RENEGADE ENDING- EA releases a true ending to the game as a 15 dollar DLC, it's the last level, fighting harbinger, saving the galaxy.
Result: If this isn't boycotted, then they turn a profit on this sleezy scheme. They do this again and again, and other publishers take it up. The worst possible use of DLC is attained rather than their original purpose of extra side content, bite sized expansion packs, and similar to pay
for continued development by the Developer (Remember, developers rarely get royalties, instead they are paid by the milestone and this is why they have to fire so many employees after each project. DLC keeps the developer in cash while they're looking to move to their next project and also pays for any post-launch debugging, which is sometimes essential due to how hard publishers push developers to launch the projects at particular dates.).
NEUTRAL ENDING- Bioware caves, and releases an entirely new ending for free. Losing both Bioware and EA so much money that Bioware inevitably liquidated and sold off by EA.
Result: Publisher Marketing groups have a field day. They get the biggest example for crushing the developer's ability to experiment and expand their game outside of normal player experiences they could have ever hoped for. Can you say Infinity + 1 FPS's for another decade? I can.
PARAGON ENDING- Bioware sticks to their guns, they release a clarifying and expanding cut scenes and epilogue tracks that are reminiscent of DA1's ending in how they wrap up the lose ends and tell us how the game ends. No new interactive content, battles, or levels are added (they probably cannot afford to release something like that for free) They probably need to set aside the whole "is he indoctrinated or not" question and just outright answer it as "yes".
Result: Bioware still loses a fuck ton of money and user support. EA will still probably liquidate them unless the new baulder's gate is absolutely FANTASTIC and redeeming. But the Developer's right to control the narrative as they see it, to their vision, remains sacrosanct for the time being until something like this is pulled again. Considering Baulder's Gate is being handled by atari and not Bioware, this probably means they're still fucked, though considering they kinda got the credit for NWN2 and KotOR2, then if it does well who knows?
I typically play sports games, so downloadable content has been an issue for me in recent years. I always get annoyed when EA Sports pushes me to pay for extra content that in the past would have been free. While this would be somewhat acceptable if the sports games were making revolutionary strides every year, that typically isn't the case for EA. For example, EA Sports has an exclusive license to make NFL video games. Their Madden title is typically the same each year with marginal improvements. However, they still push downloadable content for extra uniforms, stadiums, and game modes that would have been included in the game in the past. This is an annoying issue and developers need to realize that they can't make money their number one goal.
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