LucasArts, BioWare Announce Partnership

Given the swirling rumours of a KOTOR MMOG, it should come as no surprise that BioWare and Lucasarts have announced they're teaming up for a project. They don't give any really concrete details, other than to say it is 'a ground-breaking interactive entertainment product'. They've also "launched a cobranded Web site, www.LucasArtsBioWare.com. 'Through our previous collaborations, we know that BioWare has an impressive ability to blend gripping stories with technological advancements, and we believe that our upcoming product will deliver an experience that will span the traditional boundaries of video game entertainment,' LucasArts president Jim Ward said in a statement. "

Comments

MMOG :)

[BlowHole666]

Maybe with Bioware writing the code instead of Sony Online we can get a good Star Wars MMOG.

Re:MMOG :)

[SpeedyDX]

I wouldn't put it beyond BioWare to make something on the level of WoW, or perhaps even better. They've shown that they can make in-depth, gripping, epic RPGs in the Baldur's Gate series and NWN. They've shown that they can execute a cleaner, simpler style of play in KotOR. The sweet spot for an MMO lies somewhere in-between simple enough so anyone can pick it up, but with enough diversity so any two given people playing the same race/class can have completely different play-styles.

If Blizzard was able to strike that balance (for the most part, anyway), BioWare, with a vast amount of RPG experience under its belt, certainly has the potential to as well.

Re:Penny Arcade reference

[BlowHole666]

Yes the same happened with DAOC. They got bought out by EA :( and they made the game to easy. It was an honor to have a crafter, now they made it easy. They made it hard to be the best player, now you can solo your way to become maxed out and be the best. They gave the game away to the people who just want to play every now and then. Just so they could make a buck. Now DAOC is loosing users left and right for other games.

** Crosses fingers and chants "XvT MMO" **

[Picass0]

Seriously Lucasarts. How long do we need to wait before you put out another X-Wing title? It's been eight years sinse the last one. Where's the love?

Re:ground breaking?

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

Gotta love a group of six guys, five with laser blasters and one with a flamethrower, surrounding a dog in the wilderness and shooting it for sixty seconds to get it to die.

"But you have to have a challenge!"

Yeah, has any animal smaller than a skyscraper ever been a challenge to a guy with a gun or lightsaber in Star Wars? What? No?

Then leave the wilderness crap out of it, thanks. Elephant-sized animals should go down to one blast, like a level 1 critter in World of Warcraft. This is Star Wars, not reskinned EverQuest.

And we won't even get into the issue of a Jedi being either weak but omnipresent among players, something you have to spend months unlocking, or hard to unlock and weak. Good luck solving that issue.

Re:KotOR2

[bazald]

I hope Obsidian Entertainment isn't adversely affected by BioWare's latest deals with EA and LucasArts. I'm one of the (few?) people who actually enjoyed KoTOR II and am actively looking forward to Team Gizka's restoration mod. As Obsidian Entertainment has used technology developed by BioWare for some years now, I just hope BioWare manages to maintain their close relationship.

No more MMOs!

[Fallingcow]

I wish that all the good CRPGs weren't moving to console bastardizations and MMO models.

Some of my favorite games ever are CRPGs... Morrowind, Fallout 1 & 2, Vampire: The Masquerade and Bloodlines, Darklands (old school as hell, but one of the best games ever; we need a remake with a less-clunky interface. I'd pay new-game prices for it), Planescape: Torment, etc.

My wife's a much bigger RPGer than I am, and any trip to the PC game section of a store will draw complaints from her about how every RPG with an interesting-looking box turns out to be yet another damned MMO on closer inspection.

Re:** Crosses fingers and chants "XvT" **

[Anonymous Coward]

just tie fighter with updated gfx and engine please.. pretty please... dont have to change the story line or anything

maybe extra dream of supporting assignalbe axis so i can use all of them on my joystick...

please give us at least an updated rerelease

*begs*

Pre CU, Pre NGE system killed swg

[unity100]

The very flexible boxes system was good, but it provided BIG TIME exploitation due to template stacking.

people just got all possible bonus points for something and then created uber templates. like fencer templates that got stuff from pistoleer, fencer, teras kasi to form +120 dodge, and become unbeatable. at one time, the same toon had won an online pvp tournament of 160 people, FIVE TIMES over, WITHOUT being hit JUST ONCE. then they tried to nerf the stackers, but, what difference would it make - they just changed their template trees and got uber again.

the pre cu, pre nge state of the game, ie the initial state alienated MANY sw fans. imagine, you are going into a sw game, but EVERYONE is walking with rancors or grauls or panthers behind them, the game looks like a zoo. then, suddenly it goes away with patch, this time you see that bare hands outdo blaster wielders, totally making it a medieval setting instead of star wars.

many quit at that time.