Joystiq

Report: BioWare San Francisco closes, up to 30 staffers laid off

Mike Schramm — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 20:00:00 EST

According to a report on GamesRadar, BioWare San Francisco - the studio formerly known as EA2D and responsible for titles like Dragon Age Legends and Mirror's Edge 2D - has been closed by EA, leaving between 25 to 30 employees jobless. Citing a source inside the studio, the report suggests EA felt it was "too expensive" to make mobile games in Redwood Shores, CA.

Joystiq has followed up with EA to check the veracity of this claim. Dragon Age Legends' servers were shut off last year, but the developers at BioWare San Francisco were kind enough to make an offline version available for fans to continue to play.

Report: BioWare San Francisco closes, up to 30 staffers laid off originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 04 Mar 2013 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dragon Age Legends no longer online, but playable offline for free

Mike Schramm — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 04:00:00 EST

Dragon Age Legends, as fans will tell you, was one of the more popular Facebook games EA has ever put together -- at least before its untimely death earlier this week. Such is the fate of a freemium promotional game for a much larger console and PC series.

But while most online games simply shut down and go gently into that good night, Dragon Age Legends is doing no such thing. As promised, the dev team has re-released the game as a single-player title, available as a free download right now. You won't be able to invite friends (or buy any microtransaction-based items), but you will be able to play the title offline and forever, regardless of EA's server status.

The game runs on Adobe Air, so you'll need to download and install that if you haven't yet. And while previous characters and accounts have been locked online for now, the team is working on a way to archive them offline, so they can be used in the single-player game as well. This could set a very nice precedent for popular Facebook titles, that would otherwise face oncoming oblivion thanks to server death.

Dragon Age Legends no longer online, but playable offline for free originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 20 Jun 2012 04:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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PSA: EA shutting down Dragon Age Legends servers June 18

Jordan Mallory — Sat, 19 May 2012 10:30:00 EST

Electronic Arts and BioWare's social soiree in Ferelden will be coming to an end on June 18, 2012, according to the official Dragon Age Legends website. E-commerce for the title ended yesterday, meaning that while the game it still active for the time being, it's no longer possible to convert your real-life dollars into fake ~~Dragon Dollars~~ crowns for use in Ferelden's many shops.

BioWare has also initiated a "massive fire sale" on all in-game items until the servers go down, so anyone with stockpiles of fake internet money can get their fake internet money's worth, at least for a few weeks. If the thought of living without a weird Facebook adaptation of the Dragon Age world is too much to handle, take heart: A single-player version of the game will be made available on the official site "shortly after the current version of the game shuts down."

PSA: EA shutting down Dragon Age Legends servers June 18 originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 19 May 2012 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google begins gradual rollout of games in Google Plus [update]

JC Fletcher — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 16:30:00 EST

After early indications were discovered in Google Plus source code -- and after anyone ever looked at Google Plus and applied common sense -- we knew games would be available on the social network soon.

Today, Google began rolling out a small assortment of games, including the ubiquitous Angry Birds, EA2D's Dragon Age Legends, and sudoku. You know, Facebook stuff. A "Games" button at the top of your stream will take you to the available games, if the rollout has made it to your account. If it hasn't, Google says it will "soon."

Google's game implementation differs from Facebook in that game-related status updates are cordoned off into the "Games" page, so you can only see them when you are looking at game stuff. Unlike Facebook, you won't have to banish all your friends when they develop Zynga problems.

[Thanks, Dylan!]

Update: Venturebeat reports that Google is only taking 5 percent commission on its games, another advantage over Facebook (who takes 30). And on the new Google Plus platform blog, engineering director David Glazer claims Plus is taking a "quality over quantity" approach with its games. Developers and new game features will be added in "small steps."

Google begins gradual rollout of games in Google Plus [update] originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 11 Aug 2011 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EA2D pixelates into BioWare San Francisco in company shake-up

Jessica Conditt — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 18:30:00 EST

EA has rebranded EA2D as BioWare San Francisco, sending the arcade-focused studio the way of the dinosaurs (or 2D in EA games). As we know, EA2D was responsible for The Fancy Pants Adventures and Facebook's Dragon Age Legends, and had studio goals of putting the core back in gaming and making players cry.

