BioWare Video Game Project Management

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Table of Contents

Background Information
Recommendations
Reference List

Project management is an integral part of running an organization that aims to bring a change that would be beneficial to the organization itself and other stakeholders. Managing projects involves allocating the necessary amount of resources, updating objectives, assessing risks, maintaining documentation, and performing many other tasks to ensure the delivery of the product by the specified deadline. Therefore, precise and efficient management is essential for the successful completion of projects in a cost-effective manner. As noted by Schwab (2019), the world is currently going through the Fourth Industrial Revolution spearheaded by digital technologies, which is why companies producing software should pay particular attention to project management. This paper outlines the issues faced by BioWare, a Canadian videogame developer owned by Electronic Arts (EA), a US videogame distributor, in the development of its recent projects. It will demonstrate that BioWare, as controlled by EA, demonstrates the ability for resource integration and continuously updated development but has issues with over-optimism, failures to provide clear scope and intent, and customer understanding.

Background Information

BioWare is a videogame development studio with headquarters in Edmonton, Canada. It was founded in 1995 and quickly found its niche in making detailed, immersive role-playing games with complex plots. The studio’s breakout hit was Baldur’s Gate, a role-playing game issued in 1998 and based on the Dungeons and Dragons tabletop game (Schreier, 2017). After that, the studio issued more products based on Dungeons and Dragons and worked with other major franchises, as when making Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic in cooperation with Lucas Arts (Schreier, 2017). In the 21^st century, the studio created two significant franchises of its own – the space opera series Mass Effect and a dark fantasy series Dragon Age, with the first games for both being launched in 2007 and 2009, respectively (Schreier, 2017). Since then, BioWare’s primary efforts were focused on developing these two franchises.

In 2007, EA appropriated BioWare and assumed the role of the studio’s publisher. This appropriation produced mixed results in terms of product delivery. While Dragon Age Origins, issued in 2009, was critically and commercially successful, its 2011 sequel Dragon Age 2 was widely criticized for feeling incomplete (Schreier, 2017). Dragon Age: Inquisition won the 2014 Game of the Year award, but was reported to face numerous problems in development due to poor resource allocation and management issues (Schreier, 2019, para. 7). Mass Effect series stalled, with the third installment that came out in 2012 being criticized for the weak ending, and the 2017 Andromeda – for unimaginative gameplay and numerous technical issues.

EA’s vision of how its products should be played became a source of numerous issues as well. As the publisher, EA insists on making all its major products “games as service,” meaning that they may be played continuously months and years after release, being supplied with new, potentially purchasable content (Schreier, 2019). This requirement implied massive online multiplayer and put BioWare, famed for making in-depth single-player games, at odds with the overall direction EA was heading. BioWare’s projects launch to deliver new products in accordance with EA’s demonstrated numerous issues. The Old Republic, a Star Wars MMO, kept missing its deadlines from 2009 to 2011 (Schreier, 2017). Anthem, a massively multiplayer online (MMO) shooter, encountered so many technical problems that the teams working on other projects were forced to shift to it as well (Kain. 2019). Missing deadlines, numerous troubles with resource allocation, and generally cool critical reception that indicates the insufficient quality of the products delivered, BioWare’s recent projects reveal a number of consistent management issues.

Project Management Evaluation

Project management practices demonstrated by BioWare during the work on its recent projects demonstrate the company’s capability to continuously monitor the work progress and introduce updates when necessary. Heldman (2018) notes that “monitoring and measuring project performance at regular intervals” is an essential component of controlling project work (p. 479). Organizational practices adopted in BioWare stress this component heavily. According to the company’s founders themselves, regular check-ups, meetings, and projects updates were a rule of thumb in the company since its foundation and are adhered to thoroughly (Ramsay, 2015, chap. 11). One of the initial developers of the new Dragon Age installment pointed out anonymously that the emphasis on regular updates and swift and early testing was one of the central requirements put before the team. This approach policy corresponds to a broader approach in software development when teams “deliver working software in short iterations, which results in more frequent, short-term decisions,” allowing to identify and address potential issues more quickly (Gunha, Nouro, and Vasconcellos, 2016, p. 950). Therefore, BioWare’s work on the company’s recent project demonstrates a clear understanding of monitoring and controlling projects.

