Realizing that you need to change doesn't mean you know how to change, and it doesn't mean you are willing to make sacrifices to change. A lot of failing companies know they're failing, they just can't or won't do enough to stop it.
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BioWare had a meeting with staff to talk about internal issues, Frostbite and work environment
- Thread starter Rodjer
- Start date
Realizing that you need to change doesn't mean you know how to change, and it doesn't mean you are willing to make sacrifices to change. A lot of failing companies know they're failing, they just can't or won't do enough to stop it.
I mean, sure, but it's also under the management of a bigger company that would rather not have to close another studio because they can't figure their shit out.
I think current management probably has a better idea of what needs to be done. Casey Hudson went back to be GM only recently and at a time there wasn't much they could do to improve things, they just had to churn out Anthem at the best state they could. From Schreier's article, it seemed like confused and unstable management was the root of the problems.
To me, it looks like they have a more likely chance to make things better.
I'm not too sure this isn't just PR fluff, but they have a chance to correct things before it's too late if they really want to. We shall see.
A good buddy of mine has been playing it on and off and I got the impression the game was just super barebones. Everything from gameplay options to endgame vanity and loot variety just wasn't there and no real timeline on improving the situation (that was being upheld anyway).
A good buddy of mine has been playing it on and off and I got the impression the game was just super barebones. Everything from gameplay options to endgame vanity and loot variety just wasn't there and no real timeline on improving the situation (that was being upheld anyway).
Didn't they have "all hands" meetings after DA:I crunch and then after ME:A poor reception?
Ya, I imagine the all hands was more so about " if you have problems come to us. Remember you're not allowed to talk about the company because NDA" just in a more professional way
Hopefully the meeting is "how can we make our developers' lives easier" and not "how can we prevent things like this from becoming public in the future". With companies you can never take for granted it's not going to be the latter.
"Hey guys maybe there is something of wrong about our work. "
"No shit boss, you are a way ahead to all, you genius enlight us"
"No shit boss, you are a way ahead to all, you genius enlight us"
Some of Bioware's problems are a consequence of EA's weird decisions:
- Frostbite,
- poor planning on the development (5 years of nothing)
- EA didn't check the state of this game until 2017, nobody cares because the priority is always on the most profitable games (FIFA).
I wouldn't be surprised if other studios are in a similar situation, not to mention the history EA has on shutting down studios.
So i don't know why somehow everyone blamed Bioware, when it's a far bigger problem.
How is the bolded part EA's decision? You might be misunderstanding the role of a publisher here. They don't run studios directly, studios have their own management and what they do and how they work is entirely up to them. This is what they mean when they say EA lets their studios keep their culture and creative freedom, which is what most studios would want. Also, if EA meddled too much, I'd wager most here would see that negatively.
And I really doubt EA didn't care about the game until 2017. That was mentioned in the article because it was when BioWare was first pressured into showing anything at all because they had been developing this game for so long.
EA said they had to use Frostbite, yes. And that is awful, as it's been said by many of their devs. However, knowing this, it was also BioWare's responsibility to be prepared. They had seen the troubles with Frostbite on both Dragon Age and Mass Effect. It all boils down to a clusterfuck of confusion and bad management. This is 100% on BioWare.
I hope the success of Respawn's Star Wars game shows them that continuing to use Frostbite is a bad idea. This is all good to hear, but I'm still worried that they are one more bad game away from not existing.
To be honest, alot of BioWare problems seem to stem from decision's they made five years ago, and then keep having to constantly deal with. They have so many projects up in the air, and don't seem to be able to keep an eye on them more than one at a time, which means they are constantly putting out fires. DAI, MEA and Anthem all had teams on them simultaneously, and the main reason crucnh seemed to happen was that the while one team got the bulk of the resoursces to get the game out the door (and had to crunch), there wasn't much concentration whether the other teams were actually making good progress on their projects. ANd then they ended up wasting time and the work they did was wasted, which means they ended up having to crunch to get the game out. At least now, outside of long term support for SWTOR and Anthem, their main focus is DA4, which is also b eing headed up by an experience lead (Mark Darrah), who seems to be able to actually make decisions and stick to them, so hopefully they should be able to better plan for it, and avoid previous pitfalls.
Yeah, that bolded bit is really important. SWTOR is handled by BioWare Austin, and Edmonton will no longer take care of Anthem, with support for that game being handed to Austin as well. Apparently all Anthem staff is being moved to Dragon Age now, so it looks like things will be focused. Not to mention Darrah heading it. Who knows at what stage Anthem would be released in if he hadn't taken the helm of its development.
They are apparently working on Mass Effect as well, but it's probably just pitching ideas and very early stuff. Here's hoping they manage to improve things while working on Dragon Age. They did it with Joplin, they can do it with Morrison.
Not everyone is an investigative journalist or has extensive sources to get behind the scenes info.
Did anyone really say this? Most of the material in That article was sourced from devs themselves.
I'm a firm believer in leadership almost always being the root cause of large downturns like this with Bioware recently. The issue is the same people that caused the problems are being tasked with solving them. What if the simple fact of the matter is that their collective vision as leaders and abilities to manage complex projects these days isn't up to snuff? Will EA allow them to hold on until they sink another project? Call me a pessimist, but massive successes or failures typically start at the top. The one I still have a lot of faith in is Casey Hudson. His output isn't perfect, but he has the creativity to craft an intriguing world that you can build an IP around which is critical for longevity among other things.