EA2D's dissolution is part of a larger company shift that CEO John Riccitiello describes as an attempt to build its "intellectual properties/franchises into year-round business" and focus on its digital ventures with Origin. Considering EA2D was a digital-based studio, we can only imagine what more virtuality BioWare will add to it.

EA2D pixelates into BioWare San Francisco in company shake-up originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 05 Aug 2011 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Interview: EA2D's Mark Spenner on going 'browser and beyond'

JC Fletcher — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 18:20:00 EST

EA2D is Electronic Arts's small-team, small-game studio, which just launched Dragon Age Legends on Facebook (today!) and has Fancy Pants Adventures for PSN and XBLA in the wings. We spoke to Mark Spenner, VP and GM of the studio, about these two very different projects. How, we wondered, do these two wildly different things, a console game based on a Flash game, and a Facebook spinoff of a giant RPG, both fall under the same EA2D banner?

"EA2D is 'browser and beyond,'" Spenner told us at SXSW Interactive. "We're trying to push from the browser out." That includes projects like Mirror's Edge 2D, which began as a Flash game and moved to iPhone and iPad, and the new Dragon Age Legends, which was already "beyond" and moved into the browser -- and is also moving back out with a mobile app.

Continue reading Interview: EA2D's Mark Spenner on going 'browser and beyond'

Interview: EA2D's Mark Spenner on going 'browser and beyond' originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 16 Mar 2011 18:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dragon Age Legends now live on Facebook, go poke some Darkspawn

Griffin McElroy — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 13:05:00 EST

At last, social game aficionados/haters have a new title to sink their teeth into/receive hundreds of unwanted Facebook invitations to: Dragon Age Legends. The network-connected strategy RPG lets players work together to complete quests, and earn equipment -- both in Legends and the recently released Dragon Age 2.

If you're feeling lost after loading up the game, you're not without options -- perhaps you could consult with one of the thousands of players who got in on the game's beta, which kicked off in January? We bet they know a thing or two about putting down Genlocks.

Dragon Age Legends now live on Facebook, go poke some Darkspawn originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 16 Mar 2011 13:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dragon Age Legends trailer is extremely animated

Griffin McElroy — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 21:15:00 EST

We know the intention of this animated Dragon Age Legends trailer is to get us psyched up for the Facebook adaptation of BioWare's RPG franchise -- but instead, it just makes us super psyched for that Dragon Age anime that EA announced last year. Can we have that, please? Nowish?

Continue reading Dragon Age Legends trailer is extremely animated

Dragon Age Legends trailer is extremely animated originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 01 Feb 2011 21:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dragon Age Legends Facebook game unlocks items in Dragon Age 2

JC Fletcher — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 11:00:00 EST

Dragon Age Legends is a Facebook-based strategy RPG launching this February. Perhaps more importantly, it's a method through which you'll be able to unlock stuff in the upcoming Dragon Age 2. Legends takes place in Kaiten, a city in the Dragon Age 2 setting of the Free Marches. Players ally themselves with a Viscount named Ravi (nephew of Khedra) in order to save Ravi's son Elton from danger and protect the Free Marches.

"Alongside their Facebook friends," according to EA, "players will take on challenging quests within an engaging storyline, earning loot, sharing rewards and growing their kingdom." EA 2D general manager Mark Spenner hopes to "raise the quality bar" of Facebook games with this offering, in order to draw traditional gamers.

While we don't know exactly how Legends' cooperative tactical combat works, we'll find out soon enough: EA will hold a beta for the title starting in January, with invitations distributed to lucky EA account holders who have Facebook accounts and subscriptions to the Dragon Age Newsletter -- and who sign up for the beta, of course.

Dragon Age Legends Facebook game unlocks items in Dragon Age 2 originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 03 Nov 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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