Another area of project management, where BioWare, as controlled by EA, demonstrates sufficient competency is ensuring integration between projects. According to Monteiro, Santos, and Varahao (2016), multi-project coordination and integration across different projects are among the key responsibilities assumed by the Project Management Office on a tactical level. BioWare’s recent projects demonstrate multiple cases of cross-project integration. For example, Dragon Age: Inquisition, the third installment of the company’s flagship series, switched to the Frostbite engine used by most of the EA games and succeeded in delivering the product despite the technical difficulties involved (Schreier, 2017). The next installment of the Dragon Age series codenamed Morrison is reported to be “built on Anthem’s tools and codebase” (Schreier, 2019, para. 21). Considering this, project management practices adopted in BioWare ensure progressively greater cross-project integration, even when it requires overcoming considerable technical difficulties.

On the other hand, the company’s ability for multi-project coordination leaves much to be desired. BioWare started as a small independent studio, not working on more than one project simultaneously. The company’s experience before being bought by the EA included coordinating multiple remote teams working on the same project (Ramsay, 2015, chap. 11). However, managing several ambitious large-scale projects at once proved to be a considerable challenge for BioWare, as evidenced by some of its recent histories. In 2016, the company put the initial Dragon Age 4 project, codenamed Joplin, on hold, and moved the team working on it to fixing troubled Mass Effect: Andromeda that did not meet its deadlines (Schreier, 2019). The story repeated itself, as Joplin was canceled altogether, and its team once again moved to help with another struggling project, this time Anthem (Schreier, 2019). The fact that such cases occur repeatedly highlight BioWare’s difficulties in running more than one large-scale project at once and coordinating them to ensure the best outcomes.

This particular problem is directly connected to another – namely, the over-optimism demonstrated by BioWare when managing its recent projects. Stingl and Veraldi (2017) point out that over-optimistic initial forecasts are among the most notable issues that plague projects during the planning stage. Working on more than one large project often proves trying even for the companies with experienced personnel, and BioWare’s consecutive problems with its recent games demonstrate that it evaluated its possibilities too optimistically. The company’s certainty that it can take on developing several games simultaneously, as with Mass Effect: Andromeda, Anthem, and Dragon Age 4, backfired. It resulted in frantic ad hoc adjustments to provide the necessary workforce so that each project would deliver results on time. To summarize, BioWare’s problems with multi-project coordination in the development of their recent games likely have much to do with the over-optimistic initial forecasts that failed to estimate the company’s actual ability to run multiple projects at once.

Apart from over-optimism and the resulting issues with project coordination, BioWare also demonstrated insufficient attention to the scope of the project. As noted by Heldman (2018) and Turner (2006), a clear definition of the project scope is one of the first essentials of effective project management, as it establishes what work on the project is, and what it is not. Meredith et al. (2018) also stress the importance of clear and understandable project scope as one of the first tasks to solve when working on a project. However, BioWare’s work on Dragon Age: Inquisition demonstrated no understanding of this principle – partially due to poor resource allocation. The company initially assigned an unprecedented number of employees to work on the game, which caused the leadership to make fast decisions to provide everyone with the workload (Schreier, 2017). While it is normal for a video game to discard and add features as the production goes, the development of Dragon Age: Inquisition lacked a clear focus on the essentials. The necessity to assign tasks first and think about their applicability for the game later caused serious problems with the project scope.

Another problem related to this one was the lack of purpose and intent demonstrated in the development of Dragon Age: Inquisition. APM (2018) emphasizes the necessity of not limiting the focus to quantifiable deliverables of the project and keeping in mind its ultimate purpose and intent. They also point out that this is particularly important for major, complex projects – and, as mentioned above, Dragon Age: Inquisition was the largest project run by BioWare when it was launched. Still, after finishing the project and moving on to Dragon Age 4, the creative director Mike Laidlaw and executive producer Mark Darrah vouched to “focus on delivering an explicit, consistent vision” this time (Schreier, 2019, para. 9). It was an explicit recognition that they failed to do so while working on Dragon Age: Inquisition. The lack of purpose and intent going beyond quantifiable outputs, such as the size of maps of the number of characters and quests, was likely yet another reason why the third installment of Dragon Age did not end up as well as it could.

