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Don't blame EA for Dragon Age's inventory (or paid DLC)
In a written response to allegations from Fidgit that Electronic Arts had forced developer BioWare to remove features in Dragon Age: Origins with the intention of selling it as future DLC, BioWare lead systems designer Georg Zoeller says the parent company has "nothing" to do with the decision. At the crux of the argument is the game's launch DLC, Warden's Keep, which gives players a "storage chest" to help expand the in-game inventory, among other additions. Fidgit claims the DLC was pre-planned to "bilk users for more money." According to Zoeller, Dragon Age originally featured a small storage chest in the game's party camp, but quickly became an issue due to story elements in the game that would change the camp's environment; so the storage area was removed. "We decided that it was not really necessary anyway since the item limitation was rather generous compared to the initial designs at least," Zoeller wrote. Later -- during a brainstorm session -- the team decided to include the chest in premium DLC, which was then made available at launch. Zoeller claims "storage limitations" were never pinpointed as problems by the game's quality assurance team, because "after all, it was part of the design." While the Bioware designer doesn't have an issue with anger toward the decision, he vehemently denies EA was involved for the sole purpose of getting more money out of players. With the DLC already available across all platforms (560 / $7, or free to deluxe edition players), it's up to players to make their opinions heard by voting with their wallets.
Rigopolous: No Rock Band 3 in 2009
Yesterday, during a keynote speech at Billboard's "Digital Music Live," conference, Harmonix co-founder and CEO Alex Rigopolous (center-right) revealed the developer will not release a sequel to Rock Band 2 in 2009. "We've actually made a choice to break out of the annual release cycle for Rock Band this year," Rigopolous announced at the conference. The Harmonix CEO cited a partial reason for decision was because, "annual cycles place limits on the choices [a developer] can make" and Harmonix would like to think long-term with its music platform. According to Crispy Gamer, when asked about EA's reaction to the promise of not releasing Rock Band 3 this year, Rigopolous confirmed they were understanding of the decision. "They know how important this series is and they're willing to give it the time it needs," he said. Currently, Harmonix is hard at work developing a new title based on The Beatles catalog of music and indicated with that license sewn-up, the developer would like to work on bringing Led Zeppelin into the genre, in the future.[Thanks, Patrick Y.]
