| Reasonable said: I think the sales are okay for the circumstances. ME2 couldn't have cost much to port and clearly they took the route of developing ME3 (and the version of Unreal under it) for PS3/360. ME2 on PS3 just takes the content and drops it into the ME3 engine on the PS3. Politically I think EA wanted it on PS3 and so long as it breaks even (which I'm sure it will) they'll be fine. ME3 wil do better and overall EA will see more money across both consoles. ME is a strange situation beacause I don't think it was ever timed or otherwise going to hit PS3 without the EA buyout, and because ME1 was restricted to 360 it was always going to be an odd move. This kind of situation is why I wish MS would invest a bit more in their own studios for big titles. There's nothing wrong with partnering of course as a business model - but it does increase the odds of this kind of haphazard change of direction for a franchise. |
It's just so expensive, though, to go that route this late in a generation. The cost to pay for such large staff full time would be extensive, especially considering the economic situation that has hovered over the world this gen.
Also, MS never would've paid for Bioware the way EA did. EA wanted SW:TOR, which they're hoping is their WoW. MS has proven that they just don't want to sink that kind of money into the risky MMO market. Really nothing they could've done about the ME situation that would've been cost effective for them outside of what we've seen.
It would be nice to know how much the port (or heck, the games themselves) cost Bioware to develop. Unlike movies, games aren't near as transparent with that information.
