Thread: Waypoint - "We Asked Nintendo, Microsoft, and 12 Other Devs How They Deal With Crunch"
DICE's Swedish employee's are part of a union:
Link: https://www.resetera.com/posts/10211187/
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Thread: Cancelled and Unreleased Appreciation Thread
I highly doubt that EA will attempt reviving the franchise in anything like its traditional form, at least for PC. The series, and RTSs in general, never moved a lot of units relative to what a modern AAA game needs to justify its development. When EA closed Victory Games, it also laid off a lot of people who had been the vestiges of Westwood and had handled all of EA's strategy game output through the 2000s as EALA. I don't think there is an appetite creatively for, or a business case to support, reviving RTS development at EA in the near term. I expect EA might use the C&C IP for future mobile titles; seems like it would be a natural competitor to take on Mobile Strike. A longer shot would be licensing the IP out to Petroglyph to do something with, bringing it full circle, but I doubt EA is interested in that as the upside is marginal for them at best.
Link: https://www.resetera.com/posts/435966/
Archive.is (legacy): https://archive.is/znW32
Thread: Cancelled and Unreleased Appreciation Thread
I have a generally positive view of EA, both as a developer and a fan. They run a smart business and at least in my experience struck a good balance between letting their studios operate autonomously while also providing high level direction and support. Jon Van Caneghem, the GM of Victory Games, was recruited personally by then EA CEO John Riccitiello and by virtue of that we had a lot of support early on. There were a lot of challenges throughout development, and we got caught up in some strategic changes - "Bioware Victory" and the F2P shift - that complicated matters. Ultimately, I don't think the numbers worked out (or ever really could given past performance for C&C titles) for EA to be interested in continuing development. It was painful at the time given how close we were to release by that point, but it seems like EA was intent on unwinding all of their non-mobile western F2P investments. Ended up biting me again on Shadow Realms :(
Link: https://www.resetera.com/posts/443162/
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Thread: Cancelled and Unreleased Appreciation Thread
Hah, no worries. By the time we announced Shadow Realms the project had been in some stage of development for two years and the team felt pretty confident we had found the fun. There had been and still were questions around the IP, the positioning of the game, how it fit (or didn't) in Bioware's portfolio of titles, but the core gameplay loop was satisfying. People who got hands-on time with the game versus those who were just reacting to the trailer/gameplay videos had a generally positive sentiment, something that was borne out in focus groups and smaller playtests we had conducted. The morale of the team was pretty high, especially compared to my experience on C&C, and we felt good about what we were making at that point.
Link: https://www.resetera.com/posts/475054/
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Thread: Cancelled and Unreleased Appreciation Thread
I'm a bit biased but would have loved to have seen two of the games I worked on make it out the door: Command & Conquer Shadow Realms
Link: https://www.resetera.com/posts/189056/
Archive.is (legacy): https://archive.is/cSBGL
Thread: Do the terrible events today make you question the narratives of terrible events in history?
That's likely true of the public US education system in many areas, but I was lucky enough to attend (Jesuit) Catholic schools that didn't shy away from the US's legacy of systemic racism and oppression of minorities. There are schools out there who are teaching people who are lucky enough not to have live that legacy every day, to recognize their privilege and work towards a more just society. As outrageous as contemporary events have been in the United States, reading history has been a good way to maintain perspective when things seem hopeless. If you haven't had much exposure to other narratives of American history, I'd give "A People's History of the United States" a read: .
Link: https://www.resetera.com/posts/10135130/
Archive.is (legacy): https://archive.is/Sn3aV
Thread: Will Star Wars Dark Force/Jedi Knight Series get Reboot like Battlefront ?
I can assure you that many people at Bioware would like to make a "Kotor 3". While I doubt that will happen, I hope they get the chance to make something in the Star Wars universe in the future.
Link: https://www.resetera.com/posts/10092789/
Archive.is (legacy): https://archive.is/zS4PS
Thread: Will Star Wars Dark Force/Jedi Knight Series get Reboot like Battlefront ?
Dark Forces 2 is one of my all time favorite games, and I would love nothing more than another take on the Kyle Katarn story. For what it’s worth, I think there is better chance that Respawn’s or EA Vancouver’s game is in the Jedi Knight vein than we ever get a “KOTOR 3”.
Link: https://www.resetera.com/posts/10091109/
Archive.is (legacy): https://archive.is/lrd94
Thread: Will Star Wars Dark Force/Jedi Knight Series get Reboot like Battlefront ?
From EA's communication regarding Visceral's closure: Their last game was Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2:
Link: https://www.resetera.com/posts/10092412/
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Thread: BioWare interested in making smaller, more experimental games around the size of Hellblade
In the context of AAA productions and Bioware's most recent games, it was quite small.
Link: https://www.resetera.com/posts/10081106/
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Thread: BioWare interested in making smaller, more experimental games around the size of Hellblade
Huh, funny that. Smaller, more experimental games from Bioware... too bad they cancelled and more besides. That was one of the major motivations for that project (and others) and was one of the reasons I was so excited to work on it. Hope they're serious this time and can get buy-in from everyone long enough to get something out the door.
Link: https://www.resetera.com/posts/10073866/
Archive.is (legacy): https://archive.is/CzGy2