Greg Zeschuk, Ray Muzyka Are Leaving BioWare

Yeah, but Casey Hudson, James Ohlen, David Gaider, Mike Laidlaw, the guys who had creative positions at BioWare, the leaders on the games you love, they're still there.

You tell me James Ohlen is leaving to start his own studio, now I'm interested.

All the best to the Doctors in their quest to make homemade beer and hustle fools at poker.

Can we officially declare Bioware dead now?

Boo EA. Hooray beer

So wait, is the first statement from Dr Ray and the second one from Dr Greg? Because as it stands they both just kinda have "said Zeschuk" written after them.

Damn... This is some rough shit. I guess I'm a little glad I decided I didn't really want to play more Mass Effect after 3 anyway. Best to the doctors in their future endeavors.

sad day for gaming indeed

God damn the internet.

Thank god that Gabe Newell is still interested in helming Valve. The moment he's ready to cash in his chips will be dark times :(

Bioware officially EA stamped, who could see it coming....

@ArbitraryWater said:

...the constant whining of their fans and the overbearing directives of their corporate overlords just served as additional motivation.

Yup, that two-way squeeze'll wear you down pretty quick.

Imagine pouring your life into something, pushing back on the suits while they breath down your neck and then when your all done you sit back to relax and bask in the glow of completing a huge project and BOOM, your email is full of death-threats and people demanding that you justify your actions. And then, as if that wasn't enough, you get called back into work to "fix" your game.

I wish them well and frankly, I would take the job of professional beer drinker over, well, over anything, anyday. :P

Maybe they got tired of pouring their heart and soul into entertainment that takes years to develop and for us to enjoy only to be criticized by whining little no talent bitches on the internet. The industry just became less interesting, and weaker today.

It's been a long time coming and I'm happy gentlemen I really respected for a long time are leaving a sinking ship (in terms of what made Bioware great way back when...) and won't disgrace a glorious heritage by letting it become a mere lifeless, corporate brand under their name.

I also enjoy having a nice mean-spirited, sadistic laugh on behalf of the nitwits running their ignorant fucking mouths a while back when this first broke in the shape of a rumour. Oh, how they went on and on about how this was never going to happen. I'm glad it turned out this way, painlessly, and now I can finally forget about Bioware. That or I will learn about this entirely new EA brand actually doing something fresh and useful. Which is very unlikely but one can always hope.

Cray. CRAY CRAY CRAY

Aww yeah, here comes an internet argument! Cue the EA haters! Cue the individuals that, for some reason, feel they need to stick up for a gigantic corporation with a history of screwing up the work of the studios they acquire!

Wow, totally unexpected... Wonder if SWTOR took away their love for the gaming industry.

What can I say? When it comes to this stuff, EA is a leader in its field. Whatever, though... now I want some beer.

Holy shit.

Edit: R.I.P. BioWare of old. We knew you were on your death legs, but still had a sliver of hope that you'd survive. Now to see how the new BioWare, completely controlled by EA, will do.

I thought they left already. >:C

Thanks for selling out to EA, guys!! Great decision all around and it's worked out great for everyone.

Kinda saw this coming, Bioware is certainly a company that I'll want to keep an eye on over the coming years. Who's to say if they'll be as good as they have been in the past, completely go out of business or somehow rise and above and beyond all expectations. Seems like anything could happen to them right now.

Feels like they're jumping ship.

@MattBodega said:

Well....I guess that's the end, then.

I think that happened a long time ago.

I hope they can still make DA3 into a good game. But I fear they tried too much to make ME and DA into mainstream games. Not much is left of KotOR, ME1 and DA1 in the new games.

Glad they are leaving and hopefully they will start a new studio together.

I can see working their asses out for The Old Republic draining some of the passion Zeschuk talks about. Its a sad situation, and most people don't understand than making games is a life consuming job.

In any case, I wish them both best of lucks in their future endeavors...

This may be my ignorance speaking, but what exactly do we attribute to these Doctors that is so irreplaceable? Dragon Age: Origins was old school fun without a lot of new ideas to credit to anyone, and Mass Effect is credited to Casey Hudson and Drew Karpyshyn. They don't even seem to have important credits in Kotor. So what did they do that I should be fearing for their absence?

