It’s Official: EA completes Bioware/Pandemic deal.
January 7, 2008 – 6:04 pm
A highly anticipated deal, months in the making, just became official: EA has taken Bioware/Pandemic studios under it’s corporate wing. This boost in development talent and resources comes at a good time for EA, considering the recent Activision/Blizzard merger and I think it will indirectly affect Mythic’s project, Warhammer Online, by strengthening EA’s MMORPG department. In 2006, Bioware announced they were working on an MMORPG but details have been kept pretty hush hush. More recently, they announced a new project with LucasArts. It’s really hard to guess what kind of MMORPG they’re developing, given the lack of information. One could hypothesize that it’s a KotOR (Knights of the Old Republic) MMO but do we really need another version of Star Wars: Galaxies (even if it does suck)? More likely, it will be an extension of Neverwinter Nights (or Baldur’s Gate), since their last iteration could have been very nearly considered an MMORPG anyway.
Both EA and Bioware also have plenty of console experience, so I predict we’ll see an Xbox 360 MMORPG within the next couple of years! It’s just natural for the genre to expand into the console gaming world and Xbox Live is the perfect vehicle to make it happen. Microsoft just announced they have sold 17.7M Xbox 360 consoles since launching in November 2005, which is almost twice as high as the number of people currently playing World of Warcraft. To me, a number like 17.7M shows that a lot of people are craving an online/multiplayer experience on the console when you consider that Xbox provides the best online gaming experience of the three next-gen systems. Selling 8.1 copies of Halo 3 confirms it, IMO.
It may be difficult to iron out the details but EA would be stupid not to at least attempt an MMORPG with Microsoft and Live. Pioneering the console/MMORPG genre will push EA even further (or back) into dominance. You just know Blizzard and Activision are going to get there eventually, given the kind of money they’re printing these days. Sure it’s risky, but EA played a huge part in developing the original PC MMORPG genre with Ultima Online and it worked out pretty well back then.
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2 Responses to “It’s Official: EA completes Bioware/Pandemic deal.”
I would almost put money on Bioware collaborating with Lucasarts to make a Knights of the Old Republic MMORPG. They struck gold with the KotoR console games and Lucasarts is no doubt disappointed in how SWG is being received especially after how the the whole combat system overhaul was received. Mark my words! Bioware will put out a KotoR MMORPG and Sony will cries tears of sorrow.
By Ted on Jan 7, 2008
You could be right, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see them do it. There are pros and cons to both I suppose. With regards to NWN, do we really need another fantasy MMORPG, especially with 38 Studios’ offering in the not too distant future?
PS, welcome to the site Ted! Great podcast today!
By Snafzg on Jan 8, 2008