If this somehow magically works out, this would only be a good thing for the Elder Scrolls series. Currently, there is no direct competition.

From the same tossers that said RPGs were dead now are going to imitate a 650 million dollar seller. Gasp. Yeah EA should learn to shut up and accept the fact they svck.

I love me some Morrowind-Skyrim.. but dayum if other devs started putting out 2-3 open world games each year that were just as big and moddable it would be over saturation for me. I would chose 1 maybe 2 to play per year.

I fear you're right. In my mind, Bioware's greatest successes were when they were their own company. As a standalone company they were superb. Baldur's Gate and NWN. Nobody was better at story then Bioware.

The Bioware approach to an RPG (classic story, fairly linear with a few branches) was very different from the Bethesda approach (open world) but both made excellent games in their own way. We'll just have to see how it goes now.

EA is a crap company taking over the gaming business. They run a sweatshop (lost a court case over that) and are all about the bottom line. Are ONLY about the bottom line. If they think they can make more money turning out lots of crap games instead of a few good games they will without a second thought. They're trading on Bioware's excellent reputation to generate sales (i.e. money) and will most likely run it into the ground. Once they've exploited Bioware's reputation as much as they can they'll probably dissolve it.

That said, I think Bioware still has most of the original team (EA isn't quite stupid enough to break it up) so their games are still pretty good considering the kind of budgets and schedules EA imposes on them. They're still the best at story. The problem with DA2 was not what little they did -- that was excellent -- the problem was they weren't given enough of a schedule or budget to do it right.

But getting back to the op. These companies freely take each others ideas. I think at one point either Bioware sent business to Bethesda or vice versa when they were too busy to take on another project so they're obviously on good terms, or were then.

what the [censored] happened to EA? EA used to be a swell enough company, but they decided to screw themselves up.

DA2 is to RPGs what Twilight is to vampire lore. The product is included alongside the proper, respectable mainstay not because it should be there, but because that is its angle. It's kind of like receiving an 'Also Participated' trophy.
Attempts on Bioware's part to enter the open-world niche will only result in more 'Also Participated' trophies.
All Bioware is good for nowadays is more 'Also Participated' trophies.
If Bethesda is smart it will realise that streamlining the game any more than it already has can only lead to disaster. For the next installment, they had best look to Piranha Bytes or From Software for inspiration.

Dragon Age 2 was a joke, lame voice actors, forgettable characters and a weak story in return for pretty graphics.

Did you know that EA stole Bethesda's physics engine for their John Madden games way back in the 80's? They are money hungry leeches, just like Activision and Microsoft.

*choke* Did you say pretty graphics?

The art and aesthetics of DA took a deep nosedive. If what they learn from Skyrim is that people actually like cheese wheels, then it won't all be for naught.

Note how I said pretty graphics, not good graphics. Everything looked more refined, but the textures still svcked.

Traded Presidents with Microsoft. So no Microsofts president runs EA and Ea's old president runs Microsoft. On top of that many of Microsoft's former executives hold positions in EA so think of EA is Microsoft and you'll see why they svck so much. I could delve into some conspiracy here but not the place. Just note these parasites ruin everything they touch.

Yeah when they openly say were takeing ques or aggressivly investigating a game that means their about to do the exact same thing just probably worse in a few ways but you are agressivly defending them so w/e i know nothing of these things called videogames... And the grand daddy was dnd

Wonder if we will stumble across any gay orgies out in the wilderness.

I loved DAO. I played it nearly non-stop for a about a year and just couldn't get enough.

I hated DA2. One of the worse games I had ever played for more reasons than I can count.

DA3 adding some Skyrim features would be interesting. Of course the article blew it completely when they mentioned multi-player. Dang BioWare will just screw up everything they can

The EA-Bioware relationship looks like its going to have an almost identical trajectory to the EA-Origin relationship.
1. EA buys a company with a long pedigree of highly respected RPGs
2. Under pressure from executives, the studio gives each title half the development time they traditionally would, making the games shallower and buggier.
3. Studio starts a project to redefine the MMO genre. It's a huge commercial success.
4. Shallow, buggy single player games get lukewarm reaction from fans, so more resources are shifted to MMOs.
5. The studio's future MMOs are cancelled to focus on the existing cash cow.
6. Studio is dissolved and maintenance of its MMO farmed out to other EA vassals.

15 years from now, EA will name their new DRM system "BioWare"

I was kind of hopeful reading it, thinking they might make up for the pile that was DA2. . .

Then I got to the end that mentioned Multiplayer and. . . playable freaking dragons?

Yeah, count me skeptical again. This reeks of "awesome button".

Sweet! NWN was my favorite title by BioWare so I am excited at the prospect of another non-linear title from them.

I didn't care for Dragon Age for a lot of reasons, mainly because it was more like an interactive movie than a real game. There wasn't really much to do. :\

Well after Mass Effect 3 Im pretty much done waiting for Bioware to get their collective asses in order. I loved Origins and what came after was an abomination. DA2 turned me off of the whole franchise. It seems like Bioware wants to accepted by the mainstream so bad that they'll compromise anything to get there and it's backfireing on them. I hope ME3 is a success ,but after reading the leaked storyline Im not so sure.

I have to admit I've never played Dragon Age I but, I did extensively play the Dragon Age II demo on PSN. It seemed to be a great game and the combat is absolutely awesome. That's saying alot for someone who generally hates third person hack and slash games. To be honest DA2 is one of the main reasons I bought Skyrim. I've never been into RPGs until DA2 and Skyrim. They both have great elements but, both have their downsides as well. I'm not going to show favoritism yet until I hear more on DA3 but for now I'll be completely content with Skyrim. Good job Bethesda and Bio Ware. Just please for God's sake. Don't ever make another Mass Effect game. I don't know how it sold so well. It may possibly be the worst game I've ever played besides Modern Warfare on the Wii. Sorry Nintendo and ME fans. Just my opinion.

Anything is fine but don't put multiplayer mode in the game.

Depends how it's done imo. Personally I'm hoping for a spiritual successor to NWN. Until then, Long Live the King!

There jealous

Don your flame retardant suit.
I can kind of understand this. Depending on how old you are, you might have missed the best of previous RPGs, and of the arcade era. (I was born long enough ago that I got a taste of the end of the arcade era. DA2 tried to do it and failed miserably. But I suppose it might be fun if you've never played that kind of game before.) It's funny that you mention ME as a really bad game. I happen to agree, but I still think its story is somewhat better, or at least more coherent, than DA2's. I don't know how anyone but Stephanie Meyer fans can sit through the tripe that is DA2's 'story', bad gameplay aside.

What he said ^^^^^