EA boss John Riccitiello spoke at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference this week (via GI.biz), stating that EA "dropped the ball" during the transition from the previous console generation to this one. "Our IP deteriorated, our costs went up, and we didn't really have an answer for the rise of digital."
Over the last three years, it's been "part turnaround, part transformation" at EA, Riccitiello said. This initiative has seen the publisher cut its yearly slate of titles in half, reduce costs internally and ramp up its digital business -- a $700 million cash cow in 2010 for EA.
Finally, Riccitiello talked Star Wars: The Old Republic, which he hoped would take "a big chunk" of the World of Warcraft userbase. As we've heard before, it needs at least 500,000 subscribers to turn a profit, but many more to be considered a breakout success. "We want to take a share; we want a leadership position here. And our product is innovative in a number of ways."
#comics
My weekly round-up of comics returns for the new-look Kotaku. There are new comics every Wednesday in the U.S. in comics shops and — legally! — for download. Some are about video games. Some are good. (That's a joke, sort of.) More »
Hero's Journey may be no more than a distant memory at this point, but Simutronics' HeroEngine -- the game engine currently being employed by BioWare to create Star Wars: The Old Republic, among other things -- is still going strong. After being quietly scooped up by Idea Fabrik in 2010, the HeroEngine is now being used to create a game in-house at a newly formed studio, Second Star Interactive.
Formed by ex-Bethesda, EA, and Sony Online Entertainment devs and execs, SSI intends on creating an online game of some form that will launch "later this year." The release also notes that "a number of third-party developers who have licensed HeroEngine also plan to launch games featuring the technology before the end of 2011," which is especially interesting as the two main development houses working with the engine are BioWare and ZeniMax Online (parent company of Bethesda Softworks and id Software). We know about BioWare's big game, but we've yet to hear anything about what ZeniMax Online has planned.
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The Old Republic world designer Jesse Sky and his team are responsible for creating Flashpoints, moments of group-based galactic crisis in the game on the same level as the Death Star battle. No pressure. More »
Electronic Arts and BioWare's Star Wars: The Old Republic has already established itself as the "largest ever development project" at the company, but Chief Financial Officer Eric Brown said that a moderate subscriber base could turn the "significant development costs" into profits -- "on a dime." During an investor call yesterday, the CFO stated that with a half a million subscribers, the game would be "substantially profitable, but not the kind of thing [EA] would write home about." The target for the publisher appears to be something with more than six zeros in it, as Brown said, "Anything north of a million subscribers it's a very profitable business."
Adding color to his remarks, the executive claimed, "There's been a fair amount of talk on various blogs describing spend that are vastly higher than anything we've ever put in place. Don't read 'gamer blogs' as having any substance. Some of them bring a chuckle, but they also bring a frustration to those who are being responsible for managing EA [research and development] dollars when they read falsehoods out in the press."
Brown reiterated that Star Wars: The Old Republic is expected after the fiscal year ends in March, but before the end of calendar 2011. He said the game is currently being focus tested, "not at the beta scale of testing," and has "only gotten stronger."
Though your rugged, galactic adventurers in Star Wars: The Old Republic are capable of handling a lot of the situations that head their way, they can't do everything by themselves. Check out a trailer for one of the game's self-contained, multiplayer-centric "Flashpoints" after the jump.
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Star Wars: The Old Republic's Flashpoint system will give players of BioWare's upcoming MMO the chance to team up and take on epic group adventures, like rescuing an important Jedi Master from the Imperial planet of Taral V. More »
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Most of you, at some stage or another, were children. And if, while a child, you didn't love the ships out of Star Wars, there may be something wrong with you. More »
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While the starships players will inhabit in the massively multiplayer Star Wars: The Old Republic may look unfamiliar, the initial reference for those vessels is a vehicle Star Wars gamers are intimately familiar with. More »
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If I were other massively multiplayer online role-playing games, my New Year's resolution would be to come up with dialogue and quests half as dynamic as those of BioWare's Star Wars: The Old Republic. More »
Bioware has posted new information about Star Wars: The Old Republic's Trooper class, including a writeup of the melty-faced Weequay demolitions expert named Tanno Vik (a companion character in the game), some details on the BT-7 Thunderclap assault ship for Troopers, and a new video promoting the duties and sacrifices that a Trooper must-- look, you get to kill Sith with big guns! Want in?
Bioware has also revealed that Zabrak players will be able to choose the Trooper class, which means we might see horned, Darth Maul-style characters running around in Stormtrooper suits. Such is the fate of the galaxy ... in an MMO.
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BioWare fleshed out the Republic Trooper class for Star Wars: The Old Republic over the holiday weekend, detailing the classes advancement options, companions and starships, while giving us a glimpse of a feisty female Trooper bringing out the heavy artillery. More »
BioWare co-founder Dr. Ray Muzyka announced at an EA Games showcase event in San Francisco this evening that Electronic Arts is assuming all publishing duties for the developer's forthcoming Star Wars MMO, The Old Republic. In a press release, EA stated that "certain publishing, marketing and distribution responsibilities previously designated to LucasArts will shift to EA, so that all publishing, marketing and distribution responsibilities can be centralized for efficiency," something that Muzyka expounded on when we spoke with him.
