Bioware purchased by Microsoft?
Surely not...
Related
The latest issue of Polygon magazine is reporting an unnamed source from within Microsoft's Game Studios publishing division as stating that Redmond will imminently announce the finalisation of a Bioware purchase agreed. The continued rise of Microsoft within the industry will, rumour has it, be confirmed at E3 next month.
Being one of the most influential and successful RPG developers in the industry Bioware won't come cheap, though securing future Knights of the Old Republic and Neverwinter Nights games as Xbox exclusives could of course pay dividends for Gates and Co. too. Needless to say, such a bombshell as this would be Microsoft's 'big surprise' for E3, and would certainly steal some much needed limelight away from the new hardware due to be shown by rivals Nintendo and Sony.
We'll find out whether this be fact or fiction soon, then.
Comments
Whoa! I hope it's fiction
This, I feel, is a Bad Thing. I really, REALLY hope this is a steaming load.
please god no!
though securing future Knights of the Old Republic and Neverwinter Nights games as Xbox exclusives could of course pay dividends for Gates and Co.
I HATE YOU MICROSOFT
Please please please give us KotOR2 on the PC. PLEASE
Please god, don't make this true.
Oh come on, it won't be that bad. Xbox is a good console, the version of KOTOR for it was arguably better technically than the PC version, and guess who owns the largest development platform on PC anyway? Yes, that's right, it is Microsoft. It wouldn't be the end of the world, nor is it incredibly bad news. I've had enough of the "OMZ M$ SUXX0RZ" stuff, Bioware will always make good games, if this is true or not.
What the hell.....
I don't want to buy a console because Microsoft wants to buy every company in existance
oh well ,one less company to look forward to their new releases ...
Bioware is a private company , the owners aren't selling. They like what they are doing and are doing it well. Why would they trade there freedom for cash.
This is a Rumors that has been around for ever, it ain't going to happen... the most that will happen is that they will be using Microsoft as a publisher for future games. Witch would mean some would be X-Box only like Jade Empire and others wouldn't.
One last note, even if (And they aren't) Microsoft bought Bioware it would be Lucas Arts who would decided if Knights of the Old republic 2 would be X-Box only
YES! Can't wait until M$ pwnz everyone of us!
Continue to make great games for the PC, huh? Yeah right. Just like Bungie. Halo was terrible on PC, and if Bioware goes to the MS dogs, it'll be all over. I foretell doom and gloom if this goes through.
>Oh come on, it won't be that bad. Xbox is a good console, >the version of KOTOR for it was arguably better technically >than the PC version, and guess who owns the largest >development platform on PC anyway? Yes, that's right, it is >Microsoft. It wouldn't be the end of the world, nor is it >incredibly bad news. I've had enough of the "OMZ M$ >SUXX0RZ" stuff, Bioware will always make good games, if >this is true or not.
:'(
give them a bit of a chance guys they have the infracture to make a really good MMORPG out of NWN better then it is now....
It's not that bad, it's M$!! of course there will be a pc port.
"though securing future Knights of the Old Republic and Neverwinter Nights games as Xbox exclusives could of course pay dividends for Gates and Co. too"
WTF?
There is no way Lucasarts would allow them to be Xbox exclusive. Bioware does not own the game, they just developed it.
It's a shame. What really makes this bad is that if this is true, we won't see any linux ports ever again from bioware. They were one of the few major companies (besides epic and id off the top of my head) that even care about linux gaming.
I'm a Canadian, and I proud of that. Bioware is Canadian, but as soon as Microsoft "acquires" it, I guess I can say bye bye to another Canadian game developer. All I'll have left over here in ATI... :(
ATI is not a Canadian game developer. Relic (homeworld fame) and Digital Extremes (Unreal et al.) are two great Canadian game developers
Okay, that second sentence doesn't make sense, I probably changed what I was going to say mid-typing, but I can't edit so, um, yeah...
Ubisoft is Canadian... don't forget them.
If anyone ever needed proof that the satanic, demonic forces of hell were at work at Microsoft, this should be all they ever need to read:
"securing future Knights of the Old Republic and Neverwinter Nights games as Xbox exclusives"
I hope your important parts turn black and fall off.
