From Josh Drescher of Mythic on Twitter: "One word response: BioWAAAGH!!!"

It makes sense from a business perspective. EA's revenue is actually up, but profits are down because they've been spending too much. Consolidating their compatible studios would help bring costs down.

Hey, it's not because Warhammer isn't good that it's not a huge success. I've been playing it since open beta and loving it more and more every day

I honestly think people came in expecting WOW 2.0 but got Warhammer instead. At least, that's how my roommate explained his disliking it at first.

I guess it's hard to ditch a lvl 70+ character to start the grind anew in an MMO that's basically very similar despite it trying to be different.

I agree Warhammer is good. However, it does have some issues. Bioware's experience in story elements could really make for some interesting contributions to the public question system.

I'll just amuse myself by daydreaming that Jacobs is even now being rowed out to Devil's Island where he will be greeted on the beach by Guate Godager and Bill Roper.

Hopefully my agents will locate Peter Molyneux soon so that he may join them in exile.

Given the economy and WAR's generally poor performance, I'd be surprised if much of Mythic remains when this is said and done. With Jacobs gone and Bioware management in charge, it's pretty clear which studio EA has the most faith in, and it's hard for me to imagine that there's going to be enough room for many Mythic employees to land safely.

Whether or not this is good for WAR, I'm not sure. Mythic never really seemed to take the game where I felt it needed to go, and if EA is serious about salvaging WAR Bioware could probably turn things around.

On the other hand, given the almost certain staff cuts, it's questionable whether EA is going to want to throw good time after bad on continued WAR support from Bioware. WAR could end up in the EA equivalent of SOE's MMO graveyard, a B-grade game languishing in maintenance mode until it fades away entirely.

To this day, I still have no idea why they went with Warhammer fantasy, instead of 40k.

Edit: I wouldn't call it a failure, either. It's a damned good game, and the public quest system for the PvE players to join in on the RvR is a nice touch. In fact, there was a pretty big population of new players when I tried it. Despite my love for all things Warhammer, I'm just not sure a PvP heavy MMO is for me. Which is the only reason I'm not playing now.

I agree with most of what gore said here. It pretty much starts the doomsday clock for Warhammer Online. MJ was the driving force behind WAR and with that gone, I can't see the game improving that much with what clearly is a diminished staff. As problems arose MJ didn't seem to be talking as much over the last few months. Priorities on what to fix seemed to be chaotic and unorganized.

It's not surprising to see EA do this either, as this is becoming their Microsoft-esque business practice. Buy up small, successful game developers. Proceed to cash-in on their name recognition for a short term profit. Then dissolve the small developer and absorb the few experienced, successful employees at the top into a bigger, consolidated game genre division under EA.

I really liked some of the things that were in Warhammer (PvP leveling, graphics, tome of knowledge, greenskins), but a lot of the PvP driving aspects of the game didn't work out and the balance between classes has only gotten worse over time rather than better.

From what I gathered, this isn't a merge of the two studios, Mythic is still it's own independent studio that's being managed by Bioware and sharing resources. They aren't merging the dev teams. At least that's the official word for now.

Because someone else is doing the 40k MMO

Perhaps because someone else took those rights . . . ?

Edited to say: Gah! Beat me to it.

I think i'm right in saying there already is a 40k mmo in development elsewhere.

**

*doh* beaten to it (twice). Must read thread properly next time...

Oh well if three of us say it it must be true

Not to stray too far off topic, but one of my problems with WAR is actually that there's too much focus on PvE for my tastes. Even core "PvP" objectives (city sieges) involve a good many PvE elements in the form of PQs, and in order to even get to the levels where city sieges occur you have to spend a lot of time "leveling up" (either in scenarios or in PvE).

WAR isn't a bad game, but its PvP combat is not as deep as I would hope it to be (with repetitive RvR gameplay due to limited strategic options) and there are too many hurdles to overcome before you get to the "meat" of the game for my tastes.

As to whether WAR is a "failure" by EA's standards... well, I think this "merger" pretty much answers that question. WAR clearly moved some boxes and still has a good number of subs, but despite this it seems that the game failed to meet EA's expectations. EA seems to be (understandably) staking their future MMO / RPG hopes on Bioware instead, which only makes sense given their stellar history.

Hopefully, some of the more talented Mythic people will remain under Bioware, but I suspect that the cuts (and attrition) will be pretty deep before all is said and done.

I agree with this completely. Mythic's staffing level is simply huge, and they've already had to lay off a large number of employees. This indicates to me that EA was really hoping for a blockbuster, and WAR's moderate level of success is simply insufficient to support Mythic as it is now - hence the "merger."

Honestly, if you had to choose based on developer alone, which would you prefer? A game made by Mythic, or a game made by Bioware?

Totally plausible. I'm currently working on a plan to outsell Coca-Cola. I'll design a better bottle and make it even more cola-y. Since everybody loves chocolate, we'll call it Chococola. Guaranteed hit!