JUNE 25, 2009 • Electronic Arts combined its Bioware and Mythic divisions into one MMO group. Management of day-to-day operations of the new group will be vested in Bioware executives, with long-time Mythic chief Mark Jacobs stepping down and leaving the company. In the days following, it was announced that Mythic staff would assist on Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO.
Impact: MMOs are a massive undertaking with a high risk/high reward payoff. It is hard to know the internal reasons for this new structure, but our biggest question is was this 1) a pure cost saving initiative or 2) a way to obtain synergy so that Bioware can gain access to Mythic’s considerable experience in developing, launching and operating a high-end MMO. Obviously we hope the answer is the latter.
