This is why. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6wRkzCW5qI

I think he's referring to DA2 as the EA style of RPG.

Beth and Zenimax are working well. Remember that gaming developers and publishers can't afford to become amorphous blobs these days...that era has passed...and the reason is that on-line distribution systems such as the often maligned Steam/Valve provide a mass marketing opportunity for Indie developers, who don't have to toe the corporate line and can actually produce some very good and competitive games.

For instance, although it's been out a few years, Mount and Blade Warband has mounted combat including using your horse as a weapon, and has melee combat aspects that Skyrim doesn't have, such as directional attacks and the ability to actually have a variety of strikes, as opposed to Skyrim's bashing.

What we are seeing in video game world (certainly for PC's) is a mirroring of what happened in board wargaming a number of years back, and in table top RPG's with the advent of the internet. For board wargaming, the market was dominated by only three or four companies, but the problem was that they were gamers, rather than businessmen on the whole. Eventually, with the introduction of computer gaming, none of those companies moved with the times, and eventually went to the wall (one of the leading ones was actually destroyed by the Gygax brothers of D&D fame, but that is a rather sordid story best not told here)...The same thing started to happen to table top RPG's when the internet started to become popular...there was suddenly competition from the Indie developers who didn't have corporate or development time lines to meet, and who could actually deliver a quality product, and mass market it to a broad player base. Although the board wargaming and pen and paper RPG genre is much reduced compared to what it used to be, it is still thriving....and this is exactly what is happening with PC video games.

Can't happen with consoles though, because the console developers have a virtual monopoly on what can be released for their systems, another downside of consoles, I'm afraid.

Bethesda (the publisher) is owned by Zenimax Media Inc, which in turn owns:

Bethesda Game Studios
ZeniMax Online Studios
Vir2L Studios
Mud Duck Productions
id Software
Arkane Studios
Tango Gameworks
MachineGames

...?!

Because Zenimax Media (basically its the management of Bethesda with a name change) is trying to become one of the big boys. Themselves buying up multiple studios.

With a couple more big successes like Skyrim, ZeniMax could easily become as powerful as EA or Activision......but considering the other games that they have published.....those big titles aren't there yet.


Also, ZeniMax only got it's money going after Oblivion, EA and Activison have a decade adn a half of publishing games.....it takes a while to catch up.

Then look what happened to their sequels! DA:O was a brilliant game, same as the first ME. Both sequels were nothing compared to their originals. ME:2 was passable, but really a cheap spin off, it felt like the same game re boxed. I didn't even bother with DA:2, because it was such a blatant sell out.

DA2 was the worst sequel I've ever played. I really enjoyed MA2 though. I'm sure Bioware is aware of all the complaints and will not make the same mistake again!

MnM

Because they are rich?

Because they are rich?

EDIT: Double post, we meet again.

I thought ME2 was as good as the original, personally; I was ambivalent about some stuff that was lost as it was often a bit of a pain, especially trawling the team's lockers on the Normandy which got tedious long before you were even finished! But I enjoyed both equally. DA2 was hugely disappointing though: the game itself isn't quite as bad as is claimed, but I suspect that people say that because of the same element of disappointment. I think the main problem is that it felt unfinished, with chunks of the story feeling like they were missing and the infamous area re-use, and the development time that had been wasted on useless stuff like daft combat animations just accentuated the lack of development effort where it really counted.

Yeah, Origins seems to enjoy the same respect among BW fans as Morrowind among some people here, and when the sequel turned out to be Oblivion.... well, you know what happens It's not a bad game, it's an average game, but because people were expecting exceptional game the failed expectation and comparasion to Origins makes it look worse than it is. Like Oblivion

Personally, i did like it somewhat, despite it's utter mediocrity

Remember The Old Republic was designed by some of the Baldur's Gate series designers. It has nothing to do with EA for its success or failure, Bioware brought it to itself. Who knows if Zenimax is already on the table with EA about acquisition.

That fact is vague enough to not mean anything.

I swear to God if this happens I will blame you, and then, I'm going to come for you.

Partially fixed that for you.

Video game industry is from my understanding more profitable than Hollywood nowadays. $50 billion+ I heard.

Zenimax isn't a floated company. It can absorb a flop like... any of its published games aside TES and FO ... without panicking shareholders and being forced to make knee jerk decisions.

On the surface Zenimax seem to be taking a long term approach in investing in talented studios and leaving them to do what they do best.

I'll never forgive Zenimax or Todd Howard for Oblivion though. Even if it was the right decision from a business perspective.

And to answer OPs question as to why Zenimax hasn't been gobbled up, the owners of Zenimax are sitting on IP that in the long run is potentially worth BILLIONS.

It would be fun to to watch BGS renamed Bioware though

As a long-time PC gamer/TES fan, I'm loving Skyrim. Sure, I've got my list of things to nag about next time they "reinvent" the series (and for Fallout 4), but as sprawling as these games are and as experimental as they need to be to keep them fresh, it's inevitable that some things will work out gloriously and some not so well. Naturally we'll want to let them know about the "not so well" things before they have an opportunity to repeat those errors, but I'm certainly not going to let them spoil my fun.

Also, I'd be amazed to see Zenimax/Bethesda sold to anyone. It's my impression they're having far too much fun to want to sell. Also, it was my impression that it was publisher-related issues that led to Bioware's sale. Zenimax/Bethesda solved those problems differently.

Exactly, Zenimax is getting fairly big. Not EA or Activision big, but big and succesful enough so that they won't have to become part of either to keep going.

And isn't Zenimax privately owned too? So hostile takeover is not possible either? (If that is right term for buying the majority of a company's stock and becoming the primary stockholder?)

Considering EA's reputation with thier workforce, I'd think nearly all of BG would quit than be owned by EA.

I don't really see any parallels between Oblivion and DA2, to be honest. Well, except for the amount of hate they get, which in both cases is somewhat over the top, though at least there's usually some coherent argument where DA2 is concerned.

to be honest Skyrim seemed like Dragon Age 2
just a way to make money
i loved skyrim and DA2
but it just seemed to easy

Welcome to Hong Kong

That's what i was going for.

You know, when reading these sort of threads, it makes me wonder why people find it so hard to move on to another game/developer if the product on offer from another dev has evolved into something that doesn't meet their satisfaction. Things change, not only gaming, so why waste your life [censored]ing about something you are never gonna change?

I disliked how the Civ series evolved after Civ3, so after being so disappointed with Civ 4, i stuck with Civ 3 and no longer purchased another Civ game, nor do i intend to. But hey, i don't waste my life sitting complaining about something i can never change, i just move on.

Surely tae [censored], there's other games out there to be getting on with? Just seems such a waste of time. Are you people gonna sit your grandchildren down and tell them how you wasted years of your life moaning about some video game?