BioWare: EA helped us "see everything"

By Robert Purchese Published 19 March, 2010

Didn't understand DLC when independent.

BioWare's full of praise for new owner EA, which has helped the RPG-maker see the light in terms of creating, pricing and planning downloadable content.

"What's cool is there is a lot of knowledge and information sharing, so that leads to a consistency in behaviour among a lot of the EA studios," Greg Zeschuk, co-boss and chief thinker at BioWare, told UGO. "Someone says, 'Hey, we've been very successful in doing it this way,' and everyone sees that and goes, 'Great, let's adapt it or adapt our own way of doing it.'

"It's actually more of a carrot rather than the stick, quite literally. We all collectively want to be successful, so if someone cracks the code on a concept we all tend to look at it and try to adapt it to what we are doing. I think it’s the positive thing about being in a big company.

"When we were an independent, we never had that information; we never knew what other companies' products did or how they sold DLC," he added. "Now we see everything."

Downloadable content is a fundamental part of BioWare's plans for the Dragon Age and Mass Effect franchises, and as such has been "invested in". That means we're never apparently going to be in a position where content from the main game is sacrificed for release at a later date as DLC.

"We learn every game with what thing works. It's important for fans to understand that we finish our main games, and we aren't carving things off to release as packs," chimed BioWare's other half, Ray Muzyuka.

"It's not like a piece of lunch meat," Zeschuk added, explaining that a team works in parallel to the main game to develop the new content, enabling a speedy and full post-launch DLC schedule.

Dragon Age: Origins and Mass Effect 2 are also frontrunners of EA's Project Ten Dollar initiative, which aims to dissuade used-game-sales by offering first-hand buyers a code for a free lump of DLC worth around $10.

BioWare doesn't apparently think about the effect this has on used sales, but rather concentrates on the long-term plan: "having a good relationship with the customer," said Muzyka.

Dragon Age: Origins has just received its first expansion pack, Awakening, which we thought was superb.

Mass Effect 2 gains the Firewalker pack later this month and with it the Hammerhead heavy assault vehicle. This will be free to all first-hand buyers that redeemed their Cerberus Network code. Then, on 6th April, arrives Kasumi's Stolen Memory, which introduces the twelfth and last recruit to the game.

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.

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

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Comments (42) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Yossarian #1 2 years ago

    Reminds me of how Mola Ram helped Indiana Jones to "see everything".

  • Skurmedel #2 2 years ago

    They see everything, but do they really see everything?

    (obscure Mighty Boosh reference)

  • Xerx3s #3 2 years ago

    Slightly worried by this. On the one hand, ME2 was a fantastic game and on the other hand it fails to live up to ME1 in several ways and carries undertones of EA politics of old. I hope that EA doesn't destroy Bioware as they are operate on a quality level that is incredibly rare (especially these days).

  • LHH #4 2 years ago

    EA as John Belushi and Bioware as Dan Aykroyd

    "DO YOU SEE IT!

    DO YOU SEE IT!"

  • FortysixterUK #5 2 years ago

    Despite this being an EA linked story, I must admit the DA dlc has been good, and the ME dlc stuff has been good as well.
    Damn it, I nearly said something nice about EA then.....

  • Fab4 #6 2 years ago

    "I believe in DLC as I believe the sun has risen; not only because I see it, but by it I see everything else."

  • breedob #7 2 years ago

    32 quid for awakening on psn is a fucking joke. I payed less for the retail copy of origins.

  • INSOMANiAC #8 2 years ago

    You imagine the corporate motto written on the wall as you enter the EA offices, Googles is 'don't be evil', I imagine EA's is 'Bleed them dry'

  • Boomerang #9 2 years ago

    "It's actually more of a carrot rather than the stick, quite literally."

    So it's quite literally a carrot. An actual carrot. Ok...

  • Murton #10 2 years ago

    The way I see it Bioware's offerings are good enough to stand without additional support from DLC, even without their pretty substantial expansion packs Bioware's games have offered a fantastic overall experience.

    If EA have helped them to refine a method to expand their games a little at a time I personally don't see a problem with that, as long as the quality remains the same and they don't get too carried away with it with a new quest/item DLC hitting us every month.

