Your soul is mine

Gathering some comments I wrote about Mythic being sold to EA.

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It means that EA will now set too high expectations. And when Warhammer won’t reach them (and it won’t), EA will take over completely and put Mythic to rest forever.

The only difference is that this time they’ll let it release.

Really. The only REAL change after this acquisition is that the 120-130k subs DAoC currently has aren’t REMOTELY enough for Mythic to exist. And that Warhammer must do 5x better only to be granted continued existence.

You think throwing money at it is enough. I don’t. Before this Mythic could survive with modest-sized games and still slowly building very good ones. I seriously think that they threw away a lot of potential because they had the possibility to slowly increase their market share, instead of slowly losing it.

Under EA they don’t have anymore the luxury to go on with modest-sized mmorpgs. It’s quite obvious that EA will now bet heavily on this. It’s quite obvious that they will throw a bunch of money at Mythic. And it’s quite obvious that things at Mythic will change SIGNIFICANTLY because of this.

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Athryn: Who knows, maybe they will infuse some life back into DAoC?

DAoC was already the sacrificial lamb for Warhammer. They are too similar to let them compete for the same audience and it already happened that they used DAoC shortcomings to publicize Warhammer (instead of fixing them).

This already before EA's acquisition, so nothing will change. Maybe DAoC will even have a few more leftovers devs that will give the illusion of more support when instead they will complete the disruption of the original DAoC team (as SWG demonstrated the simplest, quickest way to kill a mmorpg is to have an high churn rate with the devs).

The true impact of EA's acquisition is that now Mythic is something *completely new*. Maybe not in those who work there, they won't even relocate. But in *expectations*. Before Mythic could survive and prosper with medium-sized mmorpgs finding their own space. 100-200k subs were absolutely viable and they still had a lot of resources to increase their market share with the time if they wanted to (instead of losing it).

After this, the rules are changing. EA is going to throw a lot of money at Warhammer. This is good? Not from my point of view because it's quite obvious that you don't hand out money at will if you don't expect something BACK. The "old" Mythic dies here (if it didn't before). Expectations change, plans change. And you can be sure that when Warhammer won't reach those insane expectations, EA *will* take over completely. Or start the cleansing.

Till now Mythic has been DAoC. Warhammer doesn't exist. Well, for EA DAoC is nothing less than a grain of sand. You really believe that it's enough to grant Mythic a continuity similar to the one they have now? Hell NO. You really believe that Mark Jacobs told EA that the target market for Warhammer is 200-300k subs? HELL NO.

EVERYTHING changes with this. The scale changes. The company's objectives change. The production process will change, testing will change. The ambition and overall strategy change.

No matter what Mythic reps are saying while trying to reassure themselves.

Jason Booth commented on Lum's blog:

As for Mythics future games, I wish them luck, but so far, no studio has managed to hit it out of the ballpark more than once.

And that's the point. Before Mythic could sit in the back and remain prefectly active and healthy in that ballpark. They were deciding for themselves. Set THEIR OWN goals and ambitions. They should have tried to slowly improve and increase their market share in small step as CCP is doing with Eve-Online.

After this acquisition the objectives skyrocket. EA didn't buy Mythic for *what it is*. But for what they hope it will become. Not for their identity, but for their potential. Not for their current worth, but for growth possibilities.

They bought it as a raw material to transform. Hence the reason why Mythic is now FORCED to "hit it out of the ballpark" or die in the process.

Putting their hand on EA's wallet means accepting their conditions and expectations. It's not about getting a disinterested donation. It's betting with the devil.

They aren't anymore their own measure. They are EA measure.

Mark Jacobs decided that continuing to do small steps wasn't anymore satisfactory and, quoting:

We chose to do this deal because of what it meant to Mythic today and to our company going forward. It was a grand slam home run.

They chose to make this big jump at the price of their identity. You know, a sellout.

And you are silly if you believe that "things will remain the same". Nothing will. For the worse or the better.

You really believe that EA will let Mythic survive with similar subscription numbers to DAoC? And you really believe that throwing money at them is enough to make great games?