BioWare bosses apologise for Bazaar

By Robert Purchese Published 31 March, 2010

Promise future events for "excluded" fans.

BioWare bosses Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk have apologised for restricting the BioWare Bazaar competition to North American residents only (but not those in Florida or New York).

"We recognize that BioWare has a global community, and the Bazaar this week was originally intended to be an international event to reflect our truly global fanbase. Unfortunately, we encountered some last-minute legal complications around how contests can be structured in different parts of the world that prevented us from including all territories in this first event, even though that was our original goal," wrote Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk on the official forum.

"And for that, we sincerely apologise - our goal with this sort of celebration is to show all our fans worldwide how much we appreciate your support! BioWare definitely really values all members of our worldwide community, no matter where you live."

To prove this, BioWare will hold future events "specifically" for territories "excluded" from the first BioWare Bazaar.

"The future events will be a bit different from the first Bazaar in how they're set up and structured, but our goal is to feature the same caliber of awesome prizes and great BioWare collectibles," the post added.

Muzyka and Zeschuk went on to thank the "incredible" reception from North Americans who can take part in the first BioWare Bazaar.

The BioWare Bazaar, revealed yesterday, has PCs and merchandise up for grabs. To 'buy' them, fans will need to earn tokens through various challenges. They can then bid on items every 15 minutes during a week-long auction marathon. This starts on 6th April.

BioWare community bod Chris Priestly also apologised for stirring global excitement about the Bazaar.

"Time for an apology from me as well. The BioWare Bazaar is a cool event and, if we had been able to get it working as we intended, potentially Epic. Yes, not nearly enough people are able to be part of it, but the event is cool," he posted on the BioWare forum.

"Where I went wrong is in how we marketed it to you and for that I apologise. We used the word 'Epic' before we had proven that it was. Sorry. We also used the Countdown timer to generate interest. In hindsight, this allowed rampant speculation which caused disappointment.

"Again, sorry," he added. "While I won't promise we will never use a timer like it again, I can promise we will make sure that such a timer is worthy of the interest it will attract."

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (33) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • vx-chemical #1 2 years ago

    Talk about backfire!

    It's nothing but damage control. I doubt the rest of the community will see anythign from them, kinda like the fabolous EUROgamer contests :)

  • geeza2020 #2 2 years ago

    will these new events exclude North Americans? Its only fair....

  • Doctor_What #3 2 years ago

    Aww, that sounds pretty sincere to me, give them a break.

  • Apaar #4 2 years ago

    I'm quite sure we wouldn't have heard such a sincere apology from pretty much any other game company had they been in a similar situation. BioWare rocks! :)

  • NegativeZero #5 2 years ago

    So I guess special future events for the people in New York and Florida then?

  • StooMonster #6 2 years ago

    restricting the BioWare Bazaar competition to North American residents only (but not those in Florida or New York)

    Ah, the work of compliance lawyers is done; all possible "risk" is eliminated for the simple price of "negative goodwill". Good job guys!

  • Shrike #7 2 years ago

    I just can't stay mad at those loveable Canadans.

  • metalangel #8 2 years ago

    On a related note, are we going to get all the Dr Pepper stuff for Bad Company 2 in Europe? EDIT: four people disagree with us getting the free bonus uniforms that are visible in the game's store? Nice.
    Edited by metalangel at 31/03/10 @ 12:29

  • ChthonicEcho #9 2 years ago

    I still cannot understand why a competition needs a countdown.

    Then again, I always hated competitions, so that's my own problem.

  • AphoticCosmos #10 2 years ago

    Can't . . . continue . . . emorage! GAAAAAAAH-- I love BioWare! I have always loved BioWare!

  • sneetch #11 2 years ago

    I didn't know about this competition at all but I am outraged at having been excluded!!!11! ;)

    @vx-chemical

    This does sound a bit like damage control, I know there are tricky laws governing competitions throughout the world but I find it hard to believe that "last-minute" legal complications (is there such a thing? Did someone just put some laws in place?) caused them to have to caused them to have to pull back from all territories to just most of North America.

    That said, it's fantastic that they're going to offer competitions to the regions that missed out.

  • Toothball #12 2 years ago

    Region-specific competitions happen all the time, even on Eurogamer. It's always troublesome for those outside the region in question, but I expect there are usually reasons for it.

  • Murton #13 2 years ago

    "BioWare definitely really values all members of our worldwide community, no matter where you live."

    Then perhaps you could look at the UK pricing of Awakening for the PS3 which is double that of the other platforms here and much higher than the US PSN price.


    As for the Bazaar, not really my thing. I don't have the time or inclination to complete the challenges to earn the points to bid on the prizes only to be outbid by those who have more time to grind and then end up with a load of points that I will lose once the Bazaar closes.

  • vx-chemical #14 2 years ago

    @Sneetch

    I completely agree!

    Companies like EA should have competent legal guidance (though they did commit a felony by sending out brass knuckles to people). This wasnt an accident, they didnt realize how it would backfire, and thus the damage control.

    As i said, in a few weeks time people will have cooled down and Bioware wont need to do anything for the community.

    The biggest mistake on their part, i think was the countdown, if that had'nt been there people would have been way more relaxed about the issue

  • Spekingur #15 2 years ago

    Brass Knuckles! Like that song with Quarashi! Such an epic song.

