Bioware takes over EA's Victory Games

Mon 12 Dec 2011 8:49am GMT / 3:49am EST / 12:49am PST
GamesDevelopment

Command and Conquer studio is the fourth to become part of Mass Effect developer's empire

BioWare Victory

EA

EA BioWare

BioWare develops high quality console, PC and online role-playing games, focused on rich stories, unforgettable...

bioware.com

Electronic Arts

ea.com

EA studio Victory Games, best known for the Command & Conquer series of strategy games, is now Bioware Victory.

The news follows Bioware's announcement at the VGAs on Saturday that it's next title would be Command & Conquer Generals 2.

Jon Van Canegham currently heads up the studio as general manager, and has been with EA for a little over two years. He was previously founder and president of Trion World Network.

In February Canegham spoke on the official Command & Conquer blog about a new AAA entry into the franchise.

"We're not just working on a game, though.  Our general focus is on the future of Command & Conquer.  That means updating a lot of the core technology to create a stable base for future development, and leveraging that work on this first game."

Interestingly, there's no mention of Bioware in the post.

Victory is the fourth studio to come under the Bioware name, following Bioware Mythic, Bioware San Francisco (formerly EA2D) and KlickNation's recent transformation into Bioware Sacramento. This makes eight studios in total with Bioware brand.

5 Comments

Supul Jayawardane
Freelance Writer/Software Engineer

Although I am a huge Generals fan and more than happy to play a new Generals game, slapping on the Bioware label on a studio will not make the game brilliant. Victory Bioware thing seems to be a pure PR stunt to have the Bioware hype on the CnC universe.

Posted:A year ago

#1

Max Priddy

I remember when Bioware made RPGs, feels so long ago.

:E

Posted:A year ago

#2

Paul Gheran
Scrum Master

Hopefully they can avoid taking a step backwards in the genre like Star Craft2 and Supreme Commander 2 did. Perhaps if they focus on what makes CnC great and come back with something like Dawn of War, this will be tolerable. Or they could come back with something like Supreme Commander and it will be great, or something like FOrged Alliance, and then it will be hailed as revolutionary (but a decade late) when the brand attracts attention to the way RTS should be by now.

Posted:A year ago

#3

Tin Katavic
Studying MSc-Games Technology

University of Abertay Dundee

@Paul Gheran when you say Dawn of War I assume you are talking about DoW 1. Not sure if C&C would go that way as it is the most classic of RTS (resource gathering wise) while DoW went for the whole "capture and hold point".
And if you dont mind me asking - what do you mean by SC2 taking the genre a step back?

Posted:A year ago

#4

Craig Tongue
AI Programmer

I am sorry but I don't see how you can say SC2 is taking a step back. Check the dream hack streams our any of the recent MLG events to see where RTS games are right now. Perhaps you don't like it or don't even play it, I have no problem with that but to call the game that is pushing the boundaries of ESports let alone RTS a step backwards without justification seems a little bit trite.

Posted:A year ago

#5

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