Greg Zeschuk, Ray Muzyka Are Leaving BioWare

This is really depressing news.

I wish the best for the two doctors, and I will always remember them for giving me the best Star Wars game ever: Knights of the Old Republic.

I blame Bono!

It's a sad day in video games when you see two men who fought so hard to build a reputation of quality be squandered by a parent company whose business philosophy is sequels means more money........ EA just lost customer in this guy (me), unless they can prove to me they can churn out quality RPG games.

i wonder what would have happened, if they had made kotor 3. as everyone wanted and not swtor.

@Wrighteous86 said:

@Kidavenger said:

I wonder why they even had to make the announcement; it just seems like it will do a lot of damage to EA and Bioware's image when these guys probably aren't nearly as hands on as when they made their/Bioware's good reputation and any games coming out in the future probably wouldn't be any different had they remained involved or not. They could have just slowly just stopped coming in and it's not like they are off to work at some other developer so nobody other than upper management would have really known.

Best of luck to them both, I hope they find their way back into making great games again when they are ready.

Journalists would've caught wind anyway and reported on it. This way they can get right out in front of it. Also, they deserve the respect of having their departure from their company announced and not hidden away like Harry Potter under the stairs.

@Wrighteous86 Pretty much this. If they hadn't made an announcement the press would attempt to dig up some scandalous shit when it's really not the case. It's also a chance for fans of their games and projects to look back and appreciate their contributions to the industry. I'd shake their hands and say thanks if given the opportunity.

@Kidavenger said:

I wonder why they even had to make the announcement; it just seems like it will do a lot of damage to EA and Bioware's image when these guys probably aren't nearly as hands on as when they made their/Bioware's good reputation and any games coming out in the future probably wouldn't be any different had they remained involved or not. They could have just slowly just stopped coming in and it's not like they are off to work at some other developer so nobody other than upper management would have really known.

Best of luck to them both, I hope they find their way back into making great games again when they are ready.

Journalists would've caught wind anyway and reported on it. This way they can get right out in front of it. Also, they deserve the respect of having their departure from their company announced and not hidden away like Harry Potter under the stairs.

I really hate EA.

Maybe they'll go back to Medicine.

I wonder why they even had to make the announcement; it just seems like it will do a lot of damage to EA and Bioware's image when these guys probably aren't nearly as hands on as when they made their/Bioware's good reputation and any games coming out in the future probably wouldn't be any different had they remained involved or not. They could have just slowly just stopped coming in and it's not like they are off to work at some other developer so nobody other than upper management would have really known.

Best of luck to them both, I hope they find their way back into making great games again when they are ready.

Watching your creative vision became a sequel spewing factory for the last 5 years, would be depressing.

Yep not surprised. Thanks EA! We love you!

Oh wait DA3 on Frostbite2? Hmmm I wonder if this means no mods for pc players. A Dragon Age that isn't mod friendly, imagine that. Yeah, as someone stated earlier, "EA with their hands in everything". =/

@AhmadMetallic said:

@Make_Me_Mad said:

I think the only really unexpected part here is that they're retiring from the Game industry altogether. When Zeschuk says he has no more passion for the business, you have to wonder what kind of soul-devouring happens at EA.

bam

bam

@Hailinel said:

As Jerry Holkins (Penny Arcade's Tycho) noted, their departure is almost five years to the day that EA originally bought Bioware out. They may very well have been obligated to stay for five years (or as some others noted on Twitter, basically spent the past five years in golden handcuffs. They got a nice payday, but they couldn't go anywhere else as a result.) Whatever the case though, they're no longer obligated to stick around while EA and the "new" Bioware tarnishes whatever's left of the old Bioware.
Of course, five years ago, EA was all about the song and dance, telling everyone that Bioware wouldn't become another Westwood or Bullfrog. And they were right, to an extent. Bioware has more or less become another Maxis; they're still around in name, but the quality of their output has diminished greatly.......

It's a question of finances. Being smaller and independent doesn't mean you're in a better position than you'd be if you were bought out. We frankly don't know what Bioware's financial situation looked like before they agreed to being bought out, nor do we know what sort of incentives EA might have offered in the deal.
Point being, you can say "no." It's just not always the best idea to do so....

Agreeing to having your company being bought out is not the same thing as selling out. Bioware is and always has been a business, and the decision to allow the purchase by EA was a business decision that, at the time, the doctors almost certainly felt was a positive move for the company.

your comments speak the truth.

