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Why cant Bioware Austin focus on SWTOR?


xerohiro

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Wait...

 

I thought that James Ohlen left BioWare shortly after the launch of TOR when the original dev team started to leave?

 

No he stayed on, and continued to make promises about the game, but was weak on his follow through.

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No he stayed on, and continued to make promises about the game, but was weak on his follow through.

 

The Making of Star Wars: The Old Republic

"Unlike a lot of other game companies that, once they launch a game, downsize their teams radically, our plan is to keep the team together and continue to focus on building content."

 

BioWare: SW:TOR to last for "decades"

"We want to add dozens of worlds. Hundreds of worlds eventually. In 2025, we'll hopefully have 500 worlds."

 

Our reaction now.

Edited by Darth_Wicked
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The thing people need to realize is having devs leave for other games doesn't mean a thing about SWTOR's health.

 

Why? Because in the software industry particularly the gaming industry, if you want to advance your career you don't want to be stuck as a post-release developer. The reason being is that they get the most publicity and press working on new things. Being a dev on a brand new upcoming name means you get to star in vids and blogs where you get to say "My name is ____ and look at all this cool new going-to-be-the-headline-in-all-the-software-magazines stuff I'm working on." But once a game is released and the initial hype wears off, the devs don't get that as much.

 

From a dev's perspective its better to be able to put on your resume that you developed this title then went on to develop this other title, and then another title after that, than it is to say you just developed this one title and worked on stuff for that same title. You want to have your name attached to as many titles as you can.

 

That's not saying the devs who take over post-release are lesser or anything, being a dev at any point during a AAA title's life is a huge achievement in any career, but its generally not something any ambitious dev wants to do.

 

Not to mention developing a new game is a lot more fun, than working on something that's already released.

Edited by Zoom_VI
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At the beginning of this year they were on a pretty major hiring spree.

At the time most of them were "unannounced projects" at Bioware Austin.

 

Most likely they brought over a few people who may not be needed here for a little while (based on expertise in a particular field) and they filled the rest with new hires.

 

There is no reason why a development studio can't have multiple projects happening at the same time.

Bioware currently has (that we know of) 5 games in development and 3 studios.

  1. Next Mass Effect
  2. Dragon Age Inqusition
  3. Shadow Realm (just announced)
  4. Mysterious new IP
  5. SWTOR

 

This doesn't take into account any work that may be going on for the sequels for those games or the fact that SWTOR currently (or at least recently) had 2 expansions in development.

 

the mysterious new ip is Shadow realm so that is 4

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Your Sig, Riccitiello hasn't been at EA since March of 2013. If you don't know that the CEO has been gone for over a year, I have strong doubts as to the validity of your, insights, into BioWare Austin business practices.

 

That sig is old, haven't been around here since 2012 I guess, haven't bothered yet in changing it. As a matter of fact, I had completely forgotten it, until now.

 

 

But it is not only BW Austin's business practice, that's general business practice.

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I was reading that Bioware Austin will be releasing a new 5 player RPG 4 players, 1 Villain player. The 4 players will go up against a dungeon master aka bad guy. It will have a modern day setting, and will have content packs released as episodes. The game is called Shadow Realms. Looks like the idea of Fable, and The Secret World combined.

 

From what I saw Bioware Austin let go of employee's before, now with a smaller development team, is any future content for SWTOR in the works? I don't understand how this studio can handle two different games without sacrificing development to SWTOR.

 

Why cant Bioware Austin focus on SWTOR?

 

Studios should always have new things cooking since no single product lasts forever.

Edited by Projawa
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Is this where people who have no idea how project management works complain about business processes they don't understand?

 

*checks thread*

 

Yep

 

/not all of you, of course

Edited by Arkerus
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Is this where people who have no idea how project management works complain about business processes they don't understand?

 

*checks thread*

 

Yep

 

/not all of you, of course

 

Lets talk about understanding the project management of Bioware Austin, or better yet lets talk about practices of EA, and how they handle these projects. Now from what I've read we've been told that EA is looking to change its outlook on how it interacts with the people playing the games they produce. This thread is more about being skeptical then actually having no idea how project management works. Lets hear from Bioware Austin what the future plans are for SWTOR, or if that has/ will come to a grinding halt after 3.0.

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Lets talk about understanding the project management of Bioware Austin, or better yet lets talk about practices of EA, and how they handle these projects. Now from what I've read we've been told that EA is looking to change its outlook on how it interacts with the people playing the games they produce. This thread is more about being skeptical then actually having no idea how project management works. Lets hear from Bioware Austin what the future plans are for SWTOR, or if that has/ will come to a grinding halt after 3.0.

 

WHy be skeptical? Creating projects and running teams is pretty much industry standard for anyone that does this for a living. EA knows how to run projects. Their DECISIONS about what to bring to market may be incorrect but just because a game studio has multiple IPs doesn't mean its time to panic about swtor. In other words, this is completely NORMAL.

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It's also easier to create hype and get more cover in the gaming news when you have big name like Bioware behind the project. It's just easier than creating some new studio with a different name.

 

There is a stigma behind the EA name. People just don't trust it after what happened when John Riccitiello was the CEO.

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