Doesn't seem likely to me. BioWare is a remarkably successful, privately-owned Canadian company. I just don't see that as a good fit with a massive US public company like Microsoft. On the other hand, I'm sure they'll keep up the publishing agreement with MS, and I'm sure there will be more X-Box exclusive games like Jade Empire in the future.
One thing to think about - If Microsoft bought them we'd never see another Baldur's Gate or Neverwinter game from BioWare, since Atari owns the rights to those names.
Guess we'll see.
And slowly, very slowly Bioware turns to the darkside... this must be Satan's work!!! (or Bill Gates) :(
Y'know, KotOR #1 was also X-Box only (or might as well have been, console sales dwarf PC sales). In the end, I'm not really concerned about who's getting the games. MS got them already (be it KOTOR for PC and Xbox or PC-only titles like NWN). The thing to be concerned about is a quality drop.
However, from what we've seen of Halo 2, it looks like being bought by MS doesn't make you create crappy games, so I'm not too worried.
I find it really hard to understand how anybody could like Halo.
The gameplay was mind-numbingly repetitive. I was in shock that a lot of the levels seemd to have a "pac-man" level of complexity and variety. The weapons were, for the most part, lame and ordinary. The voice acting was some of the worst I've heard... almost as bad as "Resident Evil".
Even if none of the above was enough to condemn Halo as crap, the fact that it totally left its roots behind should. Anyone who is a part of the Marathon progeny (w00t VidMasters) would notice a severe lack of plot and character development, as well as a distressing simplicity of level design. And where were the combat shotguns??
Looking back to Halo's roots both in the Marathon trillogy, and the early Halo betas, the final product is so far inferior in comparison, I would prefer to pretend it never existed. I'm a hard-core Bungie fan, but Halo sucked the big one...
The same will be true for anything Bioware touches after it is (if it is) absorbed into the M$ machine...
I still miss Bungi.....
I've always said the only way M$ will win the console wars is by buying up the competition. Looks to still be true.
So true...everyone is like f0x0r M$. Who cares? And now you won't buy awesome games by an awesome company? Good job.
If it is good, who cares who makes the game or who makes the money? If you enjoy it, screw everyone else.
did someone here just connect the words Microsoft and Great MMORPG????
must have missed Asheron's Call2...
If this happened, it would be as bad as a portal to hell opened on Earth and demons came through and the spent their time ripping people in half and drinking their guts. Actually, it would be worse.
I wonder why it's okay for other systems to secure exclusive games for their consoles.. but when Microsoft does it, it's evil.
I wonder why everyone acts like Microsoft is the Big Bad Evil Corporation, as if Sony and Nintendo were these little mom-and-pop stores, the underdogs. Sony is one of the largest corporations in the world, and Nintendo has faced down its share of monopoly lawsuits.
So, here's an idea: GROW UP ALREADY! and WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF BUSINESS!
People will believe anything if you dress it up enough.
Dont listen to this BS, actually made me chuckle.
While this is a strategic move on Microsoft's part, the sad thing is that Neverwinter Nights most likely wouldn't have Bioware as its developer, as the D&D license rights are owned by Atari. There are other developers that could do a good job, but with Bioware, there was virtually no gamble that it would be quality.
This kinda blows for everyone without an xbox. And Halo rocked.
It's not going to happen, at least I hope not, think about this, Bioware spent years developing NWN and only a fraction of the time on KOTOR they have said numerous times that editors will be included in there next game and they are taking extreme care to support the NWN game as long as possible while developing there new PC project, I have been buying bioware games since Baldurs Gate Bioware is a great company, with an excellent staff, they try to deliver excellent games, and they do, where as companies like Microsoft, didn't care if it took them a whole year and half the performance of Halo to just make an extra buck, I'm sure that Bioware will make good choices just like it has to get as far as it has.
Sure ms will keep releasing PC games just like they did with MECHWARRIOR ... oh wait ... no they won't they want you to by there damn xbox. The piece of crap crashs and has to be rebooted, i can make excusses for windows some times, but a concole is a closed eviroment , an EE should have worked all the bugs out and the Software should be tested before release no other console seem to have these damning problems, furthermore; microsoft is evil and those of you who say that just bussiness or that we should grow up need to find a better news scource then the news paper thats droped on your front door every day.
here's your test : if you don't know about
1) lindows... i mean linspire
2) Caldera... er "new" SCO
3) what MS has to do with SCO vs. IBM
4) or can't name 2 antitrust suits against MS that are going on right now
you know nothing about MS and what there doing to the industry and othe companies
Awesome
M$ will undoubtedly cancel Walkie Talkie Man. I was really looking forward to that game too.
