The Game Plan 12.21.07: What's the Big Deal, Part 2

Posted by James McGee on 12.21.2007

In the last column of the year, I examine another big news item: EA's buy-out of Bioware/Pandemic. Some called it the death knell for independent publishers, but is it really all that big a deal?

"You sold out!"

I hate that phrase. I really do. Fanboys of all shapes, sizes, orientations and creeds love to throw it around whenever their favorite athlete/artist/developer/whatever makes a deal that ensures a hefty paycheck. These are the same fans I mentioned in last week's column—the ones who shout their devotion to independent developers, yet never seem to show up in great number to buy all those developers' games. Look, I'm just as cynical as the next guy, and I know that corporations have driven a lot of "little guys" out of business. I know that the mass-producing, big-business mentality occasionally stifles creativity. But I can't understand why it has become a cardinal sin to make a living doing something you love. Making money off your talent does not, necessarily, equate with abandoning your integrity. "Selling out" has nothing to do with how much money you make and everything to do with whether you're being true to your own standards.

What has me riled up this week is the flurry of excitement surrounding EA's buy-out of Bioware/Pandemic earlier this year. If Bungie's split from Microsoft (covered in last week's column) was the ultimate victory for little studios everywhere (And how, exactly, does the developer of a $300 million-grossing game qualify as "little?" But I digress…), the assimilation of one of the industry's most revered independent partnerships by the largest and most hated third-party publisher in the world was seen as a crippling defeat. Message boards across the ‘net were a-flurry with negative-nancy posters declaring the death of Bioware/Pandemic. Fans were confident that EA's evil influence would stamp out every last shred of the developer's creativity, and that we would be subjected to endless sequels and spin-offs of increasingly poor quality (Coming next Christmas, Mass Effect 2008!). And of course, they spent a lot of energy shouting "you sold out!" Sure, EA is the big, bad corporation, but do you think that a company with the reputation and track record of Bioware/Pandemic would enter into such a partnership unless they were confident about maintaining their own rigid quality standards? Rather than crushing their creativity, having the enormous financial resources of EA behind them could allow the developers to focus on what they do best—making incredible games—without having to worry about publishing, marketing, and general overhead. Sometimes, being part of a company with deep pockets is the best thing that can happen to an independent studio. If you'll indulge my optimism, I'll tell you more. I'm James McGee, and here's The Game Plan.

Before I go any further, I guess I should assure you all that I am not on EA's payroll, and I'm certainly not saying that at least part of their reputation isn't deserved. They undoubtedly have a tendency to milk franchises for every possible cent they're worth (one word: Madden). EA also seems to put out more crappy licensed games than all other publishers combined—you can blame Superman Returns, Batman Begins, Bionicle, Goldenye: Rogue Agent and countless others all on EA. They're definitely the Wal-Mart and McDonalds of the video game world. Their overall reputation for quality is nowhere near as sparkling as smaller companies, such as Bioware/Pandemic. Maybe they're not the ultimate evil that many gamers perceive them to be, but it's certainly hard to argue with a lot of the criticisms that get leveled against EA.

So what's to be said in EA's defense? Well, for one, this is a consumer driven market we're dealing with, and EA wouldn't trot out its annual Madden horse if people weren't buying it, along with the numerous other franchises for which the company is notorious. To be fair, Madden also gets pretty decent reviews every year, despite the amount of venom that gets spewed at it. The same can't be said for most of EA's licensed games, which sell regardless of the poor reviews. Companies sell what consumers will buy, so gamers are as much to blame for all the quality issues in this argument as the mega-publisher (but I've been on that soapbox before).


Finally, we can get that Mass Effect/Madden crossover we've all be waiting for!

