Games Bioware all but dead as founders 'retire'

[Raven]

mmm, not sure I care about EU territories tbh.

Obviously it's a business like any other but I still get my games generally cheaper and easier than any other source so...

Even when people do spend half an hour searching for that £1 saving, then traipse around to some god awful shop in some god awful town (paying for parking, fuel, voiding any meagre saving they might have made) the extra couple of quid it may be is more than worth it for not having to have some stupid disk in your machine to play a game.

 

[Gwadien]

Gabe is a big fat fluffy bunny! <3

Steam does great sales, but I've seen Origin do a couple of good ones too - although, CJs CD Keys has always been cheapest though, for obvious reasons.

 

[Aada]

Yeah the command and conquer series, the Neverwinter series and related RPGs were really niche weren't they?

Oh, you disagreed with me that selling through an online download distributor is cheaper than selling boxes through a shop, care to explain why? You mentioned business sense fail too. oh the ironing.

Most developers and publishers are aiming for online distribution in the future for a reason, increased profits and easier distribution. The days of having to use disk media are coming to an end.

You seem to be getting quite angry though, I am confused as to why? How old are you?

How am I getting angry?

Your the one calling people mouth breathing morons for playing anything EA makes.

Grow up.

 

[Chilly]

Maybe they've just decided to cash in their chips and go? They've made a few quid and want to fuck about now. Seems fair.

 

[Raven]

It's not an insult, it is just they probably are. They can't help it. It's what happens when you sit in your bedroom all day playing xbox.

 

[cHodAX]

Maybe they've just decided to cash in their chips and go? They've made a few quid and want to fuck about now. Seems fair.

They knew the studio was ruined Chilly, they put their contracted 5 years in and did their best but in the end they cashed out and I don't blame them. Infact I don't blame anyone, EA do what EA do, these guys got rich and continued to try make good games but it just didn't happen. Good luck to them in their 'retirement' of 12 months max.

 

[Embattle]

I see lots of EA bashing recently and while I no doubt some is valid I can't help but think it has become a little too easy and popular to do and not everything can be levelled purely as EAs fault.

 

[fettoken]

All EA bashing is as it should be. Have been following some EA people working over there. Lets say they should not be in the game business. Same ppl sitting on executive posts in Tobacco business.

 

[Tom]

With Steam I get TF2, and with TF2 I get hats.

Hats > EA.

 

[svartalf]

Yep, the Docs sold out to EA, likely in order to do mass market games to fluff up the pension fund before they "retired".

I agree that they sold out, but I would guess that they only did so because they wanted to get their pet projects made. I'm not going to guess which games those were, but Dragon Age: Origins took forever to make, so I think they wanted more resources so they could churn out games more quickly. I like to believe that when SWTOR flopped and EA started making more demands, they stuck the finger up at them and said goodbye.

I think nobody believes the studio is better off without them, and now it's going to be taken over by EA stooges, and the studio's colourful games will turn a shade of grey. As a Bioware fanboi, I'm saddened by their retirement.

 

[opticle]

I understand EA are there to make money and therefore it's okay to peddle to and profit from the "mouth-breathers"...

.. But this argument is pretty much akin to saying the Sun and the News of the World are justifiable as news publications. Some would agree to this - true its fair enough to make money - but personally I think those newspapers are responsible for the dumbing down of a nation(s) and long term decline in the media and society to the shitty state it is now.

We argue for greater integrity and pride in journalism and movies, I don't see why games shouldn't be the same. I think companies like EA do carry responsibility for the dumbing down and lack of progress for the entire industry - and that's a great shame. In some cases it's irreversible and we've lost some great potential through a lack of foresight. I think part of the decline in the PC market is probably thanks to that sort of behaviour - crappy console games play much crappier on the PC -> less good/acceptable games -> less subscribers.

I guess the argument is, should companies take more pride in their work, is there some minimum acceptable level of integrity.

