Bioware/Pandemic and investor relationship

[Hurlshort]

Ok, since the other thread became a pissing contest about Jade Empire, I want to have a clean conversation about what this means to the gaming industry.

 

Bioware and Pandemic have given majority stakes to an investment firm named Elevation Partners. Elevation is not a game publisher. They will bankroll the game, and then broker a deal with a publisher.

 

Bioware and Pandemic are two successful studios. Let's not argue that. Let's talk about whether this relationship will give developers more or less freedom to make good games. Has this ever been done before? Being bought by a publisher, like EA, is a different scenario.

 

Elevation states that this will allow quality development studios the time and money to create masterpieces, rather than rushing to meet a deadline. Will it work? They are not replacing ther company leadership. What are the expectations? What if they aren't met?

[Judge Hades]

Its still has the EA taint. This is a risky affair which I don't think will succeed as well as people will hope, if at all.

[alanschu]

Depends on how involved Elevation tries to be in the development.

 

Considering they aren't your typical game publisher, this could actually be a good thing.

 

However, I see them as being for the most part just an investor. This brings in a huge influx of capital, while (like most publicly traded companies) still go in the direction of the CEO and the rest of the staff employeed by the respective companies.

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

Elevation states that this will allow quality development studios the time and money to create masterpieces, rather than rushing to meet a deadline.  Will it work?  They are not replacing ther company leadership.  What are the expectations?  What if they aren't met?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

As long as they make money. Soon as they make significant loses all bets are off.

 

What are their objectives ? Easy ,the non Japanese version of Squenix (or Square-Enix for the pedantic).

 

Have to give me a minute to look up pandemic. Over on the EG boards one of the popular names is Pandaware

[Hurlshort]

Pandemic is resposible for Destroy All Humans and SW: Battlefront II. What's with the Star Wars connection? It looks like they are trying to invest in quite a few companies. This smells like venture capitalist money to me.

[Judge Hades]

Pandaware? Sounds like a new clothesline for toddlers.

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

Pandemic is resposible for Destroy All Humans and SW: Battlefront II.  What's with the Star Wars connection?  It looks like they are trying to invest in quite a few companies.  This smells like venture capitalist money to me.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I should have known that I only played BFII a couple of days ago. You can probably guess it didnt leave much of an impression.

 

Merceneries I liked, same with Destroy all Humans, although that was more short term and novelty fun.

 

Projects Q,X,Y and Z ? Not big on imagination

 

Thing with Sqenix is they merged two of the most succesful RPG companies. Pandemic does mostly Third Person shooters. If Bioware needed help I would have thought it would be in the writing side of things. Dosnt seem to have the same synergy as the Square Enix partnership.

 

Oh it's all over Pandemics homepage too (news about the "merger").

[Hurlshort]

From the articles I've read, I don't see anything about a merger. It looks like the two development teams will stay separate and just recieve financial backing from the same source. Bioware and Pandemic will still be separate entities.

 

Keepin mind that all developers need to work with a publisher eventually, unless they become one themselves. This actually creates a middle man between the developers and the publishers.

[Child of Flame]

I wonder if Bioware felt they had to do this because they lost monies on Jade Empire?

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

I wonder if Bioware felt they had to do this because they lost monies on Jade Empire?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

SHHHH !! not allowed to say that here. Only in the other thread.

[Tigranes]

The key change with Bioware's dev-pub relationship is probably Elevation's implication that its investments will be enough so Bioware need only rely on publishers for distribution, not for funding. This will essentially degrade the role of the publisher from "Partner" or "Influential" to the provider of a simple, mechanical service, but the tradeoff is that the influence of money is transferred not to Bioware itself, but yet again to another company, which operates as much like a cash-cow machine as publishers, if not more.

 

Not to mention throwing Pandemic into the mix?

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

The key change with Bioware's dev-pub relationship is probably Elevation's implication that its investments will be enough so Bioware need only rely on publishers for distribution, not for funding. This will essentially degrade the role of the publisher from "Partner" or "Influential" to the provider of a simple, mechanical service, but the tradeoff is that the influence of money is transferred not to Bioware itself, but yet again to another company, which operates as much like a cash-cow machine as publishers, if not more.

 

Not to mention throwing Pandemic into the mix?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Makes you wonder whats in it for Elevation dosnt it ?

 

The only thing that makes sense to me is that they are being "groomed" for an eventual takeover.

[Volourn]

"Its still has the EA taint."

 

EA has NOTHING to with this 'partnership', 'takeover', 'combination', 'financing' or whatever fancy word you want to use for the development.

 

Nothing.

 

It be like saying if Bill Clintion bought a company that somehow the US government was involved just because he's the former president.

 

Tsk, tsk.

