This is my in-depth report on Bioware that I received an 83 on. I really liked doing this assignment because I enjoy writing articles and stuff like that. Also I got to write about a company that I actually care about. I kind of left this one to the last minute which is probably why I didn't do as good as I had hoped.
BioWare is an electronic entertainment company that specializes in the development of console and computer video games. BioWare has been very successful since its first major commercial release, Shattered Steel on the PC. Following Shattered Steel were best sellers such as Neverwinter Nights and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.
Founded February 1st, 1995 by Dr. Ray Muzyka (C.E.O) and Dr. Greg Zeschuk (President), BioWare has continued to grow as a company considerably. Just recently a press release from BioWare stated they were looking to recruit more programmers, concept artists, and writers at this year's GDC (Game Developers Conference, hosted in San Francisco from February 18-22). In 2005 BioWare announced that they would be opening a new studio in Austin, Texas. That studio is currently working on an MMORPG, but no other information about the project has been released.
As in every business, there are many factors that can make or break a company. In BioWare's case a lot of these factors come from the community and public relations side of things. BioWare has a thriving online community; nearly 3.6 million registered users at www.bioware.com as of July, 2007.
The active forum community has been a great help to the BioWare development teams. Consumers are always posting suggestions for possible downloadable content for BioWare's latest X-Box 360 success, Mass Effect. The forum community can be a very negative factor to many companies in the video gaming industry, but luckily BioWare has yet to have too much negativity to deal with on not only their own forums but other popular ones as well.
Along with the forum community, video game journalist's thoughts on a companies work can make or break the outcome in sales of a product. Multiple negative reviews could end up putting a game in the bargain bin for eternity. With most consumers, if they see a game has been rated anything less then a 7, chances are they won’t even consider picking up the game. Luckily for BioWare, video game journalists seem to really enjoy the products coming from their studio. IGN.com rated Jade Empire a 9.9, Mass Effect received a 9.4, and Neverwinter Nights a 9.4 on the Dreamcast.
A major factor that all video game developers must deal with is technology. BioWare has created three engines that have been used not only for their own games, but many other third-party games as well; the Infinity Engine, used for many of their original 2D role-playing games, the Aurora Engine which was used for the development of the Neverwinter Nights series, and the Odyssey Engine, used for the development of KOTOR.
Many video game developers' engines are shared among companies, but not for free of course. BioWare used a third-party version of Epic's Unreal Engine to develop Mass Effect for the 360. CDPROJEKT used the Aurora Engine for the world visualization of their recent release, The Witcher, and Obsidian Entertainment used the Odyssey Engine for the development of KOTOR 2.
A huge factor that affects almost all video game developers is the media, mainly news stations such as FOX or Global. Unfortunately in our society, the
news can be easily misinterpreted or misread. BioWare's Mass Effect was recently reported on by FOX news, which caused quite a stir among the gaming community as well as parents. news can be easily misinterpreted or misread. BioWare's Mass Effect was recently reported on by FOX news, which caused quite a stir among the gaming community as well as parents. FOX news stated that at one point in the game the player is "forced" into a sexual situation in which the player controls their avatars movements while engaging in sexual activities with another avatar. This of course was false, but many viewers weren't aware of this. BioWare received many emails from upset consumers who were horribly misinformed by this news report.
BioWare's public relations team did an excellent job at repairing the situation; they received formal apologies from both the news anchor and the psychologist who misrepresented the video game.
BioWare has been thriving ever since its first releases in the 1990's. BioWare was bought by EA games just recently in January. Many analysts believe that this purchase can only mean good things for BioWare, Pandemic Studios (BioWare's parent company) and EA. With new episodic content being released soon for Mass Effect, sales and the amount of registered BioWare.com users are estimated to increase dramatically. The episodic content will cost players "gamer points" which can be purchased at most video game retailers. This will not only increase the sales for Mass Effect, but also for Microsoft, the creators of the X-Box 360. Now that EA owns BioWare, the budget for their projects has increased, meaning we can expect even better looking and feeling games.
It's hard to see BioWare getting into any sort of major dilemma, be it a manufacturing problem, a safety issue, or financial problem. From the way thing's look for this developer now, there's no way to go but up.
