Bohemia Interactive - Codemasters

What im wondering is :

Why has Bohemia left Codemasters ?

Was there a conflict or just a conctract that ended ?

Could someone explain to me what exactly happened ?

BIS and Codemasters parted ways a long time ago now, even before Armed Assault was released. The last title they released together was Operation Flashpoint: Elite for the Xbox. The reasons for the split were never made public, and probably never will be made public.

Some hypothesize that BIS wanted to take Operation Flashpoint 2 in a different direction than Codemasters did. An old OFP2 promo pic indicates a possible Vietnam setting, rather than a modern one:

Though, again, they're just theories.

Yes, To be honest - The reason why they split may be better left unknown.

"some thing should stay behind closed doors"

Codemasters didn't want BIS holding them back in their attempt at creating a shit product.

I still want to know what the real reason was. I hope a BIS member could tell us .

By the way an ArmA or OFP in Vietnam would have been awesome.

What CM should really be doing is signing a deal to take Arma 2, strip out the bigger maps, the chickens and the view distance, and put it on the 360.

I remember reading or listening to something where a BIS was doing research for a Vietnam OFP/ArmA and was interviewing vietnam veterans and they decided not to go that route cause of how horrible the storys/war was???'

Did I see that many years ago?

I believe there were some interviews with BIS about it. I can remember that there was at least one interview which featured such a question.

It all started over an innocent game of dodgeball...

It all started over an innocent game of dodgeball...

dodge...hm, not really....ball, close but no cigar:

..hence the break-up

Google search it, you will find what you seek.

I think its a good question, but I feel that somethings were meant to be, who knows where OFP would have gone into if BIS and Codenoobs

would have remained working together.

I think its for the best, I mean look at what we have, look at what we got coming,

look at where codemasters went, nuff said.

Hi all

Codemasters were always after the engine, not the game.

The BIS business model of releasing a game that can be modded and content added is completely counter to the game Producer market.

The Game Producer market is the same as the Hollywood film producer market. Produce a glitzy product with plenty of Hooo! Harrr! Looky Here! marketing, of something that has a limited lifespan of say a day. As per Duke Nukem, COD etc. Then sell them the sequel. Hence the publish/producer's interest in owning the Name Of the Game.

NOTE WELL! I did not say the Hollywood Director or Actor Market. They are like developers they want to make the best product.

The problem is the producer/publisher market where the concept of built in obsolescence is king.

So on a practical level in order for a producer/publisher to make their vast profits they must control all output; a game that allows users to make their own content is an anathema to them.

BIS did not just give the users the editor, they gave them the whole development environment!

Now BIS needs to take the next step which is commoditizing the user developed content with a user development license model that allows users to produce and sell their own games via a BIS Apps Market.

When BIS do that say bye bye to the game producers/publishers, once again game developing will be king.

By the way I think this is happening across all entertainment industries. The Game Industry, The Music Industry, The Film Industry anyone who saw Monters understands that.

You just do not need the capital to produce anymore.

Kind Regards walker

I remember reading or listening to something where a BIS was doing research for a Vietnam OFP/ArmA and was interviewing vietnam veterans and they decided not to go that route cause of how horrible the storys/war was???'

Did I see that many years ago?

You are correct, that was an interview from many years ago for one of the major czech gaming sites (I think it was Bonusweb.cz). I distinctively remember Marek saying something among the lines of "It would be difficult to keep player motivated, because the only way to actually win would be to turn back and fly home."

There is not a single reason. As usual in business relations, once negatives seem to overcome positives on any of the two sides, the relationship is likely to break. Do not expect to be revealed a lot more until this all is very old history, no more touching anybody.

The hypnotoad commands you to give it more details! :D

I heard it was because the BIS dudes once had a wild orgy fest party at their stuido with hookers and booze and didnt invite the codies round.

Thats what i heard anyway.... :j:

Now BIS needs to take the next step which is commoditizing the user developed content with a user development license model that allows users to produce and sell their own games via a BIS Apps Market.

No, I never want to see this. The ArmA community is too small for people to be charging for content. Everybody complains that mods already aren't used enough in MP, that will drop further if they start charging.