Been burned out on Bioware since Mass Effect 2.

Bioware is a pretty big company and if you've been listening to these guys on podcasts and interviews with some people at gog.com, they've been setting up people to take their place for years now. They will have some shifts in the company, and maybe they'll evolve and survive, and maybe they won't. There will always be someone else ready to make games.

I don't have any reason to believe they're leaving for anything other than what they've said. Best of luck to them, I've had fun with their products since Shattered Steel.

Oh man, abandon ship!

Sad day :-(

I would say they drove home pretty sad the day they left, but EA would only let them do so if they bought the Parking Garage Pass for $10.

EA: ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL

@Veektarius said:

This may be my ignorance speaking, but what exactly do we attribute to these Doctors that is so irreplaceable? Dragon Age: Origins was old school fun without a lot of new ideas to credit to anyone, and Mass Effect is credited to Casey Hudson and Drew Karpyshyn. They don't even seem to have important credits in Kotor. So what did they do that I should be fearing for their absence?

Mostly, they are well known figures in the industry.

The fact they abandon a pretty well remunerated career in medicine to pursue their dream of making games (something far less common in the 90s), and they did Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights and KOTOR (three of the most well regarded WRPG series of all times) cemented their reputation.

We will always have Mass Effect 1. Never forget!

I wish people would stop fucking blaming EA for everything. Yes, they're evil, we get it, but they are not necessarily the cause of every piece of gaming news that isn't sunshine and rainbows.

How the hell do you people know for certain that these two fellows are not, in fact, tired of the life-consuming job that is making video games and ready to move on to a different chapter in their lives?

It was a good run while it lasted. Thank you, Doctors for the great games. Godspeed!

Sounds like all the mindless internet haters got to Dr. Greg. It's a damn shame.

Maybe we they stop calling every new EA Studio that opens up "Bioware" now?

@Rasgueado said:

Bioware is a pretty big company and if you've been listening to these guys on podcasts and interviews with some people at gog.com, they've been setting up people to take their place for years now. They will have some shifts in the company, and maybe they'll evolve and survive, and maybe they won't. There will always be someone else ready to make games.

I don't have any reason to believe they're leaving for anything other than what they've said. Best of luck to them, I've had fun with their products since Shattered Steel.

Yeah, I ultimately feel the same. I posted my comment in the other Bioware news item before I even saw this one. What I will always remember of EA's acquisition Bioware was a comic one person drew of EA shooting a hopeful Bioware in the head like all their other dead developer houses. I hope that Bioware can come out of this but when two influential people like that leave, it's harder than most expect it will be to recover.

Glad they are leaving and hopefully they will start a new studio together.

Good run while it lasted. Excited to see what happens with mass effect now. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the games those two made. No amount of complaining will change this tide though.

@believer258 said:

I wish people would stop fucking blaming EA for everything. Yes, they're evil, we get it, but they are not necessarily the cause of every piece of gaming news that isn't sunshine and rainbows.

How the hell do you people know for certain that these two fellows are not, in fact, tired of the life-consuming job that is making video games and ready to move on to a different chapter in their lives?

Occam's Razor.

But, in all seriousness, I think the stress of the constant whining about "Booo, they sell out" and "They are not good any more" they received left and right drained them a lot more than any executive meddling could...

People don't sell their company without planning to leave eventually. This is pretty much a no-brainer. As for the future of Bioware I'm still just as excited as before. I enjoy their games a lot right now and expect to in the future as well.

.. and BOOM GOES THE DYNAMITE!

I respect their decision, but I'm still bummed out about this.

Good luck fellas. Thanks for the games.

Well, I'm sure Bioware will continue without them, but good luck to them both on their new ventures. I know their are a lot of us out there who would love to quit their current jobs and change careers.

Not too surprised, as whiny as their fans are over every god damn thing.

This changes very little about what I think of Bioware though, and even less to my anticipation for DA3.

Part of me wonders if "retirement" is code for a time-based non-compete clause in their contracts.