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Bioware dumps MGS for 2K...


stingerhs

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Interesting piece of information. BioWare created NWN I, and then walked away from NWN II. BioWare created KotOR I, and walked away from KotOR II. BioWare created Jade Empire I, and then someone else is doing Jade Empire II. I see a trend here. Could they really afford to walk away from such potentionally great titles and companies?

 

I don't know about you, but -- If I were to create my own buisness, then some big publishers come around with series of games to do, I wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. I would shut my mouth, access my work force, and hire more people. I would ask for a few buck up front, so I can afford the initial expense. However, I would be honest with the companies, and explain that my workforce is too small.

 

This stuff only comes around once in a life time. They may never see these contacts again.

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Interesting piece of information. BioWare created NWN I, and then walked away from NWN II. BioWare created KotOR I, and walked away from KotOR II. BioWare created Jade Empire I, and then someone else is doing Jade Empire II. I see a trend here. Could they really afford to walk away from such potentionally great titles and companies?

 

Well, the difference here is that Jade Empire is Bioware's own property, and they are still doing the PC version themselves, they've just chosen another publisher to handle selling the game. Jade Empire 2 is still Bioware's own property, and as far as I know they are going to do that one themselves too (though since JE2 is unannounced there's little more than rumors and speculation to go by on that one at this time).

 

I don't know about you, but -- If I were to create my own buisness, then some big publishers come around with series of games to do, I wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. I would shut my mouth, access my work force, and hire more people.

 

That may be true for Obsidian to some extent, and seems to be more or less what they have done, in general terms. Bioware is a different story however.

 

Bioware aren't exactly new in the business, nor are they particularily small for a game studio (~300 employees). They have been doing RPGs for others' franchises for almost a decade (AD&D, D&D and StarWars d20). By now they've established themselves enough, saved up enough in the bank and merged with another game studio so they can stand on their own, and decide what to work on and who to work with more freely.

 

Unless Mass Effect and Dragon Age are massive failures I doubt they are in any economical danger any time soon. With the huge successes of the Baldurs Gate series, Neverwinter Nights and KotOR they've both established a strong fanbase and strong market recognition. As far as I understand Jade Empire on the Xbox was a success as well.

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I'm curious...

 

Do video game industry observers consider BioWare's decision to go with Take-Two Interactive subsidiary 2K as the publisher for Jade Empire: Special Edition for the PC as a slap in the face to Microsoft?

 

As for myself I don't think BioWare's decision indicates they dissed MS. I think it just shows that BioWare is in a position to go with the publisher they want to. The one that give BioWare the most bang for their buck so to speak. As stoffe -mkb- indicated BioWare has established a well-regarded reputation in the industry and also has significant financial backing so they don't have to kow-tow to MS.

 

Perhaps MS Game Studios didn't have an interest in publishing the game and so BioWare needed to find a publisher for the PC version of Jade Empire. Maybe 2K made a much better offer in terms of money and effort to promote the game than MGS did. I think we should all bear in mind that MGS and BioWare have entered into an agreement to produce Mass Effect as a trilogy of games for the Xbox 360 so it's not like BioWare won't be working with MGS in the future.

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  • 1 month later...

An interesting quote from a recent IGN interview with BioWare's Diarmid Clarke and Kevin Martens.

IGN: What was the reason behind moving to 2K as a publisher instead of staying with Microsoft?

 

Diarmid Clarke: That was an interesting one. Microsoft is obviously a publisher on two main formats. They have Vista very much in their mind and really when we were starting development up on this Vista wasn't in a position to be supported for us and so we decided we'd make the game ourselves and get it to a pretty final stage before we started seeing who the right publisher was. Microsoft was great in helping us out with that and making it very easy to position the game with 2K.

http://pc.ign.com/articles/737/737606p2.html

 

My interpretation? Microsoft was only interested in publishing PC games for Vista and BioWare didn't want to go that route. Considering all the delays with Windows Vista who can fault BioWare's logic with this decision? :p I know I'm glad they're going to release the game for Windows XP.

 

Mr. Clarke does make it sound like MS was OK with BioWare's decision to use a different publisher for the PC version of Jade Empire.

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