I'm fine with BIS releasing paid things once in a while, but I think the community made stuff should remain free. If people wanna try to sell their stuff, they can... but I don't know how many people would be willing to pay.

Hi GossamerSolid

The reason I am saying this to break the hold of the Publisher/Producers that currently control the market by preventing Developers from comming through. All they want is the sequel market of four hour game life that so typyfy the gaming market now.

I am talking about releasing new games using the engine not MODs of ArmA straight.

I suggest MODs that are in a historicly different era like the WWII MOD that has been granted a license are as close to the original as needs be. So Napolionic and Roman era games should be able to license but should the only developers be those that can find a half a million in capital up front?

Again it chains the developers to the capital owning publishers and producers.

What about using it a Sci Fi game or a Detective game or heck even a golf game. This engine is capable of doing any of those.

I would like the ability for Modders to develop their MODs to sufficient a degree that BIS agree that deserve to be able to make money from producing their work.

And the plane fact is one of the major engines is going to do this. I would prefer it was BIS rather than say the CRY engine or the other Publisher/Producer owned engines.

Kind Regards walker

We refuse to spell integrity as inte$rity ;)

I believe you should probably read this article. It's an open letter to the ArmA community from Marek Španěl.

In the years immediately following the original release of Operation Flashpoint, our focus was based on riding on the wave of its success. Operation Flashpoint: Resistance was released one year later and to many of Bohemia's developers it is their favourite game to play to date. Sometimes, though, I feel we made a mistake not taking this even further, especially on the multiplayer and engine side, and by not extending it into a full-blown sequel. However, we didn't want to create a sequel at all back then. Instead, we wanted to do something completely different: an RPG Wild West game. Aside from prototyping it, we started numerous other ventures simultaneously: OFP: Elite for Xbox, VBS1, OFP2 in Vietnam and several other projects that did not come to fruition, but elements of which fed directly into later games. VBS1 was struggling to establish itself within the serious military domain (where its biggest rival was, surprisingly, a heavily modified Operation Flashpoint known as DARWARS Ambush!).

OFP: Elite took many years to complete and was not only a major technical challenge but also a commercial problem for Bohemia Interactive, amidst a controversial critical reception with reviews ranging from 1/10 to 9/10. Most importantly it was completely overshadowed by the launch of the Xbox 360 at the same time. For our development team this project forced us to handle various things differently, especially to be more organized and, in the end, this was beneficial for the growth of the company. Developing for a console means that there are many more regulations and compliance procedures. These can cause delays on the one hand, but forced us to streamline, polish and optimize on the other hand. We were also able to identify our technology's bottlenecks when applied to a fixed (and often less powerful than PC) hardware platform. These were all lessons we try to bring forward with us into the future.

Five years ago, Bohemia Interactive was almost completely exhausted, both morally and financially. Sales of the original OFP were slowing down (still, it's highly notable that the game has managed to live for so long), and new developments were not going too well. Our relationship with Codemasters, the former publisher, was utterly broken. Various legal and contractual problems that made it difficult to establish a relationship with a new publisher. At the same time, Bohemia Interactive had been trying to put together the extremely overambitious Game 2; a total military life simulator with three extremely large and fully destructible environments (Chernarus, Takistan and Basta), very detailed vegetation and complex physical simulation powered by ODE. This was simply too much to handle. The decision was made to take as much of the new engine improvements as possible from OFP: Elite for Xbox (most notably the streaming of data into memory and pixel shaders) and create a game partly based on revamped Cold War Crisis assets. The result is now known as Arma (initially titled OFP Rearmed). Unlike “Game 2â€, this would have to be created relatively quickly, within a budget and most importantly on time. A follow up to VBS1 (so far only a moderate success), powered by a heavily modified Arma 1 engine was also in the making by the growing Bohemia Interactive Australia team, composed of some of the very finest and talented members of the OFP community.

Hmmm so Game2 had Chernarus and Takistan already in it? Meaning what we have been playing are just touched up versions?

I wonder what this "Basta" island looked like though.

I wonder what this "Basta" island looked like though.

mfw i googled for Basta island and it comes up with a greek holiday resort

http://www.gozakynthos.gr/villas/puntabasta/