  • Chazmeister #16 2 years ago

    I am amazed that for such a large world wide promotion that they didn't properly look into all this stuff and do their research before hand.

  • hiddenranbir #17 2 years ago

    Typical Bioware. Planning, announcing and starting something without all the proper prep-work done beforehand.
    Edited by hiddenranbir at 31/03/10 @ 11:37

  • Notez #18 2 years ago

    Next time they can include another countdown for the upcoming apology

  • Obit #19 2 years ago

    This competition is a bit lame, the only thing that will be distinguishing people in points is how many people one will get to click their links. Expect a lot of bioware social-site spammage.

  • chrisola #20 2 years ago

    I have no interest in this but i feel i must still whinge that it's unfair i was excluded due to my geographical location.
    Edited by chrisola at 31/03/10 @ 12:15

  • Atropos #21 2 years ago

    I'm used to being excluded from competitions (US, UK, and banned from Vegas after that heist in the 60's), what I wanted an apology for was the stupid countdown clock. That made me expect at least a Mass Effect / Dragon Age crossover, where Shepherd lands in Ferelden and teams up with the Grey Wardens (the magic is just biotech remnants from an earlier civ, the fade is a virtual realm created by the "maker", the Archdemons are trapped reapers who are now revered as gods, lyrium being element zero, natch etc etc)...

    Oh wait! I got an apology for the countdown clock, yay!

  • dacicus #22 2 years ago

    That's Bioware under EA for you. Things are going downhill since ME1 and they will continue to do so....That's EA business style: buy a very good company with a large fanbase, milk it to death and erase it from existance ( Westwood, Origin, Bullfrog, Pandemic, just to name a few cases).

  • Softie2k #23 2 years ago

    Downhill since ME1?

    You've not played ME2 and Dragonage then?

  • Shikasama #24 2 years ago

    Stick it up your arse Ray.

    I love how Bioware get a free pass for everything these days. EA owe Bioware a hell of a lot because they are the sole reason people look to gloss over the continued corporate bully boy tactics of the company.

    LET THE NEGS COMMENCE

  • Murton #25 2 years ago

    That's Bioware under EA for you. Things are going downhill since ME1 and they will continue to do so....That's EA business style: buy a very good company with a large fanbase, milk it to death and erase it from existance ( Westwood, Origin, Bullfrog, Pandemic, just to name a few cases).

    Someone needs to brush up on their gaming history. All of the companies you list released way more games prior to joining by EA than after, hardly milking really is it? Also with the exception of Pandemic those companies broke up when key personnel left EA to follow other projects rather than being killed off by EA.
    Edited by Murton at 31/03/10 @ 15:13

  • dacicus #26 2 years ago

    Most of the time EA never knew what to do with the respective IP's. Ultima disappearead in the inept hands of EA, Syndicate, Dungeon Keeper, Theme Park/Hospital and the list could go on. On the other hand you have C&C series, milked to death, Sims milked to death in so many ways (Maxis is a fortunate case, mainly because Sims proved to be such a cashcow and some corporate executive was careful enough not to alienate the previous owner/developer Will Wright). EA bought the companies, cashed a lot at the time ( one of their dream was to shell expansion after expansion for Ultima online, despite the signs that the online gaming was about to change - Asheron Call and Everquest bringing new stuff in the MMORPG world). EA did 2-3 Theme Park games, none as good as the original, Molyneux being long gone, also tried to make sequels to Dungeon Keeper. Except the C&C franchise and the Sims nothing proved to be succesful after EA managed to get out of their way the founders of the acquired companies. And Westwood disappeared, despite the fact that the franchise was fragged and raped hard, bringing quite a bit of money. Let's not give EA the title of prince Charming, savior of the poor guys. They aren't. Dragon Age and ME2 will share the fate of Sims. You will be bombarded with sequels until your brain will cease to function and will go on autropilot. They'll do microtransactions as they are doing now with Sims. Everything you loved at Bioware will go away, slowly.

    And yes i did play ME2 and DAO+ DAO Awakening. One is a shooter with RPG elements and the other is a very generic RPG. I've also played MDK, Baldur's Gate 1 &2(plus their expansions), Neverwinter Nights and KOTOR. So I'm sorry if my opinion on Bioware is based ona comparaison with their previous products.

  • Moribundman #27 2 years ago

    @metalangel ...YES. Free Dr Pepper stuff can be got as described *HERE*

    http://snipurl.com/v6elj

    Enjoy kiddies. I got all three no probs.

    I've posted it a bunch of times and people keep ignoring it! Perfectly legal and above board (aside from using a pretend US address for something that will never be followed up). ;-)

  • optimusprym8 #28 2 years ago

    Having worked for a games company trying to arrange global competitions, I know how much of a pain in the arse it is trying to get every countries legal requirements covered, especially France's.

  • Moribundman #29 2 years ago

    But Optimus - did you launch a high profile countdown online before you realised that the French government are ass hats?

  • NightAntilli #30 2 years ago

    Gotta love Bioware. They're so humble.

  • Gastrian #31 2 years ago

    Post deleted at 17:56:43 13-04-2012

  • metalangel #32 2 years ago

    @Moribundman, I owe you a pint. Thank you!

  • Spritpenna #33 1 year ago

    So..ye, where are the international bazzar..?