Ahim..okay that's it. Stop being so scared let me state a few things to help you all chill out. One Halo is a good game maybe -you- didn't like it but a hell of a lot of other people do. 2ndly Marathon and halo are completely different stories..as has been stated by Bungie if anyone cares to look. So even if they got some references dosn't meen this is really Marathon anew. 3rdly Bioware probly won't be bought out altough any amount of money... don't give me that crap you would never sell cus you know damn well you would. IF they do it will still allow them to have fun, rather you like it or not Microsoft gots the cash and if they are willing to spend for devolpment Bioware will make even better games. And then everyone will be happy. (cept those anti-buisness types holding the signs up for an hour and then driving home in their SUV) Thank you, I hope this explained some things
What are you people talking about in regards to Halo on PC. It's the same damn game. Have you even played it? I personally like how Microsoft buys up great game makers that will make only games for them because then I know the games I will want to play will al be on the systems that I have. I don't have to go buy the other systems just for one game. Besides get used to it, this sort of thing happens a lot, and there are always new game devlopers coming out with their ideas.
what the hell is walky talky man
Hehe. Halo on PC is 10 times better than the Xbox version.
The resolution is much sharper so you can see things much farther away(aka snipe much better). You can fly banshees in multiplayer as well as modified warthogs.
Seriously. Halo for PC sucked for the first couple months but then they patched it and now it rocks.
Ok, first off CALM DOWN. Developer... Producer... two DIFFERENT but equally important parts of the game creation process. Bioware is a company that prides itself on creating quality software, and their (possible) purchase by Microsoft will not change that. As far as system exclusive concerns go, lets be honest, do you really WANT to try to play a new NWN game on a PS2? For god's sake, go get an Xbox or a PC. YES, I said a PC... As someone stated earlier Microsoft is one of the largest developers of PC games.
So, don't worry about it, IF this turns out to be true it only means that Bioware will have a nigh unlimited budget for future projects, and OK, maybe you WON'T be able to play their newest games on a PS2... but lets be honest, why would you want to?
what does that even mean?
first of all, chill
second of all, it's out of your hands anyway
third of all, halo's prime
In response to Devon that is...
whats walkie takly man
cooolllll
This is certainly false. Bioware has repeatedly denied this. By the way, Bioware is not working on just one, but at least 2 CRPG's.
I love how so many of you complain about MS, but just stop and think for one second. Where would you truly be right now on your PC without MS. Most everyone would be on a different type of computer on a different operating system, with so many other different things and we probably wouldnt have half of the current technology we have. MS is what springboarded and continues to launch so many technologies whether directly or indirectly.
So next time you decided to bash MS, stop for a moment and think about it like a rational person, not some stupid 14 year old who jumps on the i hate MS bandwagon because its kewl.
I'll go with the family :
*ahem*
Nooooooooooo !
Keep Microsoft away from Bioware. Don't destroy this great company.
Too lazy to read the article, but it seems interesting. I will read it sometime to see what all the commotion is about:)
Polygon, eh? Would this be the same Polygon that claimed that Shenmue III had been announced back in July?
Bull****ers, the lot of them.
Although I love Bioware & NWN I will NOT follow them if they go down the X-Box path. No way, man. Never.
Oh... My.... God....
This is a cathastrophy!
This is worse then selling your soul to the devil! atleast then something good might come out of it...
and this may be the end of Neverwinter Nights too, mayhap microsoft decides that Dungeon Siege doesn't need "competition" (It wasen't a competition as much as a total ownage by Neverwinter Nights..... Dungeon Siege never stood a chance..)
Oh well, good things are bound to end I suppose.... DAMMIT!
I see the downside. But seriously, is it all that bad. Sure, microsoft owning virtually everything is bad. But, it lowers prices. Plus, it allows the company to work within another one. That makes them not have to worry as much about funding and budget. Which leaves more time to produce their lete games. There are pros and cons to everything.
