's still better than the broken mess that SOTS 2 is.
 
Sounds to me like EA didn't want to have to pay crazy prices for the inevitable Disney license renewal if all their games proved hugely successful.
 
Don’t buy EA products, even when on sale. Let their disgusting, disrespectful conglomerate come to the ignominious end it deserves.
 
I always thought the class stories in Old Republic were really good. Imperial Agent in particular is exceptional. I guess people can't get past the MMO gameplay but at this point in 2019 I think I would find it much harder to play KOTOR over an MMO. Also, it amazes me how zombie like people's hatred of EA is that they fail to see how difficult it is to create quality Star Wars content. It is very easy to imagine Star Wars games being good (and star wars movies) but making a satisfying experience is absurdly challenging. Like that recent canceled star wars action game, people hear the pitch and think it will be awesome and wonder why it was canceled. It was canceled because it sucked. EA isn't flushing all that dev time down the drain because it was good and the fact it didn't meet EA's low standards should say something. But no, everything EA does is always wrong all the time so the game must have been a shining beacon of excellence and EA canceled it because they are a bunch of evil assholes who are actively trying to make shit star wars games.
 
I always thought the class stories in Old Republic were really good. Imperial Agent in particular is exceptional. I guess people can't get past the MMO gameplay but at this point in 2019 I think I would find it much harder to play KOTOR over an MMO. Also, it amazes me how zombie like people's hatred of EA is that they fail to see how difficult it is to create quality Star Wars content. It is very easy to imagine Star Wars games being good (and star wars movies) but making a satisfying experience is absurdly challenging. Like that recent canceled star wars action game, people hear the pitch and think it will be awesome and wonder why it was canceled. It was canceled because it sucked. EA isn't flushing all that dev time down the drain because it was good and the fact it didn't meet EA's low standards should say something. But no, everything EA does is always wrong all the time so the game must have been a shining beacon of excellence and EA canceled it because they are a bunch of evil assholes who are actively trying to make shit star wars games.
I think people are just disgusted with them for really doing almost nothing with the IP.

When we say Bioware ceased to exist when EA acquired them , that just means the company we actually loved that used to innovate ... Died. EA is a company that tries to make safe bets, and does their best to monetize their IP. Bioware of old actually made real games, where player choice mattered.

EA is almost universally despised and has been listed for many years running as one of the worst companies to work for on the planet.

They do, however, make some solid games. Sometimes.

The imperial agent story was solid. I played the shit out of SW:TOR and once I burned out on it, I never picked it up again. As opposed to KOTOR, which I have played through many times and it's sequel as well (as broken as obsidians follow up was) . That speaks to the value of the content and games. Something EA has yet to discover.
 
great games will always be revisited. Even biowares eastern themed martial arts action RPG was a good fun game to play just didn't hit the western markets right and was too Western for the Eastern market consumers. I appreciate that. But it was a solid fun game. The games produced under the Bioware moniker were no always financial successes but in the gaming world and in my rose colored glasses looking at the past they were always good games.

Profit is king. Once you take a creative house like Bioware, Blizzard, BullFrog, and may others and sacrifice them on the alter of a large cash payout the quality of anything in the future diminishes exponentially. WHY did Bioware sell out. So they could make their MMO and walk away. The Single player stories in the Star Wars MMO from them ARE good. They ARE a good single player game experience. But that's not enough to keep a game around for decades any more. If it were so many other flash in the pan MMO's wouldn't have come and gone.
 
I always thought the class stories in Old Republic were really good. Imperial Agent in particular is exceptional. I guess people can't get past the MMO gameplay but at this point in 2019 I think I would find it much harder to play KOTOR over an MMO. Also, it amazes me how zombie like people's hatred of EA is that they fail to see how difficult it is to create quality Star Wars content. It is very easy to imagine Star Wars games being good (and star wars movies) but making a satisfying experience is absurdly challenging. Like that recent canceled star wars action game, people hear the pitch and think it will be awesome and wonder why it was canceled. It was canceled because it sucked. EA isn't flushing all that dev time down the drain because it was good and the fact it didn't meet EA's low standards should say something. But no, everything EA does is always wrong all the time so the game must have been a shining beacon of excellence and EA canceled it because they are a bunch of evil assholes who are actively trying to make shit star wars games.
Sorry, man, but EA really is run by a bunch of asshats. Their lockbox kurfluffle lately and how they've treated many of their past acquisitions has made that pretty clear, IMO. That doesn't mean that you are wrong about some of the efforts that have been pitched at them., though. But you're not going to convince many people that they're anything more than money-grubbing scumbags.
 
Look at the mass effect franchise. It could have easily rivalled starwars in popularity over time. The first two games established that player choice mattered. ME3 threw it all out the window (heavily EA influenced) I loved the MP element tho. Andromeda was a shit show from start to finish and EA dropped it cold, ceasing support , DLC and even releasing it broken. It wasn't a bad game in the end, with some of the best combat if the entire franchise but it needed another year and some oversight and they didn't give a shit . It accounted heavily for an entire quarters positive earnings and they flushed it anyway .

Now they're pushing Anthem which is a single world "Mass Effect" game at us and I just can't even bring myself to care... After how badly they flushed Andromeda.
 
It was dumb for Disney to make SW exclusive for EA. Should have allowed access to different developers and publishers. Oh well, greed strikes again and I hope it stings Disney and EA for it.
 
Soon enough we'll see Star Wars brand games like ping pong and pacman from EA.
Why make such a complex game when you can make easy simpler games that'll cost the same price yet cost less in resource to make?
 
It was dumb for Disney to make SW exclusive for EA. Should have allowed access to different developers and publishers. Oh well, greed strikes again and I hope it stings Disney and EA for it.

At what point does Disney step in?

EA has brought in 0 revenue off the license other than Battlefront and a couple of mobile games.
 
I actually don't hate EA.
But they do tend to delete keys bought from shady sellers like Kinguin, lol. Steam never does that.
I had mostly nice experience with EA, especially their support.
Epic support however is a fucking joke. They demand more information than banks.
 
Once EA figures out how to make a dozen expansions and/or include microtransactions they will make it...
 
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