EA has also realized that gamers want to buy more than just the same old thing, and so naturally, they're looking for ways to meet these demands. That's why you see original franchises like Crysis and the in-development sci-fi/horror hybrid Dead Space (which, incidentally, was an original dream-project from a team within EA, nurtured by the higher-ups. Score one for supporting new ideas!). The deal with Bioware/Pandemic can also be seen as a step toward offering more than the sports and movie tie-ins that cause EA so much grief. John Riccitiello, EA's returning CEO, once headed up the Bioware/Pandemic partnership, which seems to indicate he knows a thing or two about supporting creativity, and specifically what these two studios are capable of. With friends in high places, EA's newest acquisitions seem poised to work their magic and help the publisher to change its negative image.

Of course, both sides stand to make a lot of money while doing creative things, and there's nothing wrong with that. Once again, I echo last week's column by saying that all major business arrangements like this come down to one simple thing: money. Bungie split from Microsoft, in part, because they wanted a bigger share of the profits from their work. But there was a time that Bungie thought it beneficial to be swallowed up by a bigger fish because of the money that fish could contribute to their cause. Bioware/Pandemic is in the same situation now. The final price tag for this buy-out is something like $860 million…stop and think about that. Roll it around for a minute. That's a big hunk of change, kids. Think of the games that can be financed (and the raises given) on that sum alone. Now, consider that the biggest publisher in the world is also one of the most profitable, and some of that vast wealth now gets funneled into the studios that have given us some of the best action and role-playing games ever. Funding is, essentially, a non-issue for the developers at Bioware/Pandemic now. They can be completely free to go crazy and create the incredible games they're known for, without having to worry as much about the cost. You can thank EA for that freedom, and the awesome possibilities that come with it.


Will Pandemic's Destroy All Humans become a case of Destroy All Franchises under EA's rule?

But who's to say that EA will afford Bioware/Pandemic the creative freedom to keep doing what they've been doing? What guarantee do the fans (or the developers themselves, for that matter) have that EA won't just fold all those great intellectual properties—Jade Empire, Mercenaries, Full Spectrum Warrior, Mass Effect, etc.—into their nebulous coffers and pass the game-making duties onto less talented designers? Interviews around the net with the head-honchos at Bioware and Pandemic's individual studios keep assuring fans that nothing much will change in terms of day-to-day operation for the developers. They'll still be doing their thing, just under a different banner. How do we know that isn't all just hot-air fluff and empty promises from EA? Well, that's where you just gotta have faith. I go back to the standards of quality that Bioware/Pandemic have established, the reputation they have to uphold. Both studios are very outspoken about their commitment to making great games and pleasing the fans. The reason they merged in the first place was so that they could pool their resources and focus more energy on games themselves. Becoming part of EA is just the next step, and I have to believe that people who have prided themselves on being independent for so long wouldn't throw in with such a huge conglomerate if they didn't feel it was the right thing to do.

Maybe EA really is trying to turn its image around, and Bioware/Pandemic will be a big part in that endeavor. Maybe I'm a hopelessly optimistic fool for believing there's any hope for developers retaining their autonomy as part of a corporate empire. When it's all said and done, the proof will be in the games. Pandemic has the very promising Saboteur and highly anticipated Mercenaries 2 on the way, while Bioware has a few RPG's on the horizon, including Dragon Age and the next installment of the Mass Effect trilogy. But these are games that were already well underway before the buy-out, so the true test may still be a few years off, when games wholly developed on EA's payroll start showing up.

If "selling out" means more of the same from these two studios, I'd say it's a pretty good thing. Personally, I'm hoping for the best, and trusting in the words of Gregg Borrud, Pandemic's Director of Production: "We can talk, and we can try and come up with reasons why EA won't change us. I know people are skeptical--we're reading the message boards too, believe me! But at the end of the day, we'll just have to let the games speak for themselves."

I'll be taking a break next week for the holiday, so no new columns until 2008. As always, feel free to let me know what you think, either with that lovely new comments feature at the bottom of the page, or by taking the time to drop me an email. Have a happy holiday season, and I'll see you next year.