 

[DaGaffer]

The decline in PC games has nothing to do with declining quality. The dross-to-quality ratio has always been the same (its just our rose-tinted spectacles that tell us different, you don't remember all the crap. I do, I had to sell it). There isn't a single reason for the decline in games but the key contributors are:

• Cost of Hardware versus "acceptable" levels of console quality. Rising costs of graphics cards at the same time that consoles started delivering decent graphics and acceptable online experiences (e.g. XBL)
• The growth of MMOs. Sucked people's time and sucked developer's resources.
• Piracy. No getting away from it. Absolutely endemic on PC.

I simply don't buy the argument that PC games got worse and its all EA's (or Activision's) fault. Frankly, If you're going to blame companies, "blame" Microsoft (for XBox Live!), blame Vivendi/Blizzard (for WoW), and blame a host of developers for pursuing graphics performance ("will it play Crysis?") over gameplay. In fact, over the years I don't see EA's creative record in PC games as significantly better or worse than anyone else's.

 

[Ormorof]

Selling through steam (or any other online distributor) is better business sense for the publisher because the distribution costs and other middle man costs are virtually nothing. Yes Valve take a cut of the sale but nothing near to the extra costs that have to be absorbed selling a boxed game.

the way i see steam and many online distributors is like Douglas Adams described tax free shops in Airports, they can charge much cheaper prices than normal high street stores, but for some mysterious reason dont...

the cost of 99% of the games in Steam is the same or higher than in my local GameStop - the only time steam is cheaper is when they have a sale or a special offer on what i want to buy (which so far has happened twice in the 4 years or so since i started using steam)

 

[Gwadien]

the way i see steam and many online distributors is like Douglas Adams described tax free shops in Airports, they can charge much cheaper prices than normal high street stores, but for some mysterious reason dont...

the cost of 99% of the games in Steam is the same or higher than in my local GameStop - the only time steam is cheaper is when they have a sale or a special offer on what i want to buy (which so far has happened twice in the 4 years or so since i started using steam)

Because as I mentioned it before, it's all about convenience, people would like to have all their games under one piece of software, able to update etc just through that software, I know that Steam is quite bitchy about people adding a 'non steam game' onto it, where you're not supported, IE, I have Age of Empires III on disk that I bought years ago, before Steam sold it, I can't add that as an 'Steam' game, even though they do actually sell it, and it makes it annoying.

But you're right, I believe I got BF3 from Gamestop because it was so cheap compared to everywhere else... Steam are good with their 'Sales', 3 months after a game is released, whack a %15 discount on it, 6 months later, 25% or so, then 50%+ 12 months later.

It's happened for most big titles, perhaps not the biggest, CoD etc.

 

[DaGaffer]

the way i see steam and many online distributors is like Douglas Adams described tax free shops in Airports, they can charge much cheaper prices than normal high street stores, but for some mysterious reason dont...

the cost of 99% of the games in Steam is the same or higher than in my local GameStop - the only time steam is cheaper is when they have a sale or a special offer on what i want to buy (which so far has happened twice in the 4 years or so since i started using steam)

The initial reason for Steam pricing was to avoid channel conflict; bricks and mortar put a load of pressure on publishers to makes sure downloaded product didn't undercut boxed retail. There was a logic to that in 2004, but that's certainly not the case now. Now Valve like to claim that its a result of using an Agency Pricing model so the publisher/developer sets the retail price (as is happening in eBooks). Personally I don't understand how Agency Pricing hasn't been stamped on by consumer protection laws as its massively anti-competitive.

NB. The reason for the airport price thing? Highest rents in retail. Most airport shops (other than very high end jewellers etc.) don't make much profit; they're seen as vanity stores by retail brands.

 

[Gwadien]

NB. The reason for the airport price thing? Highest rents in retail. Most airport shops (other than very high end jewellers etc.) don't make much profit; they're seen as vanity stores by retail brands.

I saw a Ralph Lauren Shop in Greece, I sat there for 3 hours waiting for le plane, I don't think I saw anyone buy anything, haha.

There is no tax-free in the EU any more is there anyway?

But if you left Greece going to the UK, you'll know Ralph Lauren!