developing a game after it goes gold

[Khorak]

In defense of CA, Bioware had a hell of alot of leverage in dealing with publishers after the phenomenal success of Baldur's Gate and its expansion pack. When they followed it up with Baldur's Gate II, an even bigger seller and considered one of the best rpgs of all time, it became essentially a seller's market for Bioware's properties and ideas. I'm sure all subsequent contracts gave Bioware sweet deals and a great deal of say with regards to content, support, etc.

Not to mention Bioware were holding the D&D license, and have practically no competitors in the realm of top town stat-run RPGs. Combined with a quite obvious reputation for extreme quality (they're like Blizzard used to be, it's frightening) and enthusiastic post-release support, any publisher can be pretty much guaranteed a cash cow of massive proportions, complete with craploads of expansions and continued consumer interest through the support Bioware provide. Publishers would be shitting kittens to get their hands on that much moolah.

[Mayfield The Conqueror]

Not to mention Bioware were holding the D&D license, and have practically no competitors in the realm of top town stat-run RPGs. Combined with a quite obvious reputation for extreme quality (they're like Blizzard used to be, it's frightening) and enthusiastic post-release support, any publisher can be pretty much guaranteed a cash cow of massive proportions, complete with craploads of expansions and continued consumer interest through the support Bioware provide. Publishers would be shitting kittens to get their hands on that much moolah.

That and no one makes RPG's anymore.. can you name 3 that were released for the PC in 2004? They are considered the #1 RPG maker and they can basically do what they want.

And correction: NWN 2 is being developed by another studio for Bioware. Bioware is currently developing another RPG called Jade Empire.

No one has mentioned the obvious restrictions for this game.. this game was marketed and hyped more than any strategy game I have ever seen. With the History Channel tie ins as well as commercials the publisher had a lot riding on the game being released about the same time that the marketing hype hit. The marketers must have planned all of this a year in advance, and the developer (CA) probably had to have pretty hard release date. They could not fall back on Blizzards classic "when its done" release date, they had to have it out in Sept 2004. This could be a reason for a rushed product.