Apart from that, BioWare, as controlled by EA, has demonstrated consistent problems in balancing the interests of all stakeholders interested in the project. Stingl and Veraldi (2017) highlight that the adoption of an overly self-interested strategy may impact the result adversely. This was precisely the case with EA’s tightening creative control over BioWare’s project. For instance, EA’s insistence on making Dragon Age: Inquisition using the Frostbite engine led to numerous technical difficulties (Schreier, 2017). Moreover, the distributor’s insistence on making all its major projects follow the “games as service” MMO model did not coincide with BioWare’s strengths as the developer of single-player games. Moreover, this shift to an uncharacteristic product soured the relations with customers, who had their expectations from a BioWare game, which damaged the company’s reputation (Association for Project Management [APM], n.d.). Hence, the overly self-centered position taken by the EA when exercising creative control over BioWare was the cause of yet another considerable problem in managing projects to ensure better outcomes.

The Use of Qualitative and Quantitative Data

BioWare, as controlled by EA, mainly employed quantitative data to support decision-making when running its recent projects. With the traditional “games as goods” approach, the key quantifiable outcome for the project would be the estimated number of copies sold – the model described by McAfee and Brynjolfsson (2014, chap. 13). However, with the “games as service” model promoted by EA, other quantifiable outcomes also come into play. These include, first and foremost, the number of expansion packs that can be added to the main game for an additional price to provide the customers with new experiences and the company with increased revenues. BioWare took it into account when working on Dragon Age: Inquisition and supplied it with an unprecedented number of expansion packs for the studio’s game. Thus, when making decisions on its recent projects, BioWare kept in mind the numerical outputs required by the EA as the distributor.

However, the focus on the “games as service” model caused the company to neglect qualitative criteria in favor of quantitative ones. This effect was especially notable in the case of Dragon Age II. The game was created on a short schedule, which did not prevent the company from providing it with several packs of additional content for a separate price, in full accordance with EA’s preferred model. However, it was widely criticized for repetitive gameplay, lack of impactful decisions, and the overall decline in the perceived quality (Schreier, 2017). The customers, angered by the lack of authentic BioWare experience, did not buy the game as actively as the previous entry in the series, meaning that the company’s shifting focus had a negative impact on their purchase intent (M. Haverila and K. Haverila, 2019). As Bowne-Anderson (2018) noted, the understanding customer is a paramount component of delivering successful outputs of the project. Good relations with satisfied customers lead to enhanced reputation, but the failure to maintain them will affect the company’s long-term standing negatively (APM, 2018). To summarize, focusing on quantitative outputs over the qualitative ones delivered questionable results for BioWare’s projects.

Recommendations

Improving BioWare’s project management practices for the delivery of better outcomes requires addressing the issues demonstrated during the development of the company’s recent projects, such as Dragon Age II, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Mass Effect: Andromeda, and Anthem. First of all, it is necessary to address the problem with resource allocation in multi-project coordination evident in the simultaneous development of Mass Effect: Andromeda, Anthem, and Dragon Age: Inquisition. To avoid frantically reassigning personnel from one project to another whenever a deadline is close, the company should make more conservative estimations of its capability to run multiple projects. This approach will decrease the dangers inherent in over-optimism and stretch the personnel thin.

Additionally, the company should pay greater attention to formulating the scope of its projects, as well as purpose and intent, as early and as clearly as possible. During the development of Dragon Age: Inquisition, the amount of employees assigned to the project caused project leadership to make sub-optimal decisions to ensure they all had work to do (Schreier, 2017). The lack of clear scope, vision, and purpose caused the situation when much work was done only to be redone or discarded altogether in the later stages of development. A well-defined scope, supplemented with a specifically outlined purpose, should be an essential component of BioWare’s future projects if the company aims to improve its results.

Finally, the EA’s insistence on developing all of its major products following the “games as service” model and the resulting emphasis on quantitative factors stands in conflict with BioWare’s strength as a developer. The drive to produce games as templates to sell additional content afterward may lead to neglecting important qualitative components. As BioWare is famed for producing single-player games, pushing it to create multiplayer ones not plays against the company’s strengths, but also dissatisfies the customers. This dissatisfaction has profoundly negative long-term impacts, such as damaged reputation and plummeting sales due to the decreasing purchase intent. To avoid these consequences, EA as a distributor, should take a less self-centered position when exercising creative control, and rely on the company’s understanding of its customers more. Provided it would have such an opportunity, BioWare should concentrate on delivering the products that would offer the authentic “BioWare experience” sought by the audiences and likely conducive to better sales and critical reception.

Reference List

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