EA: Bioware Friend or Foe?

Another "EA bad" thread?

Can't really say it is nice to see some things never change...

Are you suggesting EA and BioWare should renew their vows?

If that emoji was a Space Marine burning an asari with a flamer I'd be sooo happy.

Yeah without EA the ME trilog ywould likely not been as epic a gasme series  as it was.

TBH they trash anything tha tisn't the Witcher.They just seem to get some perverse pleasure out of it.

Ironically, while you’re right in heaping a lot of scorn on EA, Patrick Soderlund was the one who pushed for the flight mechanics in Anthem, which is arguably the most universally-liked aspect of the game.

(Note the use of “arguably.” On the off chance you want to complain to me about how much you hated the flying and how part X of the game was much better, please don’t. I really couldn’t care less.)

True and considering how good i twas I'm kind of glad EA backed them on it. Because as ou rcompanoin ssa ya tthe end of the Citadel DLC "it was a hell of a ride"

That still doesn't mean that BioWare would be better off somewhere else or those actions wouldn't have happened elsewhere.  Most major publishers stopped buying developers for awhile, but its going to be interesting to see what happens at Microsoft after all their purchases especially after all the reports about Lionshead Studio and its eventual closing.  Everything I have read over the years I don't think EA is alone with what happened and I don't think BioWare would have been any better off under any of the other publishers for I think they would be in a very similar place now regardless of ownership.  I also don't believe after reading all the reports and interviews over the years BioWare would exist today with a major publisher giving them finical stability.

The problem I have with a lot of this kind of thinking is we don't know everything, its all jumping to conclusions with what the internet articles claim to be an accurate description of the facts.  I think a lot of BioWare's problems with Andromeda and Anthem were self inflicted more with Andromeda then Anthem.  When I talk about jumping to conclusions its things like your comment about Dragon Age 2: Exodus.  Yes it was cancelled and yes they moved to Frostbite, but if they did what some on this board say BioWare should have done by going to Unreal Engine would the outcome have been any different? So if they weren't going to Frostbite would it have been EA's fault or BioWare's fault?

I think a lot of time when I keep seeing people want to blame EA, I can also see where it could just as easily be BioWare's fault as well.  It just seems to be that people want to blame EA when BioWare could just as easily be at fault for some of their decisions.

Activision comes to mind quickly for me, they have closed a lot of studios until they stopped acquiring more and took two studios and turned them into zombies to make Call of Duty games.  They are also the funny one for me because of what happened with Bungie everyone was very quick to blame Bungie for all of the problems with Destiny, but rarely pointed the finger at Activsion for the longest time. Not to mention the mass layoffs at Blizzard just so the profits don't change last year.  Then there is Microsoft and Lionshead Studios for I wouldn't the rumor if it was EA that they forced Lionshead to make a Kinect only game.