EA Worldwide Studios Announced, Brings Together EA Mobile, Maxis, and BioWare

I thought maybe there be an app tied into the game when I saw this thread.

Shattered Steel or go home, newbro

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Every once in a while large corps shake things at the top.  Since Mr. Söderlund mentioned Aaryn Flynn by name, I doubt Bio will disappear
any time soon.

Ryan will be responsible for both desktop and mobile platforms.  That may be a simple streamlining move at the top.   

As a matter of fact, BioWare may have known about this for quite some time. Some employees prolly agree with some people on here, that it is the end of BioWare. When, truthfully, it is really just a restructuring. Or at least, as far as I know. That's prolly why they shut down the forums as well, as they were causing too much internal strife for those that went there.

So BioWare Edmonton's new IP will be for mobile platforms then?    Probably not, but it would be hilarious to read the resulting PR hogwash if that were to happen. How excited they are to offer progressive gaming for a massive new audience, with exciting hidden object and match-3 experiences replacing the tedious combat that only gets into the way of story and romances anyway...

*shudders*

This could be a double-edged sword. Either, with BioWare receiving a new boss who, thankfully, has interests in RPG and open-worlds, BioWare will receive more assets to work with in regards to making and building current and new games.

On the flip side, it could backfire in either quality or general content, as possibly hiring practices change to match up with new preferences or BioWare's talent gets pulled occasionally – possibly too often – to help with other games, rendering BioWare's greater ambitions null.

I do hope it's the former as i'd rather see BioWare flourish in spite of the changes, then normalize into obscurity.

Westwood died because of gross mismanagement on the part of EA under Probst and the fact that half of their team decided to leave mid-development when making Tiberium Sun after they were bought out. 

You know, up and left. Before or during the making of a game for their player base (depending on who you ask, but thats besides the point) which put EA in a corner by tightening down and rushing the project to recoup their losses. 

If we're going to lay the blame where it lies, Westwood is in the same boat on that one. They hung themselves by acting unprofessionally, EA just gave them the noose and pulled the lever.

As for BioWare, honestly i'm kind of sick of the sort of conspiratorial rhetoric I see here. You got proof of anything you just said above there as being true? You know, hard numbers of the cash shop not making enough profit or the fact that Inquisition is not making enough cash for EA? 

Last I checked, for Inquisition at least, EA was satisfied with the success of the game. We don't have hard sales numbers, only estimates true,  but if I recall correctly the "fastest selling game in BioWare history" can imply a few things. First if you look at the sales of all BioWare titles, the two top sellers, Mass Effect 3 and Dragon Age: Origins, are estimated to have sold over 5 million copies, give or take a few million.

Inquisition is probably below that, or else they would say greatest release by BioWare of all time. So let's presume it is less than 4 million copies, well, we have five platforms it was released on, with one estimate I read saying the worldwide sales of Inquisition being roughly 2 million on the PS4 alone, worldwide.

I don't know if the official budget of the game was released, but my guess is the fact that all development was moved onto Frostbite, coupled with the lower-key advertisements being relegated to online adds and youtube videos, cut costs down in some fashion. You kind of notice this pattern, save for maybe Battlefield and Battlefront, EA has been using more market-focused advertisement to play to it's audience, over the posters of Lara Croft on bus sides and bill-boards. Tomb Raider was considered a "failure" in 2013 because it hit 3.4 million sales, and Square Projected 4.5 or some number just to break even. My guess is, at the very least, Inquisition broke even, which is the norm for most games nowadays anyway. 

Of course it's estimates, we'll never know unless we get hard numbers. But one thing to point out, that accounts for physical sales, not digital ones, digital sales and distribution could actively double that number. It could also double the numbers of previous games too; Origins just got a release on GOG that is giving EA a cut in profits, and selling more copies of the game DRM free. 

Not to mention the fact that Star Wars: The Old Republic is still making them money too, to the point where they not only hit a six year milestone but are releasing more story-line content in the next year at least. If BioWare was seriously in trouble, ToR would have shut down by now, instead the most expensive MMO of all time is starting to make it's money back. 

My point is sales are kind of relative at this stage. EA is a business, they want to make good sales and profitability, but they have their hands in so many pots at this point they can afford to take a reasonable loss. If Mass Effect Andromeda doesn't deliver, if they for some reason make a billion dollar game that can barely crack a million units sold, then I would say you have a point to stand on.

However, I just don't see it. 

What is the issue with Ryan exactly on Reddit? The fact that she was in charge of Maxis previously? 

I can't really do a summary of 200+ comments justice. That was definitely mentioned. So were The Sims. So was her lack of experience with any RPG.


The irony. Since, you know, BSN was the haven of hysterical toxicity, according to Reddit.

My two questions : will this get any bw personell moved ie aern flynn and will bioware still be doing games under the name bioware?

EA Worldwide Studios. I don't even know what this means. Pokémon Go versions of MEA now? And mentioning Maxis doesn't help. 

I miss the doctors.. that's all I know.

People need to calm the fuck down. EA does this sort of restructuring every few years, once Bioware was part of the EA Games label then they became their own label and studios such as Victory Games and Mythic were added under their umbrella in some weird attempt by EA to make them their own version of Blizzard, then they went back to EA Games and are now part of Worldwide Studios.

Samantha Ryan seems to have a great CV, so EA decided to promote her by making her head of her own label instead of losing her to another company.