They dont own the IPs though. EA could still theoretically make any Dragon Age or Mass Effect game in the future by any of their studios. Though it seems unlikely to happen at this point. This is why I simply think EA is just worse than a Square Enix for example who rid themselves of IOI in 2017 but let them have a lifeline in the form of the Hitman IP and we saw how that eventually worked out and saw the studio come out with a great hit this year.
They are only interested in games that has low effort DLCs / Expansions that people pay a premium for (Sims), or Sports games where people shell out money for a chance at getting good players ... or loot boxes ....
I don't remember where I heard this so take it with a grain of salt but I heard the Saudis didn't even know EA make none sport games when they bought it
Yeah, but this makes it very clear that they value retaining the IP more than they would have gotten for a complete package sale, an important thing to keep in mind here are the licensing deals, so for example if the Amazon series does well, they can expect a good check from them for every subsequent seasons that gets greenlit of the Mass Effect show.
If they would have sold BioWare with the IP, they would have to find a buyer that is able to take the liability that the studio has become into their books. I honestly dont think EA would have fetched a good price here despite how valuable those properties might be (or seem to us).
so for example if the Amazon series does well, they can expect a good check from them for every subsequent seasons that gets greenlit of the Mass Effect show.
The Amazon series had Bioware people working on writing it, it's likely going to die soon, it was an early project, those end up canceled all the time.
If they would have sold BioWare with the IP, they would have to find a buyer that is able to take the liability that the studio has become into their books.
Nobody wanted to buy Bioware presumably, it's indeed a weight more than a boon now. But if they would have sold it, they would have sold the IP with it (otherwise Bioware is really worthless). They didn't have buyers apparently
That’s not what happened with IoI. Square Enix was fully ready to shut down the entire studio until IoI took on a lot of debt to buy themselves out. Square Enix didn’t give them Hitman as a lifeline IoI bought it back from them right as they were about to be cut from the company.
It’s why Hitman 2 came with a lot of graphical downgrades like the cutscenes being still images. IOI just couldn’t afford an in or out of house animation team and so they just posed some models and hit record.
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u/Nickillaz 8h ago
So shutting it down is easier than selling it off? Surely some company would want Bioware even just for the name or the IP?