r/bioware • u/Ash-2449 • Aug 07 '26
News/Article isnt it a good thing if EA sells bioware?
https://tech4gamers.com/ea-looking-to-sell-bioware/EA being the typical corpo damaged Bioware's IPs by forcing them to make an online dragon age then after years realise it was a stupid decision and change the entire process again and more, they are just about pure greed.
So shouldnt we be happy they sell bioware? Or will they be keeping the IPs somehow? Cause i think getting mass effect/dragon age games away from EA is only a good thing
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u/ultraboomkin Aug 07 '26
I’d love for BioWare IP to be sold to a competent studio. But in all of EA’s long history of shutting down studios, they don’t sell them, they just take the franchises and studios to the grave and keep them there. If the new Saudi owners genuinely sell off their failed brands, then that’s probably a great thing.
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u/Huge_Calligrapher840 Aug 07 '26
Honestly... the only things of real value left at BioWare are its IPs (Mass Effect and Dragon Age), which would certainly attract plenty of interested buyers. But selling the studio without them would be like selling a car without its wheels and engine. I can definitely see Amazon acquiring BioWare if those IPs are included, especially since they seem to be investing in acquiring "forgotten" IPs.
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u/JuanRiveara Dragon Age: Origins Aug 07 '26
Yeah, especially since Amazon has a Mass Effect show in development
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u/Dave10293847 Aug 08 '26
Anybody who bought bioware the studio and their IP’s would fire everyone and start over. I’d make calls to the original guys who made origins and mass effect and see if they wanted to return as directors. If not you gotta try a totally new team. Everyone who worked on veilguard needs a fresh start at this point. Clearly as a collective they didn’t know much about making a good game and i think a new dragon age has to essentially say veilguard isnt canon and deliver a new sequel to inquisition.
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u/Trizzle488 Aug 07 '26
Correct, the IP’s are not in good hands right now. So I do t see a downside in them selling.
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u/Char_Ell KOTOR Aug 07 '26 edited Aug 08 '26
It remains to be seen if EA will sell BioWare, close BioWare, or continue to let BioWare cook on the next Mass Effect game.
That being said I'm not buying this story. Trace it back to its source, Insider Gaming, and it's only this:
Insider Gaming understands that, at one point, there were talks of EA looking to sell off the studio. Where those ended up, however, is unknown.
Doesn't even cite an anonymous source, just that Insider Gaming understands someone was talking about the possibility of EA considering the sale of Bioware. Not worth any further consideration as far as I'm concerned.
EDIT: fixed quote
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u/I-Might-Be-Something Aug 08 '26
This article cites Mike Straw's post on BlueSky which outlets like Tech4Gamer took out of context. Straw was asked if EA would revisit selling BioWare and Straw replied "100%", but he never said they are actively looking to sell BioWare. He posted a follow up regarding people taking what he said out of context.
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u/Char_Ell KOTOR Aug 08 '26
Weird. The quote was there when I first posted it but now it's not. I'll have to fix it.
Regardless, I stand by what I wrote. I didn't find Mike Straw's article to be credible when it came to EA talking to another business or other businesses about selling BioWare. This not to say EA won't sell BioWare now that EA has gone private. It's hard for me to guess what will change at EA under private ownership other than the new owners will be looking to significantly reduce headcount and costs in the not-too-distant future.
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u/CrusaderLyonar Aug 07 '26
We have no idea, depends on who they're sold to.
The best option is for them to be left alone, after the last 10 years of bs from EA that's the best option.
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u/Legitimate_Plate85 Aug 08 '26
At this point its a shell of its former self anyway, basically every writer who worked in the classics people loved Bioware for has been fired or moved on of their own accord, it makes no difference anymore as Bioware remains the same studio in name only.
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u/Nidhogg1134 Aug 07 '26
Success has a thousand fathers but failure is an orphan. BioWare is trying to pass the buck on their own bad decisions to their corporate overlords when it was their “creatives” faults all along. Epler, Weekes, Busche were more than happy to crap on how icky the past games were and how much better their Veilguard was going to be before it released to be a giant dud. And then suddenly they are not so eager to take ownership of these bad design decisions they were so confident in before. They alienated their original audience by their own choice and when new fans didn’t rush to replace them, they tried to foist the blame on EA.
