Bioware is officially dead

[Thanatos 2,847]

As of Sep. 19, 2012, Bioware's founders, Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk have resigned from their posts. At the same time. Presumably to follow other directions, of course, nothing to do with EA running the company's ideas through whatever moron they have running things [/sarcasm]

 

It's a sad day, hopefully some other company steps up to challenge Bethesda for RPG titles, because right now, there are no big game companies that make RPGs besides them, at least for the PC. And Bioware has always had that something with your companions that Bethesda's games always seemed to lack.

 

From Baldur's Gate to Knights of the Old Republic to the original Mass Effect, Bioware has been at the forefront of making great RPGs.

 

Even immediately after its initial takeover, it still created two quality RPGs, Dragon Age: Origins and Mass Effect 2.

 

Sad to see them go and sad to see this day.

[funnygunny 521]

Does this mean Dragon Age 3: Inquistion will not be made/will be shit?

[Thanatos 2,847]

DA3 is going to be made, it's not like EA didn't know that this was coming. It is simply no longer Bioware. Not that that was the case before, it's just "official" now.

[Bucman 891]

EA ruined SWTOR.

[BC 331]

RIP BWare

[Phins4life 271]

Noooooooooo......

 

This sucks. Big time.

[Vin+ 3,121]

"After nearly two decades in video games, I've decided to move on to pursue an entirely different set of challenges," Muzyka wrote. "This has been an incredibly difficult decision to make; after thinking about it for many months, I made the decision to retire from video games back in early April 2012 – at that time I provided six months' notice to EA, to help enable a solid transition for my teams at BioWare." "After nearly twenty years working at BioWare I've decided it's time to move on and pursue something new," Zeschuk said separately. "This decision isn't without significant pain and regret, but it's also something I know I need to do, for myself and my family. I've reached an unexpected point in my life where I no longer have the passion that I once did for the company, for the games, and for the challenge of creation."

 

 

"I'm not going to be working in games for a while, and there's a strong possibility that I won't be back," Zeschuk wrote. "After my departure I'm going to be spending significant time with family and friends, as well as pursuing some personal passion-driven projects related to craft beer. The main project I will be working on is a web-based interview show called The Beer Diaries where I interview notable brewers and showcase their beers. If things go well, I'll work on other beer-related shows, apps and projects. If not, I'll have drunk a lot of tasty beers and may be back in games or even something else completely different. Ultimately time will tell."

 

 

From both of their statements, it seems to me that this is a good thing. When you're no longer interested in what you do, maybe it's time to move on and let someone else take the reins.

 

Time to see what Aaryn Flynn can do.

Edited September 22, 2012 by Vin

[Thanatos 2,847]

I simply don't believe that they both decided to leave at the same time and it had nothing to do with EA's bullshit.

[Favre4Ever+ 4,476]

Probably not a coincidence... But still, when you have your two top dogs talking about not having the passion to do this line of work anymore... That's going to be a problem.

[badgers 380]

EA ruined SWTOR.

 

EA ruins everything dude.

[Duck Fallas 209]

EA ruined my marriage...not my actual marriage, but the commitment I made to playing great games.

[Vin+ 3,121]

http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/09/28/fan-negativity-behind-bioware-founders-departure

 

 

An ex-Bioware developer has claimed the negative fan reaction to Mass Effect 3 and Star Wars: The Old Republic led to company founders Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka leaving both Bioware and the games industry.

 

In an interview with Now Gamer Trent Oster, who worked in senior positions at Bioware from its founding until June 2009, shared that the last time he met up Zeschuk, he was visibly exhausted.

 

“ You have to love games and you put your heart into them to create them. To have the fans creating petitions against the work is pretty hard to take.

 

"The last time I met up with [Greg], I felt his exhaustion,” claimed Oster. "Punch out, eject, get the hell out", was my suggestions to him and it hit closer to the mark than I had realised. I also think the Mass Effect 3 fan reaction and the Old Republic fans' negativity was just too much.

 

"You have to love games and you put your heart into them to create them. To have the fans creating petitions against the work is pretty hard to take, especially when you've spent the last few years crunching overtime to try and ship a game. It can be hard to shut off the overwhelming negativity the internet spews forth, especially when it has your name or the name of your company in it."

 

But while he wasn't hugely surprised about Zeschuk deciding to leave as a result, Oster revealed that he never would have guessed Muzyka would depart as well, as he always considered him an "EA lifer".

 

"Ray surprised me. I had him pegged as an EA lifer," he shared. "My thought was the Ray agenda was to first usurp Frank Gibeau and then later John Riccotello as CEO.