  • Spectral #11 2 years ago

    By pricing the DLC expansion pack so high they've not only put me off buying that, but DA entirely. I was planning to pick up the PS3 version as soon as I had finished with FF13. But given that DLC hardly ever drops in price on consoles, I'll now be waiting until I upgrade my PC then pick both up on the cheap.
    Edited by 1 at 19/03/10 @ 10:30

  • goldeneye23 #12 2 years ago

    yeah i TOTALLY agree with you £32 for UK and EU ps3 owners, we pay the most for no reason its totally frakked up!!!!!!!! XBOX owners can buy a FRAKKING DISC version for cheaper!!!!!!!! I HOPE NO1 BUYZ IT TO SEND A MESSAGE to these greeds FATCATS!!
    Edited by 1 at 19/03/10 @ 10:29

  • mr_pink #13 2 years ago

    "It's actually more of a carrot rather than the stick, quite literally"

    So EA *quite literally* give them actual carrots as rewards? Interesting. This could herald a new donkey-based approach for game development. I'm guessing a lot of their future titles will involve collecting sugar cubes and walking inside big wheels.

  • Xerx3s #14 2 years ago

    "But given that DLC hardly ever drops in price"

    Unless it is Bethesda and they release it in disc form. Bought the FO3 DLC for a tenner. ;)

  • Spectral #15 2 years ago

    True but then the disc version isn't really DLC anymore since you dont download it. Being sold in stores/online retailers the price is driven down the same way normal games are. If they were releasing a disc version I wouldn't mind. Buy DA now, play through it and buy the exp pack when the price drops to sub £20. But being that it is PSN exclusive on the PS3 it is likely to be £32 for a very long time, if it even ever drops at all.
    Edited by 1 at 19/03/10 @ 10:35

  • Murton #16 2 years ago

    Totally forgot that we can't get a disc version of Awakening, 32 quid download is pretty outrageous when you consider that the PC disc version is 15 quid at some online retailers.

    As I outright refuse to buy the same game twice the inevitable "GOTY/Gold Edition" is of no consequence, the only way I'll be getting the expansion is if A) it appears in the PSN Special Offers one week, or B) EA offer some other way of getting it at a more reasonable price.

  • Ferral #17 2 years ago

    Yet they are still having problems with Stone Prisoner DLC on the PS3, once you enter the redemption code it dissapears from the downloads bit ingame. Still there in PSN store though for £12!

    Been missing for over 2 weeks now and it has been passed upto 3rd line EA support and Bioware!

  • Dizzy #18 2 years ago

    Do you SEE!!!!!!

    /event horizon

  • Shakey_Jake33 #19 2 years ago

    Glad I'm not the only one who pulls their hair out when someone abuses the word 'literally'.

  • LakuNoce #20 2 years ago

    I'm not buying Awakening until it's on disc. I loved the main game, but download only? Come on Sony! As hard as you may try to push me towards accepting downloadable-only games, I will stand my ground.
    I don't mind and even like small PSN and WiiWare games. But PS3 owners should get a retail version of Awakening like everybody else.
    It's pity. Glad that there'e no shortage of great games to turn to instead.

  • smirny #21 2 years ago

    http://www .youtube.com/watch?v=Fg_cwI1Xj4M

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #22 2 years ago

    "It's actually more of a carrot rather than the stick, quite literally"

    /taps blackboard

    Now, now class, look at the sentence structure. He is not saying that it is literally a carrot. He is saying that, literally, it is has more in common with a carrot than a stick.

    In the way, that, say, a penis has more in common with a carrot than it has with a stick.

  • Shrike #23 2 years ago

    Weird that they've given a date for Kasumi but not Firewalker, particularly as it seems like they'll come fairly close together.

  • metalangel #24 2 years ago

    "This is great. We never realized but you morons really will pay a quarter of the original purchase price of a 60 hour game for a shitty 45 minute quest I threw together in my lunch break. And chopping out parts of the game to sell them seperately - genius! I've just bought some Ferraris and a helicopter. Maybe if I can think of another location from the main game to reuse, I can pay for a new yacht!"

  • sneetch #25 2 years ago

    @INSOMANiAC
    You imagine the corporate motto written on the wall as you enter the EA offices, Googles is 'don't be evil', I imagine EA's is 'Bleed them dry'

    Huh, Google's should be "hide your horns, cloven hooves and tail" those guys are bastards.

  • Caimbeul #26 2 years ago

    Coerced you over to the Dark side more like/

  • j1m.ch053n #27 2 years ago

    im sorry this is total garbage. the downloadable content for the original kotor was excellent and way before the EA era

    what they mean is EA showed us how to extract more coinage for our games

  • Slipstream #28 2 years ago

    Hahaha, when I saw the price for Awakening I was taken by surprise, but when I'm told that there's a full games worth of content the shock soon settled.
    So yes, whilst the initially reaction is understandably bewildering to some, you must remember that the content on offer here is far more than your average DLC.
    Maybe it is still a little overpriced though since you're not owning anyting physical, and to alot of gamers (myself included) owning physical copies of the games are important.