"There's not going to be any obvious change for gamers," Muzyka said of the immediate implications of the deal, adding that, "It makes things easier for us to have everything under one roof, and that will eventually benefit players." How so? Customer service was one example given. As for the role LucasArts will have in the game's development going forward, Muzyka told Joystiq that the company will still be "very involved" in ensuring that the final experience is 100 percent Star Wars in content and tone.
What Muzyka wouldn't tell us: When we can expect Star Wars: The Old Republic to ship. Canadians, it turns out, are not susceptible to Jedi mind tricks.
Though we're still confused how Star Wars: The Old Republic's non-lightsaber-swinging classes are supposed to best their lightsaber-swinging counterparts in combat, we're looking forward to checking out the objective-based, player vs. player "Warzones" previewed in the trailer posted below.
BioWare co-founders Dr. Greg Zeschuk and Dr. Ray Muzyka have their fingers in a lot of pies (which are made of giant RPGs) -- in a recent interview with Eurogamer, the duo explained how the developer's attention is split across its catalog of franchises. On the subject of Dragon Age 2, the Doctors explained that they're focusing on expanding the universe they've created, rather than telling a chronological story. "It's probably fair to say it's less precise than the Mass Effect trilogy concept," Zeschuk explained.
Speaking of BioWare's spacefaring RPG, Muzyka explained, "We're still working on stuff in the Mass Effect universe actively," with Zeschuk adding, "We have a pretty long DLC plan for Mass. We're still doing lots of stuff there." The Doctors also addressed their tremendously costly MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic, with Muzyka saying "It's a big bet, but it's the right kind of bet to make for EA," and Zeschuk adding "Hey, entertainment's risky by nature." That's certainly true -- just ask The Adventures of Pluto Nash.
Check out the full interview for more of the Doctors' insights on BioWare's upcoming projects.
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Republic and Imperial forces clash on the world of Alderaan over control of the planet's massive planetary defense cannon in this first detailed look at organized player-versus-player in BioWare's Star Wars: The Old Republic. More »
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The next planet to be revealed for BioWare's Knights of the Old Republic is Ilum, the hotly-contested home of the crystals that give lightsabers their pretty colors. More »
Star Wars: The Old Republic systems director Damion Schubert hosted a panel at GDC Online 2010 today about that excruciating aspect of gameplay known as "The Grind," which he defined as any time developers ask players to do something they don't enjoy in order to open up something that they will enjoy.
Most developers use the grind to fill out gameplay content -- handcrafted, "gold standard" content is much tougher to make, whereas grindy content is cheap to put together. But sometimes it comes in handy, said Schubert. While making SWTOR, BioWare actually found that it was putting "too much gold-quality content into the game." Players would be confronted with a Star Destroyer to fight through, a lost Wookiee to save, and a Sith quest to complete; and Schubert said that "we had, by jamming all of this good stuff together, actually made it grindy."
So to fix the issue, BioWare first cut some of the least powerful stories (the lost Wookiee didn't make the cut, Schubert confirmed), and then spaced the rest of them out. Additionally, a feature called "bonus quests" will create optional tiny grinds -- players will be offered extra grind-style goals ("Kill 10 Stormtroopers") while running other quests. That "keeps the activity level up, but lets the gold-standard content breathe," according to Schubert.
He admitted that the grind isn't always a bad thing -- developers sometimes have great reasons to add grinding, and there's a perception factor to consider, as well (one player's maximum effort is another's boring grind). But developers should be able to balance the grind with content and activities that players do care about, Schubert urged, creating a full experience that requires different kinds of efforts for equally different kinds of rewards.
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If a video game is going to feature a character class based primarily on the exploits of Harrison Ford as Han Solo, that class better have a Wookie sidekick. BioWare delivers. More »
BioWare updated its Star Wars: The Old Republic website recently with images and information about planet Corellia -- a world better known as "where Han Solo is from." Given the game's timeline, though, we're thinking Solo isn't likely to make an appearance (it is the Old Republic after all).
At the time, Corellia apparently served as a hub for intergalactic business, which can be seen charging full steam ahead in the media released alongside the news. No gameplay is shown, but we're keeping our fingers (and mandibles) crossed for an inter-species Corellian stock exchange, replete with hilarious trading floor arguments and Cantina-style dispute resolution.
#starwars
The majority of this clip for The Old Republic shows everything that is wrong with both Star Wars' expanded universe and the drudgery of MMOs. Until, that is, the last ten seconds. More »
Wondering when you'd get a chance to see that meatbag-hating droid HK-47 make his return? This latest Star Wars: The Old Republic trailer delivers just that. Also, it seems KotOR's Darth Revan will make an appearance in the game. Hope he'll be happy to see us!