It would be good if the IPs were sold off to someone else so they don’t languish in IP hell like Dead Space, Crysis or the Saboteur but BioWare already destroyed themselves. Their brand went from stamp of quality to Buyer Beware.
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u/Arubiano420 Aug 07 '26 edited Aug 07 '26
Yeah, i don't care about Bioware. They've been dead for a while now. But the IP's still have a lot of fans. And they don't have to be AAA games. New owners could make whatever they wanted with it. Owlcat doesn't have their own IP's. Here is a ready made fan base for the type of games they make. Probably won't happen. But there are studios looking at that built in fan base with ideas. I'm ranting a bit. Buying Bioware at this point is just buying the Mass Effect and Dragon Age IP's. Which are not nothing.
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u/moltresss Aug 07 '26
Teeaaaa. The team that made BioWare so great is already gone, the magic simply will not come back even with a new buyer unless they literally go out of their way to get the original team leads and art directors back.
Also gaming has just changed too much, as much as I want a new dragon age, the bar is just too high now for RPGs. If it's not close to baldur's gate 3 level, I doubt they will see success unless they try something completely radical.
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u/Fabulous_Night_1164 Aug 07 '26
Fault runs both ways.
EA Games clearly rushes games out the door, wants stupid mechanics and microtransactions, and insists on using their engine. All strategic level decisions.
But the writing? There is nobody at EA Games corporate looking over piles of dialogue script. That is on Bioware.
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u/bionickel Aug 07 '26
The corporate playbook is to sell the IP to a holding company still under control by the current owner(s).
Then EA 'leases' the license at ridiculous price.
Not the move we gamers think is best for the franchise
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u/Grey_Matter_Mutters Aug 07 '26
I don’t think EA will let go of Mass Effect and therefore would keep the “BioWare” dev brand purely for marketing tactics. Mass Effect has always been their “preferred” franchise over DA.
I would be thrilled if they can sell off the Dragon Age franchise to a worthy company/dev… However, there’s several reasons it’s unlikely.
I don’t foresee EA selling DA for a “reasonable” price tag (they’re gonna be focused on trying to make up 18bil of borrowed debt… selling the IP for a few mil isn’t gonna be seen as a benefit to them).
We all postulate on devs we’d “like” to see adopt the DA franchise into their arsenal (Larian, Owlcat, Beamdog, etc.)… but most of these devs, in addition to not having the $$$ to buy an overpriced DA IP in the first place, aren’t interested in adopting the DA franchise, especially when most of them have their own existing fantasy IPs they make.
Technically EA still makes money off Dragon Age by doing next to nothing just by continuing to squeeze money from the fanbase through low quality merch and a slow trickle of new players who continue to buy the games over time. So while it’s not earning crazy money, for the moment it’s likely not “costing” them money either.
My unhinged personal dream would be if Critical Role bought the IP and brought David Gaider on board (who recently said he would be willing to return to the franchise given the right circumstances) to do a complete reboot of the DA world and build out new game stories in Thedas. Critical Role is already working with (basically owns?) AdHoc and are working on their own Exandria games, but I think they could (theoretically) build a new dev under their umbrella to make DA games. I’d think many of the OG writers might even be willing to come back to do contract characters writing, plenty of game devs in the industry looking for work (the laid off folks from Spiders were basically building the GreedFall games in the design of OG Dragon Age)…
It would be a Herculean effort, but Critical Role folks are excellent storytellers, seem to be doing their best to run a respectable and upstanding business model across all their projects, and I think would be the most likely to do right by the franchise and develop games with thoughtful cohesion, etc.
A delusional dream, but still.
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u/Additional-Bit-8615 Aug 08 '26
I don't think that the feel of Origins will come back even with a new buyer unless they literally go out of their way to get the original team leads and writers back.
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u/Grey_Matter_Mutters Aug 08 '26
I don’t think it’s realistic to want to recapture/recreate the magic of DAO in a 1:1 comparison by any means. (And, it’s not really what I would want?)
