The EA Strikes Back!

As you may (or may not) know, BioWare is my favourite RPG developer. Starting with their original Baldurs Gate, which rejuvenated the RPG genre on the PC, all the way through their console RPGs, they have always released quality games. In fact, their next release (Mass Effect) is probably my most anticipated game this year.

All of which makes me extremely worried to hear that BioWare are now a part of EA. Yup - thats right - EA are now the owners of BioWare.

As you can imagine, the forums are ablaze with hate mail directed at EA - check out this forum thread (on the 4th thread and rising rapidly!). Now granted, I don't hate EA with the passion that others seem to. In my opinion, EA have some good games and they have some poor games - just like any other publisher.

However, I am extremely concerned about the history of EA. Put simply, BioWare aren't the first popular RPG developer acquired by EA. If you are wondering why you haven't heard of any good EA RPGs before, its because those popular RPG developers no longer exist. Worryingly often, after acquisition by EA, the quality of games dropped and those studios then get closed down (granted, I have no idea of how much EA was involved in the development of those games - all I know is that those developers were able to develop good games before they were acquired by EA but not after).

The best case scenario is that EA will give funding to BioWare but leave them alone to create the kind of games which BioWare is famous for. I am desperately hoping that this will be the case. Unfortunately, the reality will likely be that EA will try to exert some influence. In any event, here's hoping that BioWare are still around in 5 years.

At least Mass Effect is so far along the development cycle that it won't be affected by any of this.