EA to BioWare: The Way You Bring in Revenue is Your Problem

[News Portal]

BioWare may be one of the prized horses in EA's stable, but they still have to worry about money, unlike Valve and Blizzard, said BioWare's Dorian Kieken. "We don’t have that yet at Bioware. If we have two games in a row, as expensive as we are, that don’t do well at all... we need to be careful." Kieken revealed that the company now has more control than it used to, especially with the marketing department. "Ultimately, EA comes to the BioWare boardroom and says. ‘Here is the amount of money you have, and here is the amount of money you need to generate in X years. The way you do it is your problem.’"

Source: Games Industry International

Read full article by GON News

[Cyrinno]

Sheeesh, it's a ruthless business out there.

[jerichosainte]

what tha?

Did anyone else read this and think - if he's worries about the devs releasing s**t games how the hell does that denote taking more control?!

Then if they devs don't generate the cash do they get an arrow to the knee? lol

[exe3]

I read it as EA doesn't care how Bioware makes money, just as long as they do.

[spkypwnsuall]

Not trying to hate against EA here, but is anyone really that shocked?
I mean, the Games industry is competitive, but we all know that EA just want to keep rolling in the money.

On the other hand, I guess it does give the devs a little more freedom with what they make, rather than EA demanding a sequel or such. Of course, this could be just what it seems like from the outside.

[Bluefire]

EA crying.. stop blaming use for **** up good games ..
Its the developers fault.. we have no input..honest...
*forces origin on developers*
LOL
Thank god for lucas arts actually having the balls to tell EA to go **** itself.
Wish bioware and other developers would grow a pair.

[Makena]

EA crying.. stop blaming use for **** up good games ..
Its the developers fault.. we have no input..honest...
*forces origin on developers*
LOL
Thank god for lucas arts actually having the balls to tell EA to go **** itself.
Wish bioware and other developers would grow a pair.

Bioware is owned by EA. They're not in a position to tell their owner anything.

And I simply read it that Bioware has the freedom to do as they want.

[PinothyJ]

Woah, Woah, Woah! Did I just read an article about owners of a company telling the company they have to earn money to survive and the people's reaction is anything but "fair enough"? Hell, the article even states that this control that we assume Bioware now have on their direction has actually existed for quite some time.


I am confused as where the news is here…

[Cyrinno]

I think the reaction is all in the title, the way you bring in money is your problem has a negative slant.

[Bluefire]

Problem is you know theres no way in hell that they are allowed to bring in money anyway they want...
Games get released before they are more than 1/2 done.. If you were a game developer is that going to be your choice ?
Cut this feature, cut that.. make that easier so console gamers and stupid people have a chance...

If they were given a budget and left alone I could understand the title.. but theres no way in hell EA dont interfere. "The way you do it is your problem....
But you cant make this sort of game.. or that sort of game.. oh and release a sequel to that one..." would be more accurate.

[c0mc0]

Funny how people hate EA so much that they read an article about how EA don't interfer with the daily workings of one of their developers and people still want to crucify them. Haha.

If you have a boss that pays all your expenses, pays you and then tells you that how you go about making your money is up to you - so long as you do make money, how is that ruthless or in any way a negative thing?

BTW - This is the 2nd time I've heard someone say in a thread that Lucasarts told EA to go shove it...I must have missed this piece of news...Can someone shed some light on what that is all about?

[Marius]

Yeah I don't see EA as the bad guy in this story... there isn't really any bad guy.

It's actually good that Bioware have that responsibility, because it gives them more creative freedom. EA's not being a nanny overseeing everything.

In fact I think more businesses need to be fiscally responsible. Look at what happened to 38 studios. While Blizzard and Valve both have first-in-industry successes to tide them over (WoW and Steam), anyone who doesn't have that kind of breakthrough has to be disciplined in how they spend money, because they don't have an unlimited cash cow. Otherwise you do 'creative' ideas that are just stupid and lead to employees out of work and wasted investment.

[jerichosainte]

Kieken revealed that the company (Bioware not EA as I thought)now has more control than it used to

My bad, misread the article