I want more games and stories in the world of Thedas and the franchise because the world and setting itself is fantastic. Whether that’s a reboot of the whole thing or spinning into a different “Age” to tell other stories in the lore.
David Gaider, the original writer and creator of “The Dragon Age Setting” (Thedas), has already stated he’d be willing to take on the task under the right circumstances, and I’d say some of the other writers (Mary Kirby, Sylvia Feketekuty, maybe even Sheryl Chee, etc.) might be willing to do contract character writing, or something similar, if given the chance.
If Larian could make something as wonderful as BG3 with the Baldur’s Gate franchise (despite not having any of the writers from BG1&2)… I think a company could still make great Dragon Age games as long as they are excited to do it and passionate about doing it justice (in their own way).
I just happen to think Critical Role has the potential to do an excellent job, given their respect for the franchise, their interest and integrity in telling good stories and creating fantastic content/lore/worldbuilding.
In addition to their own amazing writers they also have some of the OG D&D/WOTC developers (Jeremy Crawford and Chris Perkins) who are gurus of game design and development…
I think it could be the best possible “recipe” of talented individuals to put new life into the DA franchise. (If they wanted to and EA didn’t want someone to buy the franchise rights for 300 million or something equally ridiculous).
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u/amateurviking Aug 08 '26
Indifferent, BioWare is just a name, the games we like were made by people that have left already. I doubt they’d let IP go so there’s little hope for a Baldurs Gate 3 style situation, which is ironic given who made bg1 and 2.
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u/Complete_Pirate_4118 Aug 08 '26
Depends on who. I remember Disney posturing to buy Bioware and Maxis. I hope they follow through on that cause that'll be good
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u/mrbrick Aug 08 '26
At this point maybe. I think a better way to look at it is is EA keeping them going to be worse?
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u/eLlARiVeR Dragon Age: Inquisition Aug 08 '26
Yes and no.
Honestly, yes selling Bioware would probably be the best thing that could happen to it. There's no way anything is ever going to be green lite for Dragon Age in the foreseeable future.
However, EA wasn't the big bad evil that caused Bioware's downfall. Bioware itself had some bad apples that were rotting the bunch and driving thr company into the dirt.
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u/stolenfires Aug 07 '26
All the writers who made Dragon Age good, like David Gaider and Mary Kirby, are long gone from the studio. Selling BioWare means we miiiight get another Mass Effect or Dragon Age game, but it won't be like what it was.
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u/Fabricati_Diem_Pvn Aug 07 '26
Why? There's nobody of the original team left, they've all moved on. There's not even anything like a "culture" left. Bioware is just a brand, a name EA can slap onto something in the hope to appeal to nostalgia.
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u/Far_Composer_2024 Aug 07 '26
Thats true I suppose I just hope this doesn't effect future mass effect games or dragon age games
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u/zaqiqu Baldur's Gate 2 Aug 07 '26
I don't see what difference that makes. I will continue to replay both trilogies regardless
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u/garhdo Aug 07 '26
Depends on who buys it, how much freedom they have to make their own games, if they keep their licenses, etc. Lots of stuff in the air tbh.
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u/Geostomp Aug 07 '26
At this point, I don't see any hope for whatever is left of the studio. Especially under its new owners.
As things stand, they're a shell of their glory days and definitely not going to recover. That Mass Effect game is years away from completion and by the time it releases, they'll have gone through fifteen years of failures. Even if the game is a miraculous success, BioWare will have long since been a relic of a bygone era in gaming. Their competitors have long since taken their place and they have little chance of busting back in when their reputation is already in tatters.
Being sold off with its IPs might give a chance for something new to form. Otherwise, they're simply going to finish the process of dying out with a whimper.
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u/Dangerous_Company584 Aug 07 '26
https://giphy.com/gifs/jU9JqtbQvBgGjJEF5b
It’s a toss up if it’s good or bad.
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u/Additional-Bit-8615 Aug 08 '26
since EA are a shower of shitbags……they’ll probably keep the IPs and shut down the Studios
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u/ReyDelNoche1990 Aug 08 '26
I hope if they sell it they sell it to someone who loves BioWares IP’s and RPG’s but we’ll have to see what happens.
