Former BioWare lead writer reads the runes on EA-Saudi deal and speculates that 'guns and football' are in, 'gay stuff' is out, and the venerable RPG studio may be for the chop

I'm Commander Shepard, and this is my favourite bigoted country in the Middle East!

To be fair, Bioware has been on the chopping block for some time. I imagine even without going private EA would've gutted Bioware if Mass Effect 4 wasn't a massive success. In my mind the possibility of Bioware getting shuttered has risen only marginally because that possibility was already high to begin with.

I actually had a sliver of hope for Mass Effect, you know? It’s all gone now.

I honestly hope they just cancel the next Mass Effect. There is a 0% chance it's not gonna be shit.

BioWare needs to do what the Castlevania creator did. Konami wouldn't give up the rights to Castlevania (or sell it — the Netflix deal was lucrative, after all) and just make their own studio "with blackjack and hookers." Sure, the studio behind Bloodstained was problematic when it came to delivering on certain promises to Kickstarter backers, and sure, the mobile ports were abandoned and the Switch port was (apparently) never fixed... but on PC and Xbox at least, the game was fine. The best of Symphony of the Night and Aria of Sorrow, it's the best Castlevania game not called Castlevania, and it's among the best Castlevania games, too. I'm not sure there is even one that is actually better at everything. They really took all the good parts of Castlevania and, instead of a gimmick like an inverted anti-castle or entering paintings, they just made the castle stupidly huge, almost unreasonably so. The architecture doesn't make sense, but it never did.

It happened with the developers behind Fallout as well. They became Obsidian, and I think InXile got some of those developers. Obsidian went on to make Pillars of Eternity and The Outer Worlds. InXile made a bunch of RPGs too, but I can't name any without looking them up.

BioWare needs to take its talent and go indie.

Guns and football seem pretty gay to me..

"read the runes" ... people need to stopping believing that money is money. Money is money AND strings attached. It's totally different to get 1 EUR from a friend vs 1 EUR from a brank vs 1 EUR from VC vs 1 EUR of public subsidies. Money NEVER comes without string so one must be cautious they are not getting a noose around their neck while signing a contract.

PS: IMHO NLNet is an example of "good" money. Other examples welcomed. In software in the game "industry" specifically I don't know where one can find non "bad" money so please if you have examples, do share.

I really cant wait for this generation of kids to grow up and start dealing with bills and shit. The moment they learn the true value of money this whole trend of buying lootboxes and packing players will die on its arse so fast.

I just hope theres some fly on the wall footage of the boards faces when they realise.

It's EA. They could make gay stuff in games without them. But instead they make a deal with the devil and hope they come out on top? They want all the resources of a soulless giant but then they think they're somehow escaping the taint?

It's like musicians making deals that (unfairly, almost amorally) guarantee their songs play across the country... but then they think they're still a normal artist.

Thanks for the representation I guess. Even though we had to collectively pay to make ME a popular franchise. I'm sure it was all about being true to your morals.

how can football be in and gay stuff out? unless you mean european, like soccer.

Les extrémistes religieux vont venir nous faire chier partout où ils le pourront... C'est logique, mais ça casse les couilles !

The last Bioware game I genuinely enjoyed was Dragon Age: Origins, which was the last thing (mostly) developed before the EA buy-up. I'm sure it's scary for the employees, but I suspect this is good for Bioware in the long term.

I'm interested to see the fan response to this.

That's kind of an upgrade, at this point.

Bioware has essentially existed to pander to a very small minority for the past decade. I don't think they're capable of making a good game anymore, but at least they won't get any support from anyone for their mediocrity.