ABANDON SHIP!

Good riddance.

Wow that sounded harsh but sadly that was my immediate response on hearing the news. I never would have dreamed I'd see the developers of the Baldurs Gate series decline so rapidly.

Sad to see this happen. It feels like yesterday many of us would list BioWare in "Top/Favorite Developers" threads. It's scary to see a success like BioWare reach this point as fast as it all happened.

Under*

Gutted, the company has been on a slow decline with EA, even though I have enjoyed all the games they released infer them to some capacity. Feel like the company was loosing the core Internet using gamer favour... (or so the Internet has told me)

Man, Zeschuk's comments sound like something akin to a suicide note.

Depressing.

"Nailed it!"

-EA

Good job, EA.

Baldur's Gate 3 please.

@PinstripeHourglass: Good a reason as any to retire!

NOOOOOOO....why? EA just had to destroy their souls. They couldn't leave well enough alone. What a shame. Good luck docs on your next epic adventure.

I always knew that by entering the MMO market, Bioware were going to shoot themselves in the foot.

Its an end of an era, for sure. Perhaps the eventual end of Bioware, altogether.

Those statements made me worried for Bioware going forward

@BestUsernameEver said:

@Picard said:

@Hailinel said:

@Picard said:

Fuck those guys, enjoy your tattoos lol.

That's what happens when you sell out. Isn't that right Giant Bomb.

Agreeing to having your company being bought out is not the same thing as selling out. Bioware is and always has been a business, and the decision to allow the purchase by EA was a business decision that, at the time, the doctors almost certainly felt was a positive move for the company.

Oh come man, selling your soul to EA wasn't going to bring them nothing but trouble. They knew that, they just didn't care then EA started flashing the green.

RIP Bioware.

Being owned by a company and making good games isn't selling out, It's surviving. Being acquired by EA almost always 'kills' the company that was acquired, either by being forced to produce it's successful IP over and over until the talent leaves, or EA shuttering the company and choosing it's talent for another studio. Knowing that, I don't really understand why Bioware agreed to be bought, they knew the track record. But surely they had a good reason, or needed a long term plan, and that was EA. Stop just assuming being acquired is '4 da dough, lol yall deserve 2 die for bein greedy.' Business is more complicated than that.

And they were bought under Riccitiello regime when it was new and promising a better EA. Back then EA did seem to be turning a corner, but they started losing money and losing ground to Activision so they reverted to their old ways. Sad. I predict the Bioware name ceases to exist in the new 5 years.

@cursormonkey said:

EA drove the doctors to gambling and alcoholism!!!

You win! :)

Baldur's Gate is one of my most loved games series, but I'm more interested in Zeschuk's beer shenanigans than I have been in any Bioware game post-acquisition.

EA drove the doctors to gambling and alcoholism!!!

@Terramagi said:

@Picard said:

Despite the billion dollar offer, Newell said Valve would prefer to "disintegrate" than ever sell out.

“It’s way more likely we would head in that direction than say, ‘Let’s find some giant company that wants to cash us out and wait two or three years to have our employment agreements terminate,’" he said.

Is it just a coincidence he just said this?,... lol

Seems like he may of been speaking about something,.. <_<

"Live free or die."

- Gabe Newell, the One Free Man.

You are followed, my motherfucking sir!

I'd feel sorry for Bioware, but then again, I'd just end up feeling sorrier for Black Isle.

Sad to hear their departure. While I didn't play much Shattered Steel, I've enjoyed their games since the release day of Baldur's Gate I

@PinstripeHourglass said:

Man, that's sad. I can't read Zeschuck's letter as anything but "Greg Zeschuk has retired to drink himself to death."

Im sure if they do a poll, most of EAs employees will do the same thing.

@GioVANNI: The UK isn't the entire market, a game can do well in one region and still not meet sales expectations.

EA: they'll chew you up, spit you out and then re-use your name a decade later when they think people have forgotten. I kid, somewhat.

Good for them.

@Picard said:

Despite the billion dollar offer, Newell said Valve would prefer to "disintegrate" than ever sell out.

“It’s way more likely we would head in that direction than say, ‘Let’s find some giant company that wants to cash us out and wait two or three years to have our employment agreements terminate,’" he said.

Is it just a coincidence he just said this?,... lol

Seems like he may of been speaking about something,.. <_<

"Live free or die."

- Gabe Newell, the One Free Man.

