EA restructuring Mythic and BioWare into RPG/MMO group

[Okaria]

Mythic announced this morning that it's parent company Electronic Arts is restructuring the MMO company and it's sister studio BioWare into a new group devoted to RPG and MMO development. Press release from the Warhammer Herald:

Today we have important news to share with the community. EA is restructuring its RPG and MMO games development into a new group that includes both Mythic and BioWare. This newly formed team will be led by Ray Muzyka, co-founder and General Manager of BioWare. With this change, Ray becomes Group General Manager of the new RPG/MMO studio group. BioWare’s other co-founder, Greg Zeschuk will become Group Creative Officer for the new RPG/MMO studio group. Rob Denton will step up as General Manager of Mythic and report to Ray. BioWare’s studios remain unchanged and continue to report to Ray.

Mark Jacobs, current General Manager of Mythic will leave EA on June 23, 2009. We thank Mark for his contributions at Mythic and wish him the very best going forward. Mark played a major part in the success of Mythic with his contribution as General Manager and Lead Designer of WAR.

Mythic retains a strong team led by Rob who co-founded Mythic in 1995. Rob played a critical role in the development of Dark Age of Camelot. In his previous role as COO, he was responsible for all day-to-day management of the studio including all development, operations and support.

Please join us in celebrating the union of these two award-winning studios.

Considering BioWare's leap into the MMO arena with Star Wars: The Old Republic this isn't terribly surprising, but the idea of Mythic and BioWare working together is a pretty exciting prospect indeed.

[Dragonmonk]

sounds good, i jsut hope they release a good PvE game, i am tired of every game being PvP centric, why cant we have a good a'ole PvE raid game like EQ was....

[Abaci]

If it is good ol' like EQ was, I'm in. But I haven't had that much fun in a PvE game since. Also l2pvp

[Okaria]

Massively has additional details

[Dragonmonk]

If it is good ol' like EQ was, I'm in. But I haven't had that much fun in a PvE game since. Also l2pvp

sorry pvp isn't for me, it is ok every once in awhile, but games like WHO are to PvP centric for me...

[Okaria]

Outside of the RvR subgenre I'm not a big PvP fan myself. Of course, I've never particularly enjoyed PvE raiding or any of that nonsense either. I love exploring and playing with friends. The world needs another decent sandbox MMO. We haven't had a great sandbox experience since Ultima Online (and to a somewhat lesser degree the original SWG.)

[Myrridias]

Outside of the RvR subgenre I'm not a big PvP fan myself. Of course, I've never particularly enjoyed PvE raiding or any of that nonsense either. I love exploring and playing with friends. The world needs another decent sandbox MMO. We haven't had a great sandbox experience since Ultima Online (and to a somewhat lesser degree the original SWG.)

A to the ****in' xie ren, Okaria. Although I do enjoy the dungeon crawling stuff like in DDO (Join Us).

And some of that exploration awesomeness too.

And sorry for missing you last night, Dragonmonk, I kinda spazed out earler that day and my eyes were hurting and whatnot. Thankfully summer school's out in few days so I'll have 5 weeks to pretend I'm a magic robot/ stabby human (Stabby McStabpants if you will) with you and your wife who I'm sure is looking over your shoulder to catch us cybe- fooled you for a second didn't I Mrs. Dragonmonk?

[Abaci]

Oh I'm with you Okaria, RvR is the PvP I like. I'll do Guild v. Guild type stuff too, open PvP is pretty lame.

And yes 100% sandbox MMOs. Explore, play, chat with friends. Why does something so simple not exist anymore? If I ever get my gaming company off the ground, I will deliver one.

Aaand...sigh, maybe I will check out DDO. See what my girlfriend thinks of it first.

[Myrridias]

Oh I'm with you Okaria, RvR is the PvP I like. I'll do Guild v. Guild type stuff too, open PvP is pretty lame.

And yes 100% sandbox MMOs. Explore, play, chat with friends. Why does something so simple not exist anymore? If I ever get my gaming company off the ground, I will deliver one.

Aaand...sigh, maybe I will check out DDO. See what my girlfriend thinks of it first.

Be sure to tell her about the "Khyber Dragonshards." Chicks dig them.

[Arrqh]

Considering BioWare's leap into the MMO arena with Star Wars: The Old Republic this isn't terribly surprising, but the idea of Mythic and BioWare working together is a pretty exciting prospect indeed.

I think it's really more of a top-level organizational thing then anything else. So I doubt there'll be any significant cross pollination... well no more then before anyway. Look at me using big words!