Bethesda opens Battlecry Studios

[NOK222]

Battle Cry studios opened headed by Rich Vogel, a guy who worked on TOR, but was laid off from the MMO team. I'll try to keep the Bioware bashing at minimum.

 

 

"I have always admired and respected Bethesda’s approach to making great, original games. It’s a belief and passion I share, and I’m looking forward to building a team of high quality developers who want to bring that same commitment and creative energy to the games we’ll be creating."

 

Can't be sure what kind of game he'll be working on, probably something with multiplayer. Since there is a job opening with the descrption "Online Design Experience."

Edited October 4, 2012 by NKKKK

[C2B]

He also worked on SW:Galaxies as the Executive Producer

[NOK222]

That's pretty cool, I'm glad he still has a job.

[Orogun01]

He's working on TES:Online obviously.

[NOK222]

He's working on TES:Online obviously.

 

How so? I'm sure TES is being done by not-bethesda.

 

Edit: It's being done by another sub of Zenimax, not Battlecry, they seem to have created this new studio for another purpose

Edited October 4, 2012 by NKKKK

[LadyCrimson]

Since this may involve some "gaming" discussion, moved to Computer & Console.

[Hurlshort]

I don't know enough about how Bethesda is handling their MMO, but I would assume a guy with this type of resume will be collaborating in some way on TES Online.

[Drowsy Emperor]

Bethesda and "great, original games".

 

lololololololo

[Zoraptor]

Oh god yes. Is there any game maker less original than Bethesda?

 

(Sensible money: Fallout Online)

[Volourn]

"That's pretty cool, I'm glad he still has a job. "

 

Why? If the anti BIO (even though REAL BIo had little to do with KOTORM MMO) crowd is to be believed KOTOR MMO 'bombed' (despite selling 2mil+ copies) and this punk was one of the main guys who obviously did not to a good job. If this is true, he doesn't deserve to have a job in the gaming industry.

[WorstUsernameEver]

Don't know if Bethesda would bet even more money on a large-scale MMO, and I'm pretty sure they wouldn't risk diluting the Fallout brand with an MMO. I'd expect them to try to expand them in the free-to-play/social market, but who knows! Maybe this is actually Vogel going to single-player party-based turn-based RPGs and Bethesda buying the rights to Wizardry.

[LadyCrimson]

So, if you read the Bethblog bit on the topic, for some reason I'm not really getting a picture of an RPG studio. At least, not ones like ES. Maybe they want to make a new ... non-fantasy FPS-actionRPG online game. Or something.

 

But until they announce something, it's really just guesses in the wind.

[Zoraptor]

Don't know if Bethesda would bet even more money on a large-scale MMO, and I'm pretty sure they wouldn't risk diluting the Fallout brand with an MMO.

First part certainly may be true and despite standard MMOs being Vogel's primary speciality it could be non MMO and non RPG. That hasn't exactly been Beth's strong suit though and their big earners are their standard broad but shallow RPGs. Outside that even Rage (let alone Brink, Rogue Warrior, even Star Trek going back a bit) of their non RPGs have done below expectations.

 

I don't think the second would be a major factor though. If that were a concern it would be doubly so for TES, as that's still their flagship property.

[LadyCrimson]

I'm going to hope it's not an ES MMO ... more non-fantasy MMO settings would be more potentially interesting to me ... leave ES as a single-player series.

[Hurlshort]

I'm going to hope it's not an ES MMO ... more non-fantasy MMO settings would be more potentially interesting to me ... leave ES as a single-player series.

 

There already is an ES MMO announced

[NOK222]

"That's pretty cool, I'm glad he still has a job. "

 

Why? If the anti BIO (even though REAL BIo had little to do with KOTORM MMO) crowd is to be believed KOTOR MMO 'bombed' (despite selling 2mil+ copies) and this punk was one of the main guys who obviously did not to a good job. If this is true, he doesn't deserve to have a job in the gaming industry.

 

Whether or not that's true, which it isn't, I wouldn't wish joblessness on anybody most everybody

[Gorth]

Games don't always "bomb" because they are "bad". Sometimes the market potential is just overestimated.

 

Stuff in quotes meant to be arbitrary, undefinable values.

[Hurlshort]

TOR clearly didn't meet long term expectations, as much as I love the game. The layoffs were disappointing, but necessary to keep the game operating under realistic numbers.

[WorstUsernameEver]

I don't think the second would be a major factor though. If that were a concern it would be doubly so for TES, as that's still their flagship property.

 

And there was. No doubt. Except the project has clearly been started when the environment looked favorable for The Elder Scrolls, and after investing so much I think they just didn't want to pull the plug on it.

[Oner]

Don't know if Bethesda would bet even more money on a large-scale MMO

Didn't they sue Interplay to get the rights back for the Fallout MMO? Though I guess they could've been after the money, or just wanted to do FO:O first, then settled with TES when they lost the lawsuit?

[WorstUsernameEver]

Didn't they sue Interplay to get the rights back for the Fallout MMO? Though I guess they could've been after the money, or just wanted to do FO:O first, then settled with TES when they lost the lawsuit?

 

They never had the intention to let Interplay do a Fallout MMO, that much is clear, but I don't think it necessarily mean they want to move forward with a Fallout Online right now. And The Elder Scrolls Online was in development much earlier than the lawsuit, in fact, they talked about it during the lawsuit.

[LadyCrimson]

I'm going to hope it's not an ES MMO ... more non-fantasy MMO settings would be more potentially interesting to me ... leave ES as a single-player series.

 

There already is an ES MMO announced

.....for some reason I'd thought that had been cancelled. Maybe I had a dream during a nap one afternoon. Ah well.