That homogenization is always going to happen, to a certain extent and especially with large companies. Internal studios have much less freedom simply because they have to prove their earnings to the company, and as you say, the price of failure is a loss of job.

Your point about Bioware is interesting. I’m not completely sure that a loss of variety will be the case, but… even if it is, it’s about time a company did start working on some innovations in the story and dialog areas of MMORPGs. Those have been sadly lacking in the current crop of MMORPGs. And who knows, this merger might bring the people with the C&E experience into Bioware and shake things up.

I’m a bit disappointed at the news, but not because it’s EA involved. Look at EA’s current line-up. They have a ton of great games on the horizon and recently released, some of which have come from EA’s own studios (ex: Dead Space). I don’t know a lot about EA’s past, the time period people usually complain about, but I see more quality games coming from EA today than from most.

The reason I’m a little disappointed is because I hate to see homogenization in a genre of games that is already too stuck on design standards. I like Bioware, but I think they’re less likely than Mythic to offer innovations in combat and exploration because they’re too obsessive about story and dialog. In any case, putting them in charge will certainly mean less variety than if Mythic had remained separate.