Article: Investigation Into Outsourced Development Options

[Sonic]

Stop the press! Kane's Wrath was not developed by EALA, instead it's development was outsourced to another developer called BreakAway Games. This has actually been known for many months but a lot of people aren't really aware of this fact. So on the subject of outsourcing, CNC Generals World have posted a new article that takes a close look at this. Was outsourcing the development of Kane's Wrath the reason for the long delay of the recently released 1.01 patch? The article is well written and researched. Here is a quick sample.

As I've said, putting people in roles where they can do the most good is certainly not a bad thing, so long as you get good people to take their old jobs. The results are the bottom line. This is where things look bad for Kane's Wrath. As they did with Battle for Middle Earth II: Rise of the Witch King and Command and Conquer: The First Decade, EA decided to outsource development of much of Kane's Wrath to another company, with poor results.
Breakaway Games Credits in Kane's Wrath

Their company of choice was BreakAway Games, based in Hunt Valley, Maryland (BreakAway had previously done the development of Rise of the Witch King). BreakAway did more than pitch in once in a while for Kane's Wrath; they had a large hand in developing the game. According to BreakAway, "BreakAway was contracted by Electronic Arts to develop Kane’s Wrath." Indeed, this is borne out in the credits of the game, as BreakAway is given its own section and extensive credit. For example, every position listed above (and many many more) was filled by at least one BreakAway person (sometimes working with an EA affiliate, often not). None of these fill-ins had ever worked on a C&C game before. None.

That's not to say there was no one connected to C&C on the team. Indeed, it appears a lot of the macrodesign was done by folks at EALA. A few EALA people, such as Sam Bass, moved up to take on larger roles than they had in C&C 3, mostly in things like storytelling. But on the whole, there's no doubt that BreakAway Games, a company that is also known for making simulations mostly (almost all of its media presence is with regards to simulations, not games for entertainment) and with no one affiliated with C&C, took on a huge role. This approach represented a radical shift from C&C 3's development.

Click here for the full article.

[TheRoadToDawn]

Yeah I found out about this from CnCWorld. Ticked me off too.

At first 2 me the news about this blew away all the promise and hope EA gave me.

This explains the "ackward missions with multiplayer maps and unit spawning out, the poorly designed global conquest (i was expecting a more classic C&C 1 capture by state and country (like Emperor Battle For Dune)and fully destroy your enemy, not meeting an objectives to win), and the short campaign.

My only kudos for this team is bringin my cyborgs and mechs back. But even the cyborgs arent imune to tib.

Did EA not expect us to find out about this backseat driver?

This post has been edited by TheRoadToDawn: Monday 21st July 2008 4:00 AM

[gben]

aaaahhh.

This explains some things. But it's not a failure of third party it's simply a failure of checks & oversight from EALA and that is obviously a simple budgetary problem.

I think, all things being equal that farming out expansion packs in this manner is entirely reasonable - but perhap in the specific instance of KW the goals of the expansion were too ambitious for the level of participation...

I don't mind this continuing, farming out, as long as they improve each time. (Of course I'd rather EALA do it all themselves!)

[Johnnyxp64]

as i said over an other com site,

its just BAD BAD BAD !

ok i understand they need good people to work in RA3 but "killing" KW like that???? terible!

i hope we will never seen this happening again and EALA could just GET more people!

its all about fracking marketing....

at least they could send the latest patch build and not carry over all the 9version patch bugs!!!!

that was a terrible corporation between eala and the other company.

i hope they learn their lessons!!

[CCHyper]

I have yet to play KW and see these problems myself.

But before this, people seemed happy with the game, now people know about it, they get angry...

[ORCaLoVeR]

Kane's wrath is acctualy pretty good.Its fun to play with the Sub-factions, specialy Steel talons and Black hand.



The idea of the expansion is good, but it issent worked out fully.Thats where mods come in.The concept around Zero hour wassent bad, but there wassent really much attention to it.Look at the shockwave mod.THATS how ZH was suppose to be.


Still,KW wassent bad.And im acctually looking forward to Ra3 aswel.


On the Sovjets and allies that is.

[recover]

I totally agree with this article. EA shouldn't outsource just so that they can develop two games at once. I would be far more pleased if they deliver quality rather than quantity, I don't care much if that delays the games since I got plenty of other stuff to do.

[Saracen]

The problem with EA's development cycle is that (as SmurfBizkit said at the Den) EA rules mean that any product has to be done within a 15 month turnaround from concept to completion. Therefore having a team dedicated to an expansion which would take say 8 months, only leaves 7 months for another expansion (which is less profitable), or a full product. Therefore there is no, "when it's done" policy, and everyone has to work their ass off. So in order to make the highest quality product they can, outsourcing is often a publisher driven option within the industry.

As I've said at other sites, outsourcing is nothing new. Playstation 2 Developers like Naughty Dog for Jak & Daxter and Sony for God of War and have often outsourced material to a third Party developer called Ready at Dawn studios to create titles for the PSP... The mighty Capcom have even outsourced the PS2's Okami RPG to Ready at Dawn for the Wii... All games from this studio alone have gotten 90%+ scores and shows that the strategy can work.

I dunno why some of you are going totally nuts over it. This sorta stuff happens all the time (especially with EA), and it often gets smaller unknown developers on the map as well. If it gets messed up then it's on the head of the company that outsources its product. The practice often more common in ports to consoles from PC or vice versa or multi format releases, but don't get mad over it, chances are the already confirmed RA3 expansion has already been outsourced to another company and is already in development too.

[Johnnyxp64]

I have yet to play KW and see these problems myself.

But before this, people seemed happy with the game, now people know about it, they get angry...

nobody liked the delayes on the patch
nobody liked the fixed in TW major bugs that was never seen in KW production
nobody liked that the game wasnt multiplayer able until the 1.01patch!



we didnt say its a bad game, NO, its a BAD Ousourcing agreement with poor results....
i dont blame the other company they did teir best, but eala for not given them the latest engine, and techsupport they propobly need for avoiding all the crashes and aout of sync errors, and all the previous tw bugs! just that. they make simulations not rts games, they had no idea that the engine they god was "broken".

This post has been edited by Johnnyxp64: Monday 21st July 2008 8:03 PM

[sith_wampa]

nobody liked the delayes on the patch
nobody liked the fixed in TW major bugs that was never seen in KW production
nobody liked that the game wasnt multiplayer able until the 1.01patch!



we didnt say its a bad game, NO, its a BAD Ousourcing agreement with poor results....
i dont blame the other company they did teir best, but eala for not given them the latest engine, and techsupport they propobly need for avoiding all the crashes and aout of sync errors, and all the previous tw bugs! just that. they make simulations not rts games, they had no idea that the engine they god was "broken".

Stop whining. Its not a big deal.

[Sonic]

We will be discussing this out sourcing topic in the up coming roundtable feature next week.

[TheBlackOut]

Stop whining. Its not a big deal.

Yea... it kind of is...

[sith_wampa]

Yea... it kind of is...

And why is that?