In a bitter, vitriolic rant on a blog, an employee of EA's BioWare Mythic (who won't be employed there much longer), asking to be called "EA Louse," has talked about Warhammer's struggles, the mismanagement within Mythic, and upcoming BioWare MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic.
"I found out recently that I will be dismissed from BioWare Mythic during the next round of layoffs EA coming this November. I’m sick of seeing EA outsource their art and find every excuse to get rid of us and still not achieve anything. Mythic is dying, and its not us who killed him but we’re taking the fall," the employee said.
The employee continues, suggesting that founder Mark Jacobs did not leave of his own volition but was actually fired, and then the blog post goes on to completely slam Jeff Hickman, "the saddest excuse for a producer I’ve seen. All he did was drink the Koolaid and suck up to the right people. He was the perfect yes-man, and this reached down to almost all managers."
Perhaps the most interesting part of the blog post is where the employee rips into BioWare, suggesting that their Old Republic project is so large that it's led to the cannibalization of Mythic.
"And Bioware? Don’t make me laugh. They’ve spent more money making the Old Republic than James Cameron spent on Avatar. Sh*t you not. More than $ 300 million! Can you believe that?"
"And you know what they’re most proud of? This is the kicker. They are most proud of the sound. No seriously. Something like a 20Gig installation, and most of it is voiceover work. That’s the best they have. The rest of the game is a joke. EA knows it and so does George Lucas,they’re panicking , and so most of Mythic has already been cannibalized to work in Austin on it because they can’t keep pushing back launch."
"Old Republic will be one of the greatest failures in the history of MMOs from EA. Probably at the level of the Sims Online. We all know it too..."
Old Republic has already been revealed to be EA's biggest spend ever for a game, and while BioWare doesn't have MMO experience, the developer has rarely made a bad game. We have a hard time seeing Old Republic becoming "one of the greatest failures in history."
9 Comments
October 13, 2010
Nothing more than the rants of a guy bitter that he's getting fired. Apparently he has never heard of not burning your bridges, he can pretty much kiss goodbye any chance of being hired back by EA.
October 13, 2010
I still want into beta. You hear that Bioware? I still want into beta!
October 13, 2010
@Timothy, agreed! I made the mistake a few years back of expressing my displeasure with the HR process of two publishers. Displeasure earnestly and respectfully submitted, resulted in me being blacklisted for employment at those companies. This industry is still a very, very community - smile on the outside and cry on the inside.
October 14, 2010
I think it's funny. If he speaks the truth we shall see. Though NPD is now moving to inaccurate tracking of games now supposedly so I don''t know how anyone will find out actual units sold anymore.
October 14, 2010
20 Gigs of VO . . . WhooWee. Star Wars TOR is going to be SO GOOD!!!!!!!!!
October 16, 2010
He does not seem to gt the idea that the voice over work will make the LOTOR mmo stand out from every one else and as far as game play.... I can not remember ever playing a BoiWare RPG I did not like, or thta RPG fans did not like.
But hey if big George Lucas says it is in trouble he would know because he rocked the last 3 Star Wars movies so much. ^_-
October 18, 2010
Guy is full of sh!t. Bioware knows how to make amazing RPGs and The Old Republic has everything all other MMO's very much lack such as story & audio dialog which is why I don't play MMO's but I will be playing TOR. Game offers 8 unique playthroughs. MMO's are nothing like single player RPG's, they are just addicted and incredibly repetitive which I have no interest wasting money for. Go Bioware!
October 18, 2010
*Edit
Current MMO's have no real story either.
October 20, 2010
Boring conversation anyway. Luke we've got company!