Several things. First of all, about Halo. Halo was orginally supposed to have a LOT more in the game. They cut so much stuff out. Halo was good, but it would of been beyond amazing if they had kept everything in. Second, about you people singing the praises of MS, did you know they released a UT2K4 patch ONLY available for people running on WIN XP? What kind of company needs to do that? Especially one that pretty much has the whole operating system market cornered. Whats funny is this: with all of it's money, Microsoft still can't make a good game. I don't even think they're serious about the gaming industry, they just see it as just another way to make money and if the games are good are not doesn't matter as long as people buy them. And they must buy the games since the X-Box is still around. PC is where it will always be at. Don't forget that. X-Box pratically is a PC, just for your TV.
Woohoo!
:-)
Cool stuff on the way...
Bye-bye NWN for Linux.. *sob*
They surely pull the plug..!!
I don't believe it. I won't believe it. I have too much faith in Bioware to believe this dung. Neverwinter Nights will never become X-Box exclusive unless Bioware is completely backed into a corner.
if the company sells bio ware microsoft will com up with some scheme to make sure that Redmond owned games /companies that make the games will not work on micro soft software. in the past they have also done this. they always have some kind of backup plan if things go wrong for MS. if Redmond sells they end with a lot of money if they dont they might go bankrupt end up selling MS the private comps they owned and get less money. even though im against this they are going to lose some amount of money in the end. big amount of money loss...........or small??? its a bad position to be in
id rather have them lower the price of games :D
But this is cool too
Oh man, you people that hate microsoft need to get a life. Competition in the marketplace will always give us good games. Yes, there are bad ones out there, and you can't please everyone. I thought Halo was great, others hated it. So what? Play something you like then instead of getting up on a soapbox and shouting about how someone else's opinion is wrong. If someone flat out asks you "what do you think of blah blah blah?" then answer them honestly, but quit with the immature bashing.
And if you don't like Microsoft then by all means use something else and shut the hell up.
If the roles were reversed, and Red Hat was huge and Microsoft was small, then everyone would hate Red Hat. The purpose of creating a company is to be the best, to beat your competition into the ground, and come out on top.
I think Microsoft is great, I also think Linux is great, I also think Halo is great, and if you disagree then fine, you disagree. Quit whining!
^ What he said.
i dont care who buys who, just dont make me play kotor 2 on an xbox =/
Actualy if you look at Microsoft has complely stolen all of it technolgy from other companies. Chances are we would not be in a windows based world if it wasn't for Apple and the Mac os. Microsoft stole the mouse from Xerox back in the 80's Lets face it. Microsoft has had very few original concepts. They don't even use their own OS for their serves. They use linux because its more stable.
once again, microsoft destroys my fantasies.
Once upon a time i was dreaming about Halo, then one sunny day Microsoft bought Bungie, and i was devestated, when halo finally released to PC, i was glad and i hoped to never relive that part of my life.
A couple of months later i played KoTOR and loved it, and now ive been waiting eagerly for it.. but this rumour, may crush my dreams yet again
heh :>
all you ms-philes need to wake up, M$ is a monopoly no other company in the world has been in as many anti-trust suits as M$ has, there is no compatition when they just buy it up, and when the goverment won't allow a buy-up in cases like MAC then M$ just buys 49.9% of Mac stock and cripples the company by being the primary share holder.
I'm not saying every thing M$ produces is bad, just that M$ is an evil company.
I seriously think Microsoft is trying to gain a monopoly in the gaming industry as well.
Where would Microsoft be without buying other companies? They make me sick.
GO GO MIcorsoft!!!
I'm a little worried about the Micorsoft's mad rush to buy up most of it's competition in the video gaming market. It seems once a company has a guaranteed market that their games take a bit of a creative slump.
