Thursday, June 25, 2009

It's not the end of the world

As you have no doubt heard, EA is restructuring Bioware and Mythic under a new MMO group. This group will be lead by Ray Muzyka at Bioware. Mark Jacobs will be leaving and co-founder Rob Denton will report to Ray. In essence, Mythic will now report to Bioware.

It is no secret that WAR did not meet expectations. That isn't to say it's a failure as it is still a popular game. As Mark lead the studio, it is his responsibility. EA was likely not pleased and here we are. When corporations merge divisions, there are usually too many executives and not enough positions. Someone has to go.

What does this mean for Mythic and WAR? It is hard to tell as we are not privy to the details. It could be that Mythic is still largely independent or it could be Bioware will be very involved. I think it will be the former, as right now Mythic is still intact. New leadership, in the form of Bioware, could end up being beneficial to WAR in the long run.

In the coming months, we will see how this plays out. There is a chance this could be the smoke before the fire of WAR coming to an end. I don't think so, but the possibility is there. Better yet, maybe this is the start of the TOR/WAR MMO empire.

I have noticed quite a few posts/comments out there with an undercurrent of glee to outright joy at the possibility of WAR failing. This isn't a big surprise and I suspect most of them are failures and just unhappy people. When the prospect of other people joining in their misery comes about, they finally have a chance to be happy. If MMO's failing brings you happiness, it's time to log off and go make something of yourself.

8 comments:

I know it's selfish but I do like the idea that I might be able to get a joint sub to WAR and SWTOR. That would be pretty awesome.

I have always liked Bioware games so I'm intrigued more than anything else as to what will happen.

Perhaps the management change will bring a new focus to the issues that impact us the paying customers. I seriously doubt EA wants WAR to fail but the challenge is they have to make a positive impact in a very short amount of time. September will be bringing in more competition for WAR at a time when they are very weak.

have to agree with Spinks....If they set it up for about 20 bucks a month, ill play both.

I would likely subscribe to both as well. TOR for PvE and WAR for PvP... I'd be all set.

I hate when people take glee at MMOs failing. Every MMO has a following, and players that love it. As gamers, shouldn't we all be sadened when ANY mmo drops. If not for ourselves, then for those who are losing a favorite place to spend their time.

Either way, I don't think that we have to worry about WAR failing any time soon. At 300k subs, it's still a very profitible venture.

I dont think this merger is a good thing for WAR. I think alot of the Mythic devs will be going to work on TOR and WAR will be left with very little other than minimal bug fixing. WAR is not pulling the numbers that was expected. So instead of laying ppl off - this is a good way to make things look like everything is just fine. Many WAR players know that things are not fine tho. The game has huge issues when it comes to what the game was supposed to be about - RVR.

WAR is the first MMO I have played so I can not compare it to any other. However, in essence, I believe it is a good game. Only problem is that there remains sever problems, especially around Tier 4 and every 'fix' brings with it other problems.

Hopefully the 'problems' will be sorted in a relatively short time and WAR will grow from strength to strength.

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