BioWare 'doing great' despite missteps, says EA COO

EA COO Peter Moore showed a vote of confidence in BioWare, despite a string of recent problems.

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Many have been disappointed in BioWare as of late--from Mass Effect 3's controversial ending, to the poor performance of Star Wars: The Old Republic, to Dragon Age 2's tepid reception. But EA COO Peter Moore says the publisher still has faith in the company.

"They're doing great," Moore told Eurogamer. "You say the last 12-18 months, I think of three things: I think of Star Wars: The Old Republic, I think of what Mass Effect 3 has done and all of the offshoots we've done of that, and then a little bit further back Dragon Age. So from that perspective I think the studio has done great."

He says Mass Effect was "enormous" in terms of sales, and credited BioWare for listening to the fans in regards to the ending controversy. "So the team at BioWare, again, to their credit, said, all right, we're going to stop a few things right now, the team's going to go back and provide some DLC, no charge, to provide more context around what went on there," he said. "We delivered that recently."

For The Old Republic, Moore says the business model has moved on and the studio adapted to it. He pointed out that 40% of the exit interviews cited the subscription fee as a reason for leaving, so they adjusted their expectations based on that. "We're just reacting to consumer feedback by doing that."

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  • reply
    August 22, 2012 11:00 AM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, BioWare 'doing great' despite missteps, says EA COO.

    EA COO Peter Moore showed a vote of confidence in BioWare, despite a string of recent problems.

    • reply
      August 22, 2012 11:03 AM

      They can clear the slate of all past wrongdoings if they do Dragon Age 3 properly. I'm done with them if they fuck it up though. No pressure!

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        August 22, 2012 11:37 AM

        IF you liked DA2 then DA3 will probably be more of the same. If you didn't then I think you'll be disappointed.

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          August 22, 2012 11:41 AM

          I did not like DA2. But there are no details on DA3 yet so I can't see how you can make any claims about it. Bioware would be beyond stupid to do the same thing again. They've heard all about what they did wrong.

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            August 22, 2012 1:18 PM

            It depends on whose in charge. They could very well think they didn't go far enough into the ARPG genre. If you are expecting a return to BG style story and gameplay I think it's safe to say that won't happen. That's not Bioware anymore.

            • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
              reply
              August 22, 2012 2:37 PM

              Most people's complaints with DA2 had nothing to do with the fact that it's not BG. I thought the combat was better than DA1 and didn't mind the Mass Effect style dialog. What I objected to was primarily the offensively blatant recycling of content and the boring setting.

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                August 22, 2012 4:00 PM

                DA2 sold so poorly that it's questionable that they'll be putting much more effort into DA3.

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                  August 22, 2012 4:13 PM

                  Well... it's been 18 months since DA2 came out. That's the same amount of time between DA:O and DA2. That means they'll have put more more work into DA3 by the time it comes out. The only question is whether they're taking it in a good direction or not. They made some off-hand comment about Skyrim being a big inspiration, but I don't know anyone who wants to see the game be like Skyrim.

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                    August 22, 2012 4:24 PM

                    If they move to Frostbite (as is the EA mandate) it's going to take a looonngg time to migrate their RPG system into that engine. They might not have the time you'd think to make actual content.

        • reply
          August 22, 2012 2:32 PM

          DA2 was okay if they would have just put some different zones in. I don't mind them making a different game but the copy and pasting was just sad. It should have been another expansion to Dragon Age.

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      August 22, 2012 11:12 AM

      Of course he's going to say they are doing great. Peter Moore has been sounding the F2P trumpet for EA more than anyone lately and SW-OR is making the move to .... yep you guessed it F2P, of course Bioware is doing great !!!

      EA's 1 billion dollar PopCap bubble is starting to burst. Now they are putting all their chips in F2P. Lets see the only Bioware games I know of right now are Star Wars - Old Republic.... going F2P and Bioware-Victory's C&C Generals 2 which was just move to ....... yet F2P.

      Bioware is EA's new poster child for F2P so of course everything is alright according to Peter.


      ( was the above to snarky?)

    • reply
      August 22, 2012 11:14 AM

      Eh, don't really think of BioWare as top notch brand these days.

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      August 22, 2012 11:21 AM

      I'd love for them to forget DA2 existed and make an amazing RPG again, but I have no faith in them anymore. I am still playing SWTOR, but only because I've made friends through the game, not because of how good it is...it was good, but I've done everything in the game aside from level every class, which I'm never going to do because of how boring leveling is once you've done it once. It'd be great if there was a perk to only play the story missions, but they will never do that.

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        August 22, 2012 11:53 AM

        They are litterally doing absolutely nothing right in order to maintain the remaining SWTOR players at this point. The downsizing of staff along with diverting all their efforts to the F2P model can't exactly be helping their progress.

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      August 22, 2012 12:08 PM

      BioWare are just a shell of their former self now, just like Blizzard.

      Like fashion, they live off their name.

    • reply
      August 22, 2012 12:23 PM

      They'd be doing even better if EA just had the good sense to write them a cheque for whatever amount Bioware wants then leave them the fuck alone to make good games.

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        August 22, 2012 1:24 PM

        At this point that wouldn't matter. You couldn't remove EA without killing the patient.

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        August 22, 2012 3:00 PM

        Nah, too much of the talent of that studio has already left.

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      August 22, 2012 1:59 PM

      Please be good, Dragon Age 3. Please be good. :|

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        August 22, 2012 4:15 PM

        DA2 was bad enough that I dont think i'd be willing to even give DA3 a chance. It really is unbelievable how bad DA2 is in comparison to DA:O (which was a great game)

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      August 22, 2012 2:06 PM

      Owned by EA? With everything else going on they will (probably) be shut done by the end of next year.

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        August 22, 2012 4:26 PM

        You know that when a C level person at a company comes out and tries to say everything is OK it often means the opposite.

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          August 23, 2012 5:29 AM

          Exactly! If he's got no reason to say they're "doing great" then he simply wouldn't have said it either.

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      August 22, 2012 4:14 PM

      Bioware is dead and gone thanks to EA. RIP.

    • reply
      August 23, 2012 7:10 AM

      Is PopCap doing great, too?

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