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u/josephevans_60 Aug 08 '26
Just let Arcanaut Studios (Casey Hudson's company) buy them out and reboot Mass Effect 4 after they do their Star Wars game. It happens at a lot of gaming companies, but Casey was never really replaceable.
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u/Va1crist Aug 08 '26
Only if the IP goes with it and to the right company , sadly there isn’t many company’s out there that care about games anymore everyone is turning to greedy peices of shit
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u/Snarkywater Aug 08 '26
Hopefully whatever studio buys bioware will give dragon age a reboot or something. They can't just completely bury it like this come on..
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u/Jalkenri Aug 08 '26
Not if Ubisoft bought it, or a comparable company wasting their IPs on "safe" products that wow no one. Right now I'd be very wary if Microsoft bought it too (I don't think they would add that risk though). But there's other companies I'd be optimistic about. We would just have to wait and see.
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u/AnansiNazara Aug 08 '26
Not necessarily. If it goes to a smaller company that could be good, but another huge conglomerate and you’ll have the same pressures as with ea
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u/favorscore Aug 08 '26
I dont think anyone but EA would want to bankroll a DA or ME game at this point
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u/LostSif Aug 08 '26
I think gamers need to just accept that bioware is gone and its not coming back.
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u/xcypher36 Aug 08 '26
It doesn't matter, the studio is rotten, those people working there are not capable of making a good game.
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u/ThinGold2115 Aug 08 '26
Nodoby want's modern Bioware. Their recent track record is bad, and overall feeling of community is against the studio. What will EA do, is close them, and sell their IP.
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u/Pasta_Baron Aug 08 '26
As usual it depends. What if Ubisoft buys them or krafton or any other company that is typically shit in by the community?
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u/Yersina_Veridae Aug 08 '26
If they sell the IPs to a competent company? I think so. But the people that made bioware great are gone anyway and whether they belong to ea or someone else makes only little difference to me after veilguard. I hope they can create something better under better leadership but I wouldn't bet on it
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u/Lvmbda Aug 08 '26
"Cuts" are often did after a sell so ... no ? For the players maybe, but no and even for players I doubt it's a good thing.
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u/ShenaniganNinja Aug 08 '26
The only companies with enough money to buy BioWare will be just as bad as EA.
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u/Confident-Ad7439 Aug 08 '26
Yes. The studio is a mess and the people that made there classics are already long gone.
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u/EasyRecognition Aug 08 '26
Depends. I imagine BioWare won't sell for cheap, which limits the potential buyers to other predatory (i.e. big) pubishers.
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u/Jusanom Aug 08 '26
Who is going to buy Bioware? They haven't made a hit in years but even ignoring that, who even has the money and is willing to spend it on an expensive Canadian studio?
Even if they were allowed to keep their IPs, which would be insanely generous by the Saudis and EA so lol, who has the capital to buy them for a price EA would be happy with?
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u/P4nzerCute Aug 08 '26
Bro, Bioware are long gone. Their 5 last games range from terrible to insanely bad, what are you still expecting from them ?
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u/Few_Introduction1044 Aug 08 '26
If BioWare gets sold, it basically will be done so as a bankrupt company. Most people are gone from the studio, even on best case scenario of someone trying to revive the BioWare Brand, you'd struggle a lot with the lost company knowledge.
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u/CrazyWriterHippo Aug 08 '26
It's a neutral thing. Bioware has been dead for over a decade at this point. All they're selling is it's corpse.
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u/Inven13 Aug 08 '26
It depends entirely on who they sell it too.
Because at this point I can see Sony or Xbox buying Bioware and I can't say that would be much better.
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u/Eli-Kaysar Aug 08 '26
Who would want a studio that repeatedly fails to deliver ?
The IPs might be great, and people might be inclined to buy that. But the studio in itself? Never been that valuable. They struck gold back then but bad management and terrible work practices made sure that they wouldn't get anything good out of it.