Man, that's sad. I can't read Zeschuck's letter as anything but "Greg Zeschuk has retired to drink himself to death."

Despite the billion dollar offer, Newell said Valve would prefer to "disintegrate" than ever sell out.

“It’s way more likely we would head in that direction than say, ‘Let’s find some giant company that wants to cash us out and wait two or three years to have our employment agreements terminate,’" he said.

Is it just a coincidence he just said this?,... lol

Seems like he may of been speaking about something,.. <_<

Bioware should try a complete new IP. And I mean completely new. Going back to Baulder's Gate and Jade Empire would automatically be met with mixed reaction (desperate cash grab!) where an entirely new thing would help reset expectations where at worse they wouldn't know what to think without seeing it.

They probably had a argument with the big cheese of EA, just like what happened to Richard Garriott when he left the company in 2000. I won't be surprised if the next people to leave are those from Visceral Games.

@ZombiePie said:

Huh...so I guess that means there's no real hope of a Jade Empire 2. Now mind you I recognize and concede all of Jade Empire's gameplay issues. It's just such an interesting world and setting that I'd like to see revisited.

Hear, hear!

Aside from gameplay I had issues with the ham-fisted way they interpreted Chinese culture and folklore that I grew up with... but it's so rare to see it at all in games! I enjoyed Jade Empire for the novelty, and would have loved to see them do another.

@BestUsernameEver said:

Stop just assuming being acquired is '4 da dough, lol yall deserve 2 die for bein greedy.' Business is more complicated than that.

Yeah you know, besides when it's not. They will all talk and talk about the benefits and long term goals - in the end EA waved a billion dollars in their faces'. They bailed once their contact was up with EA - to live happily ever after on the backs of longtime Bioware employees and costumers.

Hey I guess it's their baby, doesn't mean it's not a dick move.

* No doubt I'm jumping to some conclusions here. But we all seen this coming a mile away -

=(

I'd imagine as far back as the sale of the company the doctors knew they both planned on leaving in the relatively near future and they wanted to ensure that they're staff and the studio would have a firm footing after they left, handing it off to somebody else would be a decent way to do this.

By all accounts they were good men, and did good work for a long time, so I wish them the best.

@Picard said:

@Hailinel said:

@Picard said:

Fuck those guys, enjoy your tattoos lol.

That's what happens when you sell out. Isn't that right Giant Bomb.

Agreeing to having your company being bought out is not the same thing as selling out. Bioware is and always has been a business, and the decision to allow the purchase by EA was a business decision that, at the time, the doctors almost certainly felt was a positive move for the company.

Oh come man, selling your soul to EA wasn't going to bring them nothing but trouble. They knew that, they just didn't care then EA started flashing the green.

RIP Bioware.

Being owned by a company and making good games isn't selling out, It's surviving. Being acquired by EA almost always 'kills' the company that was acquired, either by being forced to produce it's successful IP over and over until the talent leaves, or EA shuttering the company and choosing it's talent for another studio. Knowing that, I don't really understand why Bioware agreed to be bought, they knew the track record. But surely they had a good reason, or needed a long term plan, and that was EA. Stop just assuming being acquired is '4 da dough, lol yall deserve 2 die for bein greedy.' Business is more complicated than that.

@GioVANNI

@Nettacki

I have never been happier to be wrong. I heard this from a certain playstation podcast that it has sold poorly. Unfortunately, when I did a little research, the #s are kind of bad. Under a million for a game that size is not great.

http://www.vgchartz.com/game/70485/sleeping-dogs/

@Hailinel said:

@Picard said:

Fuck those guys, enjoy your tattoos lol.

That's what happens when you sell out. Isn't that right Giant Bomb.

Agreeing to having your company being bought out is not the same thing as selling out. Bioware is and always has been a business, and the decision to allow the purchase by EA was a business decision that, at the time, the doctors almost certainly felt was a positive move for the company.

Oh come man, selling your soul to EA wasn't going to bring them nothing but trouble. They knew that, they just didn't care then EA started flashing the green.

RIP Bioware.

@Picard said:

Fuck those guys, enjoy your tattoos lol.

That's what happens when you sell out. Isn't that right Giant Bomb.

Agreeing to having your company being bought out is not the same thing as selling out. Bioware is and always has been a business, and the decision to allow the purchase by EA was a business decision that, at the time, the doctors almost certainly felt was a positive move for the company.