    Personally I will be awaiting the inevitable GOTY edition before I buy into Dragon Age again, hopefully it will be patched up and ready to go because the amazing experience I ahd with that game was totally shattered by how broken it was, which is a shame because I had some epic moments with my Rogue. (if you played anything other than Mage or Ranged, you were screwed!)

    As for Bioware having 'opened their eyes', please, only the developers know about the time, effort and funds put into the DLC project, thus, you should be able to price it accordingly.

    Items not transferring over, no romances, major animation glitches, totally inaccurate ending text, etc... This could not have been played through by the devs. There is no way they missed all the animation glitches.

    Quoted from Foreman22 at GameFAQS, he also mentioned ending choices being ignored also which I wont go into detail about due to spoilers.
    This is a shame really considering the stellar effort they put into this function with Mass Effect 2.


    Edited by 2 at 19/03/10 @ 13:19

  • mur07 #29 2 years ago

    "This is Mrs Bioware after her changing.....Do you see?"

  • schnide #30 2 years ago

    Er no, Mentalist(air) and stop trying to ruin our fun - you may read the implication about it being more 'in common with' but he has said that it's literally more of carrot than stick, which means they've given BioWare at least one more carrot than they have sticks.

  • UsernamePending #31 2 years ago

    @Mentalist(air) (re post #24)

    Thanks for your explanation, but exactly why do you think penii have more in common with carrots than they do with sticks?

    And what did you just tap the blackboard with?

  • Mushi-master #32 2 years ago

    I like the way he says "I think it’s the positive thing about being in a big company." rather than "I think it’s a positive thing about being in a big company."
    So there is only one positive to working in a big company :p

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #33 2 years ago

    exactly why do you think penii have more in common with carrots than they do with sticks

    Thank you for giving me an excuse to post my corollary.

    A penis (and therefore Bioware DLC) has more in common with a carrot than a stick (and therefore some other form of DLC offering) because it is likely to cause less pain when they fuck their customers with it.

  • BobsUncle #34 2 years ago

    I was playing ME2 again last night, it's not as good as ME1.

    That planet scanning 'mini game' is fucking dire. I'd rather drive a Mako around any day. And why introduce ammo clips? (heat sinks). It's fucking rubbish having to watch your ammo and collect clips, like in every other game out there.

  • Kremlik Verified Co-Founder, Crash To Desktop #35 2 years ago

    really £32 for the psn download? ouch! Lucky when it comes to Bioware I stick to pc hasn't faluted them so far.

    With the PSN prices going bizzare and MS wanting everything to be on THEIR terms, it's hard to say console gaming at least when it comes to downloadable content/Mirco transactions and subcription based content is reasonably priced.

    PC always has the upper hand so far in that as companies aren't bullied into pricing things Sony/MS/Nintendo's way just so they make profit on it as well, which in itself is irronic considering all the doomsaying about 'DRM killing PC gaming' - atm it sees we get screwed one way or another no matter what format we pick.
    Edited by 1 at 19/03/10 @ 15:27

  • Shikasama #36 2 years ago

    That'll be the reason the Dragon Age DLC was a load of rip off shit then

  • KRadiation #37 2 years ago

    BioWare: EA helped us "see massive profits ahead"

    Edited by 1 at 19/03/10 @ 17:32

  • Metalartin #38 2 years ago

    I didn't read this article but I immediately imagined an EA suit taking the devs into a room with two piles of cash in the centre, one small pile and one huge one....

    "This is what we get without holding back content for DLC" // *points to Small pile of cash :( *

    "This is what we get with DLC!" // *points to huge pile of cash and throws it around the room $_$ :D *
    Edited by 1 at 19/03/10 @ 18:40

  • laharl80 #39 2 years ago

    Biowares dlc makes bethesdas horse armour look like a bargain.I'd like to see them justify the outrageous prices.

  • mrboshingles #40 2 years ago

    Where we're going you don't need eyes to see

    /Event Horizon again

  • a8a #41 2 years ago

    "It's actually more of a carrot rather than the stick, quite literally."

    What is this I don't even...

  • metallicorphan #42 2 years ago

    well,i will admit that the DLC for the first KOTOR game..that Yavin space station that you did pretty much fuck all in...was crap,but at least they(Bioware) didn't charge for that

    question:as the DA:o DLC s £32(i think its 3200 points on XBLM)..is it bigger than Shivering isles for Oblivion?,because that was big,but that was lower at 2100 points