[alanschu]

The key change with Bioware's dev-pub relationship is probably Elevation's implication that its investments will be enough so Bioware need only rely on publishers for distribution, not for funding. This will essentially degrade the role of the publisher from "Partner" or "Influential" to the provider of a simple, mechanical service, but the tradeoff is that the influence of money is transferred not to Bioware itself, but yet again to another company, which operates as much like a cash-cow machine as publishers, if not more.

 

Not to mention throwing Pandemic into the mix?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Makes you wonder whats in it for Elevation dosnt it ?

 

The only thing that makes sense to me is that they are being "groomed" for an eventual takeover.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

What's in it is money for Elevation. Which is why most investments happen.

[Hurlshort]

I find the whole idea that EA is some evil entity to be a bit bizarre. They are running a business. They are seeking profit. They aren't trying to destroy the game industry. Their fault is that they stifle creativity, because cheaply produced sequels have a better bottom line. This is why we need small development houses that can work separate of a publisher's influence.

 

This deal between Elevation and Bioware/Pandemic does just that. It give the publisher very little control over game development. This deal could be the one to weaken EA. It's never been done before, so only time will tell.

 

You have never seen a deal like this in the video game industry. It's more similiar to movie deals, like what Pixar does.

 

Right now I'm positive about it, just because it's a different way to do things and it might change the way the industry is going. I agree that EA and major publishers are hurting the creativity of games. I don't know how that makes all people involved with EA evil, but I'm sure someone will try to explain it.

[Judge Hades]

Its a gut feeling.

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

What's in it is money for Elevation.  Which is why most investments happen.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

So investment for a cut of the profits ?

 

Seems strange since you end up feeding more mouths. In my experience the only time I've seen "altruistic" investment is as the first step in a long term "soft" takeover.

[Hurlshort]

Venture capitalism is a huge part of the business world, and it doesn't usually lead to a take-over. It's typically a group of people who have way too much money. They look for companies that have a good chance of thriving with a cash infusion, and they throw money at them. You also won't see much interference, because clearly Bioware and Pandemic know what they are doing when it comes to games. They'll just adjust their business model to enable better preofits.

[alanschu]

What's in it is money for Elevation.  Which is why most investments happen.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

So investment for a cut of the profits ?

 

Seems strange since you end up feeding more mouths. In my experience the only time I've seen "altruistic" investment is as the first step in a long term "soft" takeover.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

What do you mean? It's just like when I buy stock in a company. Buying stocks IS investing in a company. And the reason why I buy stock in a company is so that I can accumulate some of the money, usually when the company issues dividends.

 

It's pretty much how large corporations run. I invest my money, and you give me some sort of return on investement in exchange for using my capital for your purposes. It's really not any different that putting your money in a bank account (which is essentially you investing in the bank, and they give you a nominal return). The only difference is that a bank account won't get you the return on investment that investing in stocks is all about.

 

It's not that Bioware now has "more" mouths to feed. They just got a HUGE influx of capital, at which they can now ramp up development even more. It also pulls publishers out of the equation, as they are the primary sources of capital for game development right now.

[Meshugger]

-"Potential for market leadership"

-"Attractive core business model"

 

With those pseudo-bs-slogans i can't help being a bit pessimistic.

[alanschu]

I always love the "forward looking" statements in press releases.

[Gabrielle]

There goes the neighborhood.

[mkreku]

I went to a combined 5 game press showing by EA today.. Let me just say this: pray TO ALL GODS AVAILABLE that EA's business model isn't going to take over the entire gaming world.

 

5 games so dumbified I was about to start crying after 3 hours. When 5 hours had gone I cancelled all my developer interviews and just went home. There was nothing I could have said to those developers without sounding bitter and mean. "Sellouts", "Soulless factory workers" and "Stupifiers" kept entering my mind.

[Arkan]

I don't quite get how it removes limits from creativity. Any liscenced game BIO does will have to go through any approval of the publisher/owner of said liscense, right?

 

Of course, this could mean that BIO won't have to worry about funding (is BIO worried about funding?) if it does inhouse IPs. and if successful, could help smaller dev houses get into the business...

 

wait, did I just debunk my own argument? VILE WEED!

 

BTW, we won't really know if this works out for a few years will we? I mean, isn't BIO working on several titles that will eat up the next few years?

[Drakron]

Because now you have a invester that drop 300 millions on you and wants a return of his investment so naturaly they have some control over projects.

 

Original and creative projects are always a bigger risk so they are pushed back as other safer less original creative projects take over ... the problem is the market IS full of those and they only real way you make in the industry is being original and creative BUT that is not how investors look since "safe sequels" always produced more money but they will dry up on the long run, Tomb Raider is a example of that.