Gamer euphoria staff member Sean writes:
''Star Wars: The Old Republic had the world at its feet. The hype and promise surrounding it was intense, perhaps the most anticipated MMO since World of Warcraft. Things started off well, subscriptions surpassed the 1 million mark and the community feedback was generally positive. But then things went a little pear shaped.
By the end of April 2012 subscriber numbers shrank from 1.7 million to 1.3 million. The rapid decline was worrying for both player and company, EA had clearly been shaken given the amount of resources and money put into the game. Various people had their says on why they believed subscribers had fell so quickly. Some pointed towards the market and the growing trend in the ‘Free To Play’ model. Others put it down to players simply returning to their preferred MMO’s (World of Warcraft, EvE etc…), the actual Old Republic players had their own theory.''
Earlier this year, BioWare was hit with layoffs as part of a downsizing of parent company Electronic Arts, but fans have been reassured that the next Mass Effect game hasn’t been impacted. Likewise, Dragon Age: Dreadwolf’s development is still churning along, with BioWare putting it at the forefront of its focus and rumors suggesting that it could launch sometime later this year. Fans might be getting another look at the long-in-development Dragon Age: Dreadwolf at the Summer Game Fest in June.
If the recently posted job offering for a temporary development manager is any indication, BioWare could have yet another surprise up its sleeve for when Mass Effect 4 and Dragon Age: Dreadwolf are nearing completion. This mystery BioWare video game could truly be anything, from another spin-off of its two major properties to something entirely new. All there is to go on at the moment is a vague mention in the job posting, and it might still be some time before BioWare is ready to confirm any new games in its pipeline.
So a studio that spent years on anthem then this dragon age thing is now also working on another ip along with mass effect,
You think they would be worried that there brand has been on 3 major screw ups
Dragon age 3 launched broken with the frostbite engine yes its a good game but you can see in the late game how rough it was
anthem......
Mass effect 4 well that dev team was fired so yeah.....
They should make sure this new dragon age is a goat instead of putting more work on the table
How about they focus on those games and not over extend themselves? We don't need another Anthem.
Bioware died after Inquisition (some would even argue after ME3). They are no longer the same company.
Today Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson provided a look into his ideas for the use of generative AI in the company's development processes.
EA is still a shady shitty company even with or without the help of Skynet. All they will use AI for is new ways to milk loot boxes and come up with the same sports title with a different year on the label. They are one company I truly do hate with a passion. They single handedly ruined some great franchise with their death touch. ME, Dead Space, Alice Returns, Dante's Inferno.
EA layoffs followed by 'Generative AI to Drive Monetization'
I knew it. Wonder what AI salary looks like? Nothing.
And take away creativity, and people's jobs as we've been seeing. Got it.
No thanks. I want my games created by people, not AI.
EA doesn't want to lose their title of worst gaming company ever, always trying their best to remain the champs!
What's sad is that they have so much potential to be a decent publisher.
SSX Tricky / SSX 3
Def Jam Vendetta / Fight for New York
NBA Street
NFL Steet
Mirror's Edge
Bad Company
Burnout 3 / 4 / 5
Remember when EA used to be awesome? It's all over with now. Unpolished, if not out-right broken games these days. Endless monetization and gambling in their sports games, and let's not forget wasting hours of your life trying to unlock characters or equipment using "surprise boxes!"
Gareth, Justin, and JoeyZ look at Layoff news for EA and Sony and reasons behind the downturn in the industry and more.
I started 2 months ago to finally give the game a shot and because it was SUPER cheap to get the game & an extra month. It was good, not great, very grindy, but that's almost expected with a WoW clone (with lightsabers!). Then I let my sub run out, and waited for F2P to kick in to continue.
My account is not subscription but "premium," and that tag couldn't be farther from the truth. You need to pay to unlock essentially EVERYTHING. Sprinting, as pointed out in the article, is one thing. Inventory space, character slots, the ability to sync the color of your gear, fast travel, even limits to how much money you could have (I had almost a million creds on my Sith Warrior, and I was capped down to 350,000, the rest was in "escrow" for when I subscribed again).
The final straw was seeing people spamming trade with items that could be bought with the new "Cartel Coins." So you pay real money for items (or use your monthly allowance for spending $15), and then you can sell them to other players??? Why not just bite the bullet and grant the ability to buy gold with those credits?
I ended up giving away all my creds & uninstalling. (Almost 600k after I sold all my gear!)
There had to be a way to be profitable and keep the game enjoyable for all levels of players. This was not it.
The thing that killed it for me was the Bounty Hunter storyline after Chapter 1 made me feel like just another Bounty Hunter. I heard it gets alright at the end but I don't want to grind up there to feel special like I did in Chapter 1.
That's the thing. Every classes' Chapter 1 is awesome! You feel special in the world and the game does a great job at making you want to play. Then you hit levels 30-40 and feel like you have to grind everything out to get to the cool parts again.
In a game that focuses so much on story, you can just have an awesome begin and cool ending. There needs to have substance in the middle.
Oh, and Jedi Knights are underpowered big time.
Now that this experiment failed lets bring back Pre-cu SWG DAMNIT!
This game could have been great but they fucked it up completely. You're supposed to make F2P FUN, that way gamers actually WANT to spend money to buy stuff and customize their characters with cosmetic stuff. They've basically made it so that you're forced to pay a ton of money in order to enjoy the game in any form. I mean, seriously? No sprinting? Fast travel? Character slots? Limit on max money? Shit's ridiculous.
What bugs me the most is the two character slots. TWO! I was a paying subscriber, but decided to go free-to-play, without realizing that I have to delete a bunch of characters.