Avi Lewis, head of the Canadian NDP party, has expressed support for employees laid off by EA last week, and spoke out about the perils of private equity.
Can’t copyright gameplay mechanics, and the plot is basically “get a team of misfits together to battle an incoming evil”, ie. it’s Seven Samurai IN SPAAAAACE. Plus, one of the big criticisms that I saw about ME:A is that it’s lazy; it’s the same old aliens as we’ve seen before even though that makes no sense in a new galaxy, and the plot is just trotting out some weary old tropes. Very risk averse, very insipid.
So yeah:
could spend millions getting the IP off of the shitty owners, to make a very safe and boring addition of the ME games
make a completely new game with similar mechanics, but take some risks with the story. A fun game with a stupid plot is still fun; a fun game with a great story is exceptional. So why not roll the dice? You can get the staff easily enough to form a new company.
Intellectual Property.
Can’t copyright gameplay mechanics, and the plot is basically “get a team of misfits together to battle an incoming evil”, ie. it’s Seven Samurai IN SPAAAAACE. Plus, one of the big criticisms that I saw about ME:A is that it’s lazy; it’s the same old aliens as we’ve seen before even though that makes no sense in a new galaxy, and the plot is just trotting out some weary old tropes. Very risk averse, very insipid.
So yeah:
could spend millions getting the IP off of the shitty owners, to make a very safe and boring addition of the ME games
make a completely new game with similar mechanics, but take some risks with the story. A fun game with a stupid plot is still fun; a fun game with a great story is exceptional. So why not roll the dice? You can get the staff easily enough to form a new company.
In the end you’re buying an existing fanbase with the IP.
Otherwise you get a Frost Giant scenario with “Stormgate”.
I just replayed ME2 and this really hits home.
The ME setting is cool but has some elements I’ve outgrown, like sexy blue space vixens (both Asari and EDI)
Here’s to hoping they get the band back together and write some new material.