 

“I'm sure the internal culture at EA had pinned the Old Republic conversion to free to play as a failure and hung that completely on Ray, so that would have hurt his upward climb. But, I figured he would fight harder. EA upper management must have been even worse than I thought."

 

Though it originally launched to impressive player numbers, figures for The Old Republic have fallen in recent months and the game is now adopting a free-to-play option from next month. Mass Effect 3, meanwhile, polarised fans of the series with its ending, which eventually led to an alternate one being provided as DLC.

 

[Thanatos 2,847]

... which eventually led to an alternate one being provided as DLC.

 

What type of baloney is that? An alternate ending wasn't provided as DLC.

[Vin+ 3,121]

http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/11/12/mass-effect-4-will-use-frostbite-engine

 

 

 

 

 

BioWare has confirmed that the next Mass Effect will use a version of DICE’s Frostbite engine. In a blog post on BioWare’s official site, BioWare Montreal studio director Yanick Roy noted that the game “will be built with the amazing technology of Frostbite as its foundation” and that it will be “enhanced by many of the systems that the Dragon Age III team has already spent a lot of time building.”

 

It’s worth noting that Roy doesn’t mention Frostbite 2 specifically, suggesting that this could be a next generation version of the engine. Roy also mentioned that the game “will be very respectful of the heritage built over the course of the first three games,” but that “with the original trilogy now concluded and the switch over to a new engine, we are exploring new directions, both on the gameplay and story fronts.” However, “you can still expect the pillars the franchise is known for to be fully intact, including diverse alien races, a huge galaxy to explore, and of course rich, cinematic storytelling.”

 

Roy added that Casey Hudson will remain executive producer, “but he will have a Project Director under him, working in Montreal, leading our development team and making day-to-day decisions for the game.” With the “core” of the team in place, Roy writes that “the next step for us is to have the BioWare Montreal studio grow at an accelerated pace over the next year as we build a team large enough to support the production of what we know is going to be an amazing game in the franchise.” As such, BioWare Montreal is currently hiring for positions including artists, designers, animators, programmers and a development manager.

 

Last week, Hudson said the next Mass Effect is in the “early stages” of production and asked what fans would like to see included. Previously, BioWare hinted that the game will go somewhere new and said it won’t star a character similar to Shepard.

 

[Thanatos 2,847]

Why ask what the fans wanted? They did that for ME3 and obviously didn't listen.

[Vin+ 3,121]

 

http://www.ign.com/a...-of-ea-bear-hug

One of the co-founders of BioWare has explained that his company managed to survive its acquisition by EA because it was well-established enough to cope with pressure from the super-publisher.

 

Speaking to Polygon, Greg Zeschuk said coming through the "EA bear hug" intact enabled the studio behind titles like Jade Empire and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic to evolve.

 

"I think one of the reasons that we survived and succeeded within EA was that our company was mature enough and there was enough good people throughout to handle the EA bear hug — something that is well meaning but vigorous," he said.

 

"We needed to be strong to survive that and I think we did and you evolve from that as well."

 

Since being acquired in 2007, BioWare has released a number of high profile titles for EA. The most notable of these are arguably the titles in the Mass Effect franchise, though Dragon Age: Origins has also been viewed as a high point. Far more trickisome is Star Wars: The Old Republic, the studio's first foray into the MMO space, which launched strongly in 2011 before encountering plummeting sub numbers and going free-to-play late last year.

 

Zeschuk concludes the interview by engaging with past claims that it was negative fan reaction that drove him and his fellow co-founder, Ray Muzyka to leave the company. He admitted that while on some level it had to have been a factor, the main reason was simply that his passion and enthusiasm for games had waned.

 

"Everything's a factor," he explained. "There's nothing that's not a factor, but there's no single one thing. I think the best way I can describe is: Do the same thing for twenty years and it's very, very intense. It's very high pressure. It's very high stress. It's challenging. It's sometimes rewarding and sometimes it's not. And you just get tired of it after awhile. That is probably the easiest way to for me to describe it. Sometimes you just need to change things.

 

"One of the few things I find kind of funny is the responses of the fans, because they sort of respond that they are kind of mad at us for leaving because they think we owe them more games. You know it's sad I wish I could deliver on that, but I don't think I would be as good as I was in that space historically. Like I said, the fire wasn't there."

 

Edited January 29, 2013 by Vin

[Duck Fallas 209]

One of the co-founders of BioWare has explained that his company managed to its acquisition by EA because it was well-established enough to cope with pressure from the super-publisher.

Umm...grammar fail? Or is it a Chiabone fail? I couldn't make much sense out of that opening sentence.

