EA is consolidating several studios into one EA Worldwide Studios - Polidicks

[url]https://www.engadget.com/2016/09/13/new-mass-effect-dragon-age-boss-ea-worldwide-studios/[/url] [quote] Electronic Arts is changing. Many of the massive publisher-developer's myriad studios will now be assembled under one figurative roof at EA Worldwide Studios. Describing the change, EA CEO and part-time Mirror's Edge villain Andrew Wilson says it "will bring together our top creative talent in all of our great studios to work on EA's powerful brand portfolio and new IP [intellectual property]." EA Worldwide Studios is also folding in The Sims and SimCity developer EA Maxis and EA Mobile. Samantha Ryan, who previous ran both studios, is also taking control of Mass Effect developer BioWare. Ryan will report to Patrick Soderlund, formerly of Battlefield studio DICE and head of EA Studios, who will run EA Worldwide as a whole. Finally, the incredibly impressive Frostbite engine and its tech team will join the company's Technology group. That game engine is well on its way to powering every game EA makes, even sports titles like this year's FIFA 17, in addition to Battlefield 1, the Need for Speed franchise, and Star Wars Battlefront. It appears DICE is no longer directly leading development of the engine it created. What's important to note is that according to EA, this consolidation apparently won't result in a loss of jobs. If the decision to move all development to a common set of tools -- Frostbite -- is any indication, this should mean better games overall, for everyone. The implications for EA Sports and Plants vs. Zombies studio PopCap aren't clear, but we've reached out for additional information and will update this post should it arrive. Update: An EA spokesperson tells us that this move will not negatively affect PopCap or the many studios working under the EA Sports label.[/quote] RIP BioWare and Maxis.

[QUOTE] EA CEO and part-time Mirror's Edge villain[/QUOTE] I wish I could say I surprised

I just hope they clean house at Bioware Austin. What a shit show.

I'm not sure that I like this

This means EA can't kill there own studios one-by-one. So, instead they're going to put them all together and kill them all at once.

[QUOTE=gunguy765;51053890]This means EA can't kill there own studios one-by-one. So, instead they're going to put them all together and kill them all at once.[/QUOTE] I mean it makes sense in that regard because you could just retool them to work on another game, you also have more control to get them to do what you want since they're all under one roof.

[QUOTE=gunguy765;51053890]This means EA can't kill there own studios one-by-one. So, instead they're going to put them all together and kill them all at once.[/QUOTE] Except PopCap, apparently. They must be paying EA tribute or something.

Is there any information yet on what developers thing of the Frostbite development kit?

New (good?) C&C now?

[QUOTE=mralexs;51062383]New (good?) C&C now?[/QUOTE] haaaah

[QUOTE=Aredbomb;51054002]Except PopCap, apparently. They must be paying EA tribute or something.[/QUOTE] Isn't PopCap still making shitloads of money, even if Rovio, King, etc pretty much took top spot in the casual market.

[quote]Finally, the incredibly impressive Frostbite engine and its tech team will join the company's Technology group. That game engine is well on its way to powering every game EA makes, even sports titles like this year's FIFA 17[/quote] Frostbite is too majestic to be defaced by that shit [sp]though, I suppose battlefront happened too.[/sp] Imo the engine might get less impressive over time because of this too, rather than it being a creation of dice engineers and artists working closely together a whole lot more hands will be touching it. Oh well, we'll see.

aren't these studios already in one big building together?

[QUOTE=meppers;51062511]aren't these studios already in one big building together?[/QUOTE] Not DICE, Bioware, Pop Cap, Criterion, and newly formed Motive

[QUOTE=Aredbomb;51054002]Except PopCap, apparently. They must be paying EA tribute or something.[/QUOTE] PopCap's a recognizable family-friendly name. If they rebranded their games from "PopCap games" to anything else, they'd immediately lose profit on it because people'd instead see it as casual garbage instead of casual quality. It's not worth the risk.