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Know how people talk about history repeating itself, but you still see zidiots running around committing the exact same mistakes as everybody else? Apparently, in EA and BioWare’s case, that’s more than hitting the bull’s eye. In what seems to be a serious case of having gone Rip Van Winkle during the Bioshock / SecuROM SNAFU, Derek French, the Technical Producer at BioWare for Mass Effect (PC) has the beginnings of a fine mess on his hands, especially after announcing a copy protection system that makes the Bioshock activation mess (or StarForce even) seem tame by comparison.
According to Derek French, Mass Effect, scheduled to arrive on the PC this 28th, will employ the same SecuROM online activation system that was initially put into Bioshock, allowing the buyer to activate his copy of Mass Effect for 3 times before politely asking to him / her to go to hell, that is, contact the customer service “helpline” to get it reactivated. And while the game itself wouldn’t require the DVD to be physically present in the drive, it goes one step further and phones home every 10 days and re-authenticates just to make sure legit customers are not the worst form of criminal scum publishers swear we are.
This really is good news or bad news, depending on which way you choose to look at it. It’s a pragmatic statement, so I’m not going into why I think so, because frankly, no one gives a flying hoot about what I think.
But BioWare have announced today that Mass Effect will grace all modern PC’s in May 2008. The EA slaves announced that the award-winning space epic Mass Effect™ published by EA and will sport some redesigning for the PC.
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Long before Mass Effect hit the shelves, developers Bioware had announced their intentions of it being the first in a trilogy. Now, with the runaway success that Mass Effect has proved to be, the sequels are pretty much a certainty. Microsoft’s glee at the prospect another franchise to milk is palpable, considering the game is an exclusive for the Xbox 360. Add to that, the fact that the game in itself is one of the best titles out there, what with gamers in their third and fourth playthrough of the game and still enjoying it. It only means that there is more money waiting to be tapped in form of downloadable content (DLC).
As expected, Bioware has announced “Bring Down The Sky”, the first DLC for Mass Effect, scheduled to be released on March 10. The DLC will be available for download at Xbox LIVE Marketplace at 3:30 PM IST (2:00 AM PST) for 400 Microsoft Points. With around 90 minutes of completely new gameplay, fans have much to cheer about. Achievement Whores will also have a reason to smile with new Achievements worth 50 Gamerscore points for them to loose their sleep over.
Looks like everyone’s going MMO these days. That’s where the money comes pouring in, I suppose, even though we never get to see any here apart from the Korean ones. (That’s right, there’s not many WoW freaks here!) Close on the heels of the recently announced Elder Scrolls MMO, Montreal-based audio solution provider Audiokinetic have announced that are providing the Wwise audio tools that will be used in BioWare’s as-of-yet unannounced MMO - the first project from the new BioWare Austin studio.
In an official press release, Gordon Walton, Co-Studio Direction, BioWare Austin have praised the award-winning Wwise tools, which debuted with the ill-fated Shadowrun and has gone on to win many accolades and nominations across several game development awards. Powered by Perpetual server technology (Star Trek: Online) and the Simultronics HeroEngine, there is no word on what IP the MMO will actually be based on, even though rumors circulated all over the Internet around the time that EA bought BioWare that it would be set in the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic universe.
However, while everyone is hungry for another Star Wars MMO after Galaxies went belly up, let’s not forget the fact that BioWare has a rich IP harem from which to draw inspiration for an MMO from - including great franchises such as Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, the upcoming Dragon Age as well as the Xbox 360 blockbuster of the year, Mass Effect.
Bah, but what do I care? MMOs never end up here anyway. I’ll take my single player RPG, please, with a side order of fries. Thank you.
More than 48 hours to go before we can finally get our hands on Mass Effect over here, unlike some lucky dogs elsewhere who’re enjoying it already. For helpless souls like us that just can’t wait for our intergalactic roleplaying fix, Microsoft has been kind enough to launch the Mass Effect Experience, a great Flash site that puts you in the shoes of Cmdr. Shepard on board the SSV Normandy.
No point in me talking about the site, since it’s awesomeness redefined, but one thing that this site has managed to do is to make me try and break into the local distributors’ store to get my copy. I want my character to get some alien lovin’ already! Come on, Microsoft India, have some pity on us. Send us a review copy or something. Help me end my misery!
Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) today announced an agreement with Elevation Partners to acquire VG Holding Corp. — the owner of both BioWare Corp. and Pandemic Studios. This acquisition gives EA a strong competitive position in key genres in interactive entertainment: action, adventure and role-playing games. The two studios have been recognized for creating some of the highest-quality games in the industry.
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EA will pay up to $620 million in cash to the stockholders of VG Holding Corp. and will issue up to an additional $155 million in equity to certain employees of VG Holding Corp., which will be subject to time-based or performance-based vesting criteria. EA will also assume outstanding VG Holding Corp. stock options. In addition, EA has agreed to lend VG Holding Corp. up to $35 million through the closing of the acquisition.
Duh-amn, that’s a lot of cold hard cash.
Pandemic certainly has their share of memorable titles; Dark Reign 2, Full Spectrum Warrior, Star Wars: Battlefront, and Destroy All Humans! were all worth my pimply investment. But BioWare has got be one of all-time favorite Western development houses, and knowing that’ll be taken under EA’s wing doesn’t leave me particularly jumping out of my socks in ecstasy (although I will admit the EA of today is far more favorable than the EA of yesteryear). As it is, EA has a pretty strong presence here in India - so this will only get more of BioWare’s work out in the open for those unfamiliar with their incredible lineage of role-playing games.
But don’t cry, children! At least now EA has a competent developer to handle the System Shock license.
(Source: GamesIndustry.biz)
Are you one of those people that cried like a little sissy when Microsoft and Bungie announced that Halo 3 will not be appearing for the Xbox? Well, if you are, then you’ll love BioWare. In an interview with GamesRadar, President and co-founder of BioWare, Dr. Greg Zeschuk said that if things go right, they’d ideally want to have the entire Mass Effect trilogy on the Xbox 360.
Certainly out intent is to have all three iterations or installments of Mass Effect to be on Xbox 360. That’s the goal.
Thinking a year in to the future is a big challenge these days. The law we can’t control is the length of the console cycle.
I hope that this cycle is longer than the last one. We kind of just got started last cycle and it kind of ended when our second game came out. Downloadable content could also bridge the gap by giving you new little islands of story between the big game releases.
Poor deluded fella. Do they seriously expect to wrap up the trilogy on this console before it’s 5 year lifespan is up? And besides, like Halo 3’s showing us, what better way to wrap up a cherished trilogy than not rush through the development process and end it on the console’s next iteration, complete with all the latest bells and whistles, right? Right… as long as we’re talking about the end of the trilogy, how about beginning it sometime soon, huh? Kthxbye!
BioWare aims for trilogy to start and finish on 360, if console cycle lasts that long [GamesRadar]