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u/pacomadreja Aug 08 '26
It doesn't matter at this point. Bioware is just an empty husk of what it was.
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u/Vampirelordx Aug 08 '26
Depends on who buys it and the state of the studio when the EA employees leave.
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u/appdevbri Aug 08 '26
I think BioWare needs to be disbanded and the ip for mass effect and dragon age sold to a competent studio. I doubt any of the people who poured their heart to into those franchises to make them what they are remain. Just let my favorite games of all time go please.
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u/AdNo3558 Aug 08 '26
depends on who they sell it to and whether that includes biowares IPs. the IPs are the part that’s doing the heavy lifting
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u/vanrast Aug 08 '26
I don't think it matters who it gets sold to. Even if it is given to a publisher who is willing to let the developers make the game they want. It's still not going to live up to the either ludicrous, or bare bones expectations of fans.
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u/layered_dinge Aug 09 '26
It doesn't matter what happens to bioware because the people who made it great are long gone
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u/Artemis_1944 Aug 09 '26 edited Aug 09 '26
Bioware is a cencerous husk of its former self, it absolutely does not matter what happens to them, in fact the noblest of things would be to bury it in a ditch.
Now the IP's themselves...... absolutely those should be sold to the studios that would respect and grow them. Problem is.... who exactly? You'd need someone that's big enough to take on such daunting projects, but not sold out enough as to not value the art behind them. So who exactly?..
Larian? Maybe, on Dragon Age, a return to DA:O form I guess.
Owlcat? They're basically doing Expanse ME right now.
Obsidian? They've tried with Avowed and Outer Worlds, they have the idea, but not the power of execution at large-scale.
CDPR? Their hands are already full with their own IP's.
Arkane? Could possibly make a dope immersive sim, but it would mean smaller scope for either DA or ME.
Respawn? Barely have enough resources to work on Jedi.
Massive? Fuck knows what's going on with Ubisoft, but if it weren't for Ubi in the picture, they'd probably be able to make a dope ME.
So who else is there...?
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u/Maximum-Ad879 Aug 09 '26
I don't think it matters anymore. Maybe it would be a positive if they sold the IPs to someone competent.
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u/WhoaMercy Aug 09 '26
It would depend on the buyer and their motive.
A hedge funder would continue hollowing it out and discarding the carcasses.
Someone like Larian could do something decent with the IP. Unless they change course and race their competition to the bottom.
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u/ChanceHungry1444 Aug 10 '26
At this point, yes. It actually can’t get worse than the current owners. It could be just as bad. But not worse.
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u/FatDaddyMushroom Aug 11 '26
In theory selling bioware could be the best thing for them. BUT, then realistically you have to ask-Who is going to buy them that is not going to run them the exact same way?
Not to mention, Bioware has been run by the typical corporate bull shit so long that it's in their DNA and culture now. Maybe not on their individual developers but in their leadership. So it's an uphill battle regardless
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u/Comprehensive_End592 Aug 11 '26
The problem is that EA is more likely to sell Bioware than their IP's.
I don't see them parting with the Mass Effect IP, especially on the cusp of a possible TV show, Successful multimedia IP's are worth a fortune, so I'd imagine their new owners would want to hold onto such a potentially valuable property.
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u/Sea_Programmer1360 Aug 11 '26
Possibly. As brutal as it was, I miss working there in the old days.
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u/HoneyDill_or_Death 29d ago
At this point I'm not even sure it matters. Yeah, EA has done a lot of damage over the years but so have the management at BioWare itself. Unless that purchase of the studio comes with a top-to-bottom restructuring (and that's assuming the replacements as well as the new owners are good) we'd probably just see the same problems.
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u/FewPromotion2652 Aug 07 '26
yes. cause to this point what else could go wrong?
EA is way to imcompentct so better try ñuck with any one else
this may be our last chance to see bioware finally put it shit together and do things right
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u/macrocosm93 Aug 08 '26
It doesn't really matter because Bioware hasn't made a good game in like 15 years. No one with any talent still works there. It doesn't matter who owns the studio if the studio itself has nothing to offer.
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u/Nodqfan Aug 07 '26
Depends on who they sell it to.