 

Anyway, the founders leaving the company kind of goes to show that power that we as a fanbase can have. He clearly admits that the "negative fan reactions" had something to do wit them leaving the company. While I don't think that any of us wanted them to leave, we bitched enough about the ME3 ending that it seemed as though they felt they had no choice...unless I am misreading.

[Vin+ 3,121]

Umm...grammar fail? Or is it a Chiabone fail? I couldn't make much sense out of that opening sentence.

 

Anyway, the founders leaving the company kind of goes to show that power that we as a fanbase can have. He clearly admits that the "negative fan reactions" had something to do wit them leaving the company. While I don't think that any of us wanted them to leave, we bitched enough about the ME3 ending that it seemed as though they felt they had no choice...unless I am misreading.

 

More like "Someone didn't proofread their article fail". Should be "...managed to survive its acquisition by EA..."

[Thanatos 2,847]

Umm...grammar fail? Or is it a Chiabone fail? I couldn't make much sense out of that opening sentence.

 

Anyway, the founders leaving the company kind of goes to show that power that we as a fanbase can have. He clearly admits that the "negative fan reactions" had something to do wit them leaving the company. While I don't think that any of us wanted them to leave, we bitched enough about the ME3 ending that it seemed as though they felt they had no choice...unless I am misreading.

 

For good reason. ME3's ending is the worst one I've ever experienced. Felt like someone sucker-punched me. If they originally had the EC on there, I'd be "Meh." But they didn't.

[Bucman 891]

All this DLC shit pisses me off sometimes, I pay 60 dollars for a game and then they release DLC months later for new maps, content and charge you for it.

[Thanatos 2,847]

Agreed Bucman. The only game I have ever loved their DLC is the Borderlands series. I get that they're adding new content and everything, not just fixing existing problems.

 

It still just seems wrong somehow, and I'm not sure I can pinpoint why.

[Vin+ 3,121]

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/04/10/bioware-founder-disputes-public-perception-of-ea

 

 

 

 

 

BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk has spoken out in defence of EA, saying the mega-publisher doesn't force changes onto developers but rather gives them enough freedom to make their own mistakes.

 

In an interview with Games Industry, Zeschuk explained that his experience with EA had been a largely positive one, though the greater resources that became available through EA were slightly overwhelming at first.

 

"The best analogy I use, in a positive way, is EA gives you enough rope to hang yourself," he revealed.

 

"It was really interesting because we really made all the choices we wanted to make ourselves; these are all things we wanted to try. And that's something to remember - while we were independent we didn't have quite the resources we had as part of EA, and then we got to EA and it was like "wow we can do all this stuff." We had to be really thoughtful about what we wanted to focus on."

 

Zeschuk goes on to describe that he clearly understood how stuff worked with EA about six months after joining the company, and it wasn't a case of being dictated to; quite the opposite.

 

"We were sitting around asking how do we do stuff [and] it dawned on us, you just do it," he explained. "That was the biggest revelation, that rope that EA gives you; they don't second-guess you, they don't say you shouldn't do that. We had complete creative control over a lot of it; some fans didn't like some of it and some of it was experimental, quite frankly."

 

Despite this, Zeschuk does acknowledge that working for a larger company did mean BioWare had to think about profitability a lot more, admitting, "While you're taking all these creative risks in trying crazy stuff you almost have to simultaneously focus on the bottom line. The top line is not enough.

 

"In some ways, being independent I would say we had to be more conservative - being part of a big company, you could be more aggressive and try stuff. I think that's something people [struggle with] when they join EA; they do too much or they do too little."

 

EA acquired BioWare back in 2007, just before the release of the hugely successful Mass Effect Franchise. This isn't the first time that Zeschuk has spoken out about the experience of joining EA; earlier this year, he spoke about the "bear hug" BioWare experience upon joining EA, explaining that the studio was thankfully strong enough to survive.

 

EA's come under a lot of flack lately; the company was named "Worst Company in America" for the second year running yesterday. Upon discovering the nomination, company COO Peter Moore responded with a blog post engaging with some of the most common criticisms levelled at EA.

 

[Thanatos 2,847]

Bullshit.

[Favre4Ever+ 4,476]

I like how EA was compelled into responding to that Consumerist poll. lol. And they responded with not much fervor and the complaints he focused on were ones made by small groups of people that are easily dismissed. And the complaints addressed that didn't fall under that category, he didn't really answer.

 

Always On IS a problem, especially for EA who has the worst MP servers in the history of gaming.

[Vin+ 3,121]

Bullshit.

How so? What benefit is it to him, a guy who is no longer affiliated with the company, or really at this point even affiliated with anything video game related, to say something that's incorrect or untrue after the fact?