Microsoft to Buy Bioware

[Whipped]

The minds and talent behind Neverwinter Nights and Knights of the Old Republic are rumoured to be in danger of imminent buyout by Microsoft.

"The latest issue of Polygon magazine is reporting an unnamed source from within Microsoft's Game Studios publishing division as stating that Redmond will imminently announce the finalisation of a Bioware purchase agreed. The continued rise of Microsoft within the industry will, rumour has it, be confirmed at E3 next month."

I sure hope this is a hoax, as Xbox exclusive Bioware games would suck the big one. The full story on this can be found here.

 

[gunner440]

grrrrrrrrrr
kotor was a great game

i wanna see what msoft manage to do.. they certainly have the financial muscle but will they end up as flops in the industry? ..

 

[tris-]

bye bye decent RPGs

 

[Shovel]

Why? Microsoft have a pretty good record with high quality games - Age Of... series are excellent, Flight Simulator is a hugely polished long term product. My understanding has always been that they treat their games studios very well.

-- Whether this could mean Bioware being encourage to produce some games for Xbox is another matter, since that could cause a level of dumbing down I guess, but not necessarilly.

 

[Deadmanwalking]

Dungeon Siege. Superb game.

 

[Lazarus]

Freelancer - damn fine game.

 

[Louster]

Both Freelancer and Dungeon Siege are insanely boring, mundane and repetitious, and both suffer from a dire plot and rubbish dialogue/characterisations. If this is what the future of Bioware RPGs is going to be, we're doomed.

 

[Whipped]

Agreed. Although I enjoyed Dungeon Siege at first. The constant hack/slash got a bit to much for even my hack/slash enabled brain.
Freelancer was better, but still didn't grab me by the short and curlies like it should have done.

 

[SilverHood]

Freelancer was done by Digital Anvil, not MS?

And this rumor sounds like BS.... until I see it written on the Bioware Website, I won't believe itm and even then, I'll wonder if someone hacked it...


from the Bioware boards::

Quote: Posted 04/19/04 17:59:16 (GMT) by Chris Priestly

Man every year as we get close to E3 along comes another rumor that we're being bought by Microsoft.

So here is our Official response to this rumor:
"BioWare's upcoming Xbox action-RPG, Jade Empire, is based on an entirely new BioWare intellectual property and slated for a Holiday 2004 release. Microsoft is the publisher for Jade Empire. Microsoft is a certainly a valued business partner with whom BioWare enjoys a very positive and cooperative relationship".

Basically, what it means is that we don't comment on rumors.

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox/rpg/jadeempire/news_6093879.html


It could happen, but I doubt it. Bioware loves their games too much.

 

[Whipped]

However, like most people, I'm sure they like money more

 

[Sar]

Dungeon Siege. Superb game.

But dumb as hell.

Dungeon Siege - Jodie Marsh - good looking but shallow
Baldur's Gate - Stephen Hawking. - ugly **** but brilliant.

*sigh*

RIP decent RPGs, especially after Deus Ex 2.