Quality check, you can't let a studio doing their own things without checking what they've actually accomplished in 5 years.
The role of EA is very confusing cause there is an appearance of creative freedom but they still dictate which engine to use, there are evidences of developers forced to change their games or fired because they weren't willing to change it the way EA wanted. The article mentioned Bioware needed help on Frostbite.
1) American McGee was pressured by EA to make Alice: Madness Returns more violent, he threatened EA with a penis monster to calm them down.
https://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2012/10/31/developer-threatens-ea-with-penis-monster/
2) PopCap creator George Fan fired because he refused to make PvZ mobile pay to win.
https://www.windowscentral.com/ea-r...mbies-creator-his-refusal-make-sequel-pay-win
3) Suda51 forced to scrap his ideas for Shadows of the Damned because EA told him "westerners are about guns".
https://www.resetera.com/threads/wh...-on-shadows-of-the-damned-was-spiteful.54536/
4) Chris Beatrice said he couldn't make the hardcore Simcity game fans wanted because EA asked a casual city builder, fans blamed Tilted Mill despite they only made what EA asked them to do.
https://www.arcadeattack.co.uk/chri...3DTp3kEa9naG_owYgA24tP7rLk1Ss9OXzIB8Gu0AC4l9A
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Random thing: If anyone wants to see what the Bioware office looks like using Google Maps https://www.google.ca/maps/@53.4825...zRdLmSqAMHUAAAQfCWiriQ!2e0!3e2!7i13312!8i6656
It's good to hear they've taking action. I hope they can turn things around. It's not a quick fix though, but will take a long time. EA also needs to really re-evaluate what they want from BioWare and how they treat studios too as they played not small part in this too.
Was this confirmed as a mandate or an ask?
The latter is reasonable. Of course they'd ask their studios to use their engine. But Apex seems to confirm that studios don't have to use it. And in that case, Respawn had just made a flop.
I still blame the Frostbite stuff on Bioware management prioritizing their standing with EA over enabling their developers to do their best.
Divestitures of something like a studio are really uncommon, and virtually impossible to do unilaterally. Once they got bought, the only way forward is, practically speaking:
-shutdown
-absorption
-subsidiary
It only took two completely botched, critical failures to have an internal meeting to talk about issues within the company and the issues you face using the engine you've been using for three straight games.
Jason semi-confirmed in a tweet that although Bioware initially chose to use Frostbite, EA was moving in that direction and making it more of an internal mandate that all studios would eventually be better off using it. My guess is Bioware decided it was in their best interest to learn it and be part of that internal ecosystem without anticipating all the troubles it would cause.
Respawn's case is different as the projects were all in development before they were acquired by EA.
I'm not seeing this with Apex. As far as I can tell, it was done after EA's acquisition of the studio. Correct me if I'm wrong on that.
But yes, I agree that Bioware was probably thinking "we can ask to use another engine, but then EA may not be happy about it." But ultimately that was a mistake, and since EA developers do in fact make games not on Frostbite, I think Bioware could've made their case pretty easily. Especially post-Andromeda
Bioware's obviously and rightfully shook by the article. Sad that it takes public egg on their face to make them care but so be it. If the success of Dragon Age hurt Anthem, maybe the failure of Anthem can help the future Mass Effect. (Assuming Bioware doesnt get shut down before then.) Sometimes companies get so far off in the wrong direction it takes a complete crash and reset to get them back on the right path. Bad behavior cant be rewarded with positive reinforcement.
I'm pretty convinced the ultra-casualization of Spore was also an EA mandate, but there's been no reporting to back it up.
I hope Jason follows up a couple months from now and again later in the year to see how things have changed. I've been in meetings like this and higher management will appear to listen and "understand" which lets employees vent but 80% of the time nothing changes or the changes they let in are half steps that tend to only delay the problems from reappearing.
I'm just hoping for Microsoft to swoop in and snag them off of EA at this point. I know it would be a very expensive purchase for Microsoft but that's probably the only way to get the old BioWare we love back.
lol. This. Maybe with a bit more sophisticated and convoluted phrasing, but yes.
I don't have any hope for BioWare anymore and I don't believe it.
I think the old Bioware is gone. I just don't think that they would be allowed to make the games they used to with a modern AAA game budget. The best hope for Bioware brand RPGs was to go smaller in size, but with an emphasis or replayability and a depth of player choices. DA2 kind of killed that style, and after Skyrim open worlds became the popular RPG trend. It sounds like Joplin was them trying to go back to a more interactive style of storytelling, but that got axed.
Microsoft has gone pretty hard into games as services for their lineup. I'm not sure they would be a better home for Bioware either. I'm not really sure where would be a good place for them. Maybe Sony? The Decima engine seems to be good, but I doubt they would even want to buy Bioware.
At this point Ubisoft hiring Cast offs seems the best bet for a return to form. They have been the biggest publisher that has navigated GAAS and narrative the best.
Edit: which they sort of did by hiring Mike Laidlaw for a secret unannounced project
I hope things truly change for the better, but I'm skeptical. Working there sounds like absolute hell.
The recipe is quite simple have your multiplayer cash cows like Apex FIFA and Battlefield fund quality single player games with expansions, no MTX and no online or co op. Not everything has to be online MP or GaaS.