Folks,
Gee, by all the activity on this thread, you'd think something major had happened in the last couple of days or so.
I see lots of people throwing around facts, truths, half-truths, fabrications and lots of things in between. Let's really look at some incontrovertible facts:
1) There is nobody who is posting here who knows all the facts regarding the closing of EA studios. Unless you are Richard or Robert Garriot, Louis Castle, Brent Sperry or my good friends John Taylor and Kelton Flinn (from Kesmai), you cannot say why those studios were closed. Thus, either defending the studios or attacking them or defending EA or attacking it is pointless.
2) EA has never closed down an online game that was highly profitable at the time it was shutdown. EA has kept UO running for almost 9 years. I think it is safe to say that most of the games that were shut down were not financial successes for the studios/EA.
3) EA is a business, Mythic is a business and GW is a business. Speaking for Mythic and GW, I can say that we are both driven to make great products everytime we create something. I believe that EA feels the same way but since I am new here (I'm writing this from BC), I can't say that they always wanted to make great games simply because I wasn't part of EA until now. Judging by what I saw today, I think they are absolutely driven to make great games. However, we are also all businesses and need to make profits and survive. EA and GW are publicly traded comapnies and thus have a duty to their shareholders to be profitable.
4) The risks to Mythic and WAR are less today because of the EA deal than they were two days ago. If Mythic had screwed up with WAR's development and we were very late in delivering it, there was nobody who could bail us out. Making anything of the scale of WAR is hard and I would be guilty of hubris if I said that there was no chance Mythic would screw up. No company nor any individual gos through life without making mistakes. In the case of WAR, if we made a mistake and we were independent, bad things would happen, that is a simple fact of life.
5) The MMO market is getting more competitive every year and while I thought we would be just fine, if I was wrong, 170+ people would have lost their jobs.
6) EA is more than just interested in WAR, they have become true believers in the game. It took many months, lots of conversations and demos and finally E3 for them to share our faith. It was that faith that led to the deal. If they didn't share that faith we wouldn't have done the deal, period. All the guys who will be involved going forward with Mythic (marketing, etc.) are not only DAoC players but WoW players as well. These guys know and love the genre. Mythic is not dealing with some guys who said "Gee, we know this MMO thing is hot so we want in" (as some companies who talked to Mythic said) but rather, a bunch of hardcore gamers who know and love these types of games.
7) As I've said before, nobody from Mythic is going anywhere from EA's perspective (meaning no layoffs, riffs, etc.) and I'm not going anywhere either. I made a promise to GW that we were going to bust a gut in order to make a great Warhammer MMO. I make very few promises and I do not break my promises, ever. I love the guys at GW (but not in a LoTR hobbits jumping up on the bed way, thank you very much) and I'm not going to let anything bad happen to their beloved IP.
I know that no matter what I say, there will be people saying the exact opposite. I will remind people (especially the new folks here) that many months ago when I first started posting here many people were skeptical and some were downright hostile. I said that I could accept that but I asked for people to judge our results for themselves. Since then Mythic has done what no other maker of a large-scale MMO has ever done before, go to E3 with only 9 months into development and create a kick-a** game that won a lot of awards and got lots of people (fans of WH and non-fans) talking about the game and not talking about hype, demos, renders, etc. but talking about the playable game that they saw working. I will say the same thing to you now, watch what we do and decide for yourselves whether I am telling you the truth or not. And if I'm wrong, I'll be the first one here to say so and the blame will fall squarely on my shoulders.
I am truly sorry that the EA deal has caused so much concern and upset in the community. I hope to make it up to you by releasing a game that will stand as the finest game Mythic has ever done and something that EA, Mythic and GW can be proud of now and in the future.
Mark
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