Another thing, I have to agree with a lot of the discussion about Halo. I love the game and have played through it all on the X-Box but when I tried the PC version (which I prefer for 1st person shooters) it showed that they didn't even care to try to adapt it well. The control system was a pain to have to work with and even though I was about met almost all the recommended system specs (I have a 64MB video card instead of a 128 MB one) I still got a lot of slowdown and choppyness. It seems ot me that microsoft felt that 2 new maps for multiplayer would cow the PC audience enough as to not complain over these flaws. What I see this as personally is a play for microsoft to not only hold a monopolistic holding over PC's (the courts may say it's not a monopoly but anybody wanna tell that to lotus or netscape who they've screwed in the past?) but also as a play to drive Sony and Nintendo out of business to hold dominance over the console market too. All I have to say about that is if such a day were to come I would be greatly displeased. The only hope I see is that the X-Box seems geared towards an older target audience which gives Sony and Nintendo a viable audience to support themselves and to maintain the competition necessary for a vibrant gaming market with creative new content.
It would be a bad thing, (Unless you would rather only have some games on xbox then on pc) . also when other console systems buy games for their system, they usually don't buy out the whole game company, just the rights . i'de have no problem with M$ buying rights to some bioware titles for xbox release. but if they buy out Bioware they will most certinaly shift focus from PC to the xbox . which is very bad when you don't have an xbox or plan on buying one, but like bioware.
I see no need to worry even if microsoft has bought Bioware(after that there would be no need to worry aboyt financing), surely they will continue publishing games to PC as well, but games might come to xbox first. Probably in the case of KoTOR2, I see no working way to get NWN to work in xbox, it is just too complex. And to all those "Oh big bad MS types" who do use windows and complain about that too stuf please, you jabbing about MS in every corner but still you support the company by using windows(probably you say that linux is better even if you hadn't used it at all, I have so I have grounds to which on base my opinions). In a way, yes, this would be a good thing for xbox & microsoft, but for that big group that play with PC it would mean at least longer waiting times. We will see..
Microsoft buying Bioware would be really bad for the non-Microsoft users since we most likely can kiss any ports of Bioware games to alternative platforms good bye for good (NO, I don't want to buy an Xbox or install Windows!). For me this is all about defending the consumers right to choose his own platform. I use Linux for everything I do on a computer and I have no intention to support Microsofts predatory marketing. If I support a game company like Bioware I want something in return, not getting ditched just because Microsoft is scared like hell of Linux and other alternatives they consider as threats to their monopoly. Buying everything they can't do themselves is just pathetic. They know business and marketing but that's really all. Strange that massive marketing matters so much more than good products. But that also says a lot about the ordinary user, people are easy to fool into buying crap and then they get trapped in the squirrel-wheel. If Microsoft tries that hard to lock me into a platform I haven't chosen myself I rather stop playing those games or even using computers (if it goes way too far). Freedom is way more important for me. I don't understand why so many others can stand using all the crap Microsoft force on them. I guess ignorance is bliss...
go and die microsoft. you buy everything, and everything you buy makes worse games than befor.
BURNOUT 3 > ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
what a bunch of b/s tbfh bioware will never get bought out by microsoft i dont ever see it happening
tbh it is 50/50 fiction truth, i have seen many companies baught out by others
OSI and EA for example ( though the circumstances have always been disputed )
EA is a growing mass of a company, which started way back when Westwood was baught by EA from the hands of Virgin,
However the reason why MS is "evil" and such, is due to the fact it buys out EVERYTHING it can that looks good, they even tried to mimic a successful MMO called DAoC who is run by a company called Mythic, and Mythic sued Microsoft because their game was called "Mythica" and used a very very similar line.
Of course this is still a rumor, but this could be a purpose MS leak to try and put pressure on Bioware to sell up, with a lie like that, the pressure on BW is immense.
On the other hand MS has baught many companies.
Lets not forget tho, MS pretends to buy companies in developement ( new ones with promise ) act as though they are going to fund the company, and then pull back all the cash, and the new company goes bankrupt.
anyone know the lyrics 4 walky-talky man?
Yeah!!! Keep it Real. I don't know why Americans get upset when an American Company(MS) acquires a great developer(Canada's Bioware) and doesn't seem to mind when Japanese companys(Sony) buys American history(MGM and many others) and makes us pay thru the nose for it.
MS are kinda like the yankees I guess but in a good way. When have the japanese ever done anything for us anyway?
This would ruin Bioware, I hope it is fiction... Bioware is too good a game company for Microsoft to be getting it's hands on...
If this is true, MICROSOFT you SUCK...
XBOX is subpart to say the least