BioWare Becomes Its Own EA Label
Last week, it was announced that BioWare would no longer fall under the EA Games label within Electronic Arts’ organizational structure; the RPG publisher was in effect promoted to its own label within the EA family, ranking alongside the likes of EA Games, EA Sports, and EA Play.
EA CEO John Riccitiello commented that the move is part of the company’s shift from ‘defense’ to ‘offense’ that he first outlined back in May.
“We’re focusing on building our intellectual properties/franchises into year-round business,” he wrote today.
“We are already seeing big returns on our investment in change. That’s why this is precisely the right time to update our organization.”
This is interesting, because it shows a remarkable confidence — on the part of EA — in BioWare (of course), but also in the RPG genre, which of late has not exactly been the genre that dominates the market on most major platforms (and which does far better in the PC market than the console market). Electronic Arts now, effectively, has a massive, RPG and MMORPG production label all operating under the BioWare label.
UOJournal offers some additional commentary on the organizational change
…this is now the sixth BioWare location, or maybe studio depending on your view:
* BioWare San Francisco
* BioWare Edmonton
* BioWare Montreal
* BioWare Austin (Star Wars: The Old Republic)
* BioWare Mythic in Fairfax, Virginia (Ultima Onilne, Darkage of Camelot, Warhammer Online)
* BioWare Customer Service office (Ireland)What does this mean for UO? Really good things I believe. To me, it means that full control over UO will be handled by RPG/MMORPG folks from BioWare. I think it was already happening to an extent. BioWare has already shown an enthusiasm for the Ultima franchise, work is being done on UO to grow it going into the future, plus the Ultima Forever project, and on Dark Age of Camelot. Dark Age of Camelot recently received a new website at DarkAgeofCamelot.com and has dropped the Mythic label, carrying only the Origin.com, EA, and BioWare labels. It’s similar to UltimaForever.com. BioWare appears to be taking full control of its franchises.
I share Deckard’s sentiments here; I think this means really good things for Ultima Online…and for the Ultima franchise in general. EA now has a dedicated RPG label, and a rekindled interest in the Ultima franchise which is being nurtured along by BioWare Mythic. Things are happening…it’s an exciting time!
Old news. Slashdot and Google News was all over it.
However, the light in which you cast it is bright, indeed. If Leon hadn’t died, but had gone on to further tutor Mathilda, he may have said to her one day, “Go. I have taught you to be strong. Find your own strength. I will always be your father, and…I love you.”
Hopefully BioWare has been contractually offered this sentiment.
Also, I was bored and looking for my old Nintendo Power magazines when I found some old “schoolwork”. Funny I haven’t looked around for cool shit like this before. Must…search…drawers! Anyway, here it is, the front page of my crappy middle school newspaper with an article by me about Nintendo, of all things:
http://www.eightvirtues.com/sanctimonia/misc/
Old news? Oh noes!!11! /o
As it relates directly to the topic of this website, the news should be reported here whether 10 minutes old of a few days.
The most truthful answer that I could give as to why this matters is, sadly, covered under NDA. But you all noticed the BioWare logo in the footer of the Ultima Forever website, and most of you correctly grasped that there is some…significance to it.
And that’s the best reason I can give right now as to why this is reportable news: it’s significant, and (as the LOLcats say) relevant to our interests. renaak isn’t incorrect.
It is also (as Sanctimonia points out) older news that I just didn’t get around to posting until now. Life’s been insane these last few days. If that’s an issue for anyone, they have two choices: a) bean me with a glass sword, or b) sign on as a regular writer.
Love how everyone comments on the most boring parts of any posts I make.
Yes, you’re right. BioWare becoming its own label under EA does relate directly to the “topic” of this website. It is called, after all, ea-bioware-aiera.com. Jackass…
Why bother getting worked up over something so trivial.
I feel pretty good about it. While I don’t necessarily expect an Ultima X out of this, as somebody interested in UO, I feel like UO is safer than it was at this time last year. The work being done on UO also leads me to believe that there is an increase in support for UO from BioWare.
I also wouldn’t be surprised if somebody was thinking about an Ultima X down the road.
It’s a tough call though, on the one hand, a lot of diehard Ultima Fans might not accept an Ultima without Garriott’s involvement. On the other hand, a lot of fans want another Ultima or to see the original Ultima games update, and you could make the case that Ultima VIII and Ultima IX weren’t completely Garriott Ultimas anyways – he admitted that he wasn’t nearly as involved with VIII as he should have been and EA forced him to release IX a lot earlier than it should have been, and given how much of IX was rewritten…
I think an Ultima X from BioWare would probably do well, if they treated it like Dragon Age or Mass Effect.
Of course, before they do an Ultima X, they should put a lot more work into update UO.
You’re under NDA, WTF_D? Now *that* is interesting.
Old news, Sslaxx. 😉
Heh… Sorry RENAAK and WtF, I was in a mood last night when I wrote that. Feeling better now.