Analyst, Michael Pachter, thinks Dragon Age III‘s delay is due to team members being assigned to The Old Republic.
In an earnings report released earlier in the week, EA announced the delay of a “key game” that was scheduled for release sometime after March 31, 2013. Michael Pachter, market soothsayer and analyst, thinks Dragon Age III is a likely candidate.
“When we spoke with the [EA] CEO, he added the color that the game was expected to slip because the team had been pulled away to work on another important project,” said Pachter. “While we don’t know what the game is, the only game that makes sense is Dragon Age 3, as it is developed by BioWare, the same studio that produced the Star Wars MMO.”
He went on to theorize that the delay is due to Dragon Age III staff are being whisked away to work on The Old Republic.
“It seems obvious to us that the BioWare team responsible for Dragon Age 3 was asked to place development of that game on hold and work on Star Wars, to ensure that the latter game launched before the holidays.”
“We believe that a significant portion of the BioWare team responsible for the game was reassigned to Star Wars in order to create content and fix bugs to keep the game’s audience engaged,” he elaborated.
EA and Bioware have both responded that they don’t comment on rumor and speculation.
It’s not like The Old Republic doesn’t need the help, the game is still being heavily criticized for a perceived lack of endgame content, and the MMO managed to shed nearly 400,000 users between February and May – though EA puts those numbers down to casual players jumping ship. The MMO is currently one of EA’s top earners, but hasn’t managed to break into the top five.
Pachter went on to predict good things for EA in the coming year. Despite the relatively low number of boxed releases (for EA), the company is still expected to grow, mostly thanks to strong digital sales. EA brought in $1.2 billion in digital revenue during the last year, marking a 47% increase over the previous year. Yay.
Source: GameIndustryBiz
