I've been behind on my writing (work plus the final round of mini-Red #2's college visits plus taxes), so here's a little tidbit to throw out there:
A New Expac, Onslaught, is coming to Star Wars: The Old Republic
Yep.
That actually gives me some hope for the long term health of the game, because I was afraid EA would shut down BioWare after Anthem. But maybe EA and BioWare will figure a few things out, like letting BioWare people with experience running online MMO-esque games work on the content of Anthem for a change.
A New Expac, Onslaught, is coming to Star Wars: The Old Republic
Yep.
That actually gives me some hope for the long term health of the game, because I was afraid EA would shut down BioWare after Anthem. But maybe EA and BioWare will figure a few things out, like letting BioWare people with experience running online MMO-esque games work on the content of Anthem for a change.
I wasn't worried about EA shutting down Swtor if they closed the Bioware Montreal studio. EA kept Ultima Online running after Origin's self-inflicted wounds which caused that studio to close. I'd be more concerned if EA was renegotiating the Star Wars license since EA hasn't done well with producing Star Wars blockbuster hits.
ReplyDeleteStill you just never know. I've seen too many projects in full swing get cancelled mid-development because of 'reasons'. :sigh:
Same here with the shutting down of projects. After having read the Jason Schreier article on Anthem, I got really twitchy for a while, having seen several years of my life reproduced at BioWare, of all places.
DeleteAnd lets face it: EA is happy to keep collecting money from subscribers if it means minimal effort on their part. But that there's actual development going on warms my heart.
Yeah, re: Anthem, I just wanted to throttle people and yell "Why weren't you thinking and listening?". Project management failures seem to transcend businesses. :/
DeleteAlso, EA did fund two attempts at UO2, so they are (were) willing to try work with their MMOs long term. At least with the current management team Swtor seems to be focused on the MMO staples. Story, leveling, group content (large and small), and PvP. This last year it felt like they were putting in the behind-the-scenes efforts to make traditional expansions happen again with a possible smaller team. If they can keep up the expansion cadence of every few (2 - 3) years I'll be happy.
You really must be behind with your reading, because most of us have been 99% expecting this announcement to be made this week for months. :) Like Pallais I'm not as worried about SWTOR in relation to the future of Bioware as I used to be. Licensing seems to be more likely to be an issue at this point than anything else, and there's not much point worrying about that as it's completely opaque to the average user how that's being handled anyway.
ReplyDeleteI guess I'm old enough to not quite trust expectations any more. Just because everybody is expecting it --and yes, I know that it was supposedly coming-- doesn't mean that it will happen. After all, if expectations were reality, the past few years would have turned out quite different....
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