BioWare is a game company that is currently owned by Electronic Arts (EA). It specializes in making role playing games that usually involve deep and engaging stories.
Good luck to them, sad to leave them leaving the industry for a bit. They've both been burning on all cylinders for years now, so a long break seems in order.
Was expecting this to happen for a long time now. It's a shame that Bioware, once a great company known for their excellent rpgs, now is a company that lost both the trust of their fans and 2 of the greatest game creators of this industry.
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.
My question is, what do you mean by "Did"? Are they programmers? Writers? Creative directors? Or did they just make use of their 'remuneration' to help fund projects that suited their tastes? I wasn't really too into the personalities back when those games were being made, but every interview I saw them on in the past 5 years, they seemed like mildly interested spokespeople at best.
Critical reception for SWTOR was pretty high (85% metacritic), just like every other new MMO; the inevitable crash has nothing to do with those oft positive opinions though.
@Vegetable_Side_Dish: Not that EA doesn't deserve the lion's share of blame for buying and creatively killing off almost all those studios, but they had nothing to do with 38 Studios being shut down. They only published Kingdoms of Amalur. As in, made the discs and sent out the copies through their distribution network. That's why people join EA partners, because they don't have that distribution network.
Not like Dr. Ray has been responsible for too much as of late. I think that BioWare does need a managerial shakeup since the media hasn't been too kind to them recently (mostly unjust).
Not like Dr. Ray has been responsible for too much as of late. I think that BioWare does need a managerial shakeup since the media hasn't been too kind to them recently (mostly unjust).
Are you serious? I've seen gaming sites attack anyone who dare speak against Bioware during the whole Mass Effect 3 backlash.
Not like Dr. Ray has been responsible for too much as of late. I think that BioWare does need a managerial shakeup since the media hasn't been too kind to them recently (mostly unjust).
Are you serious? I've seen gaming sites attack anyone who dare speak against Bioware during the whole Mass Effect 3 backlash.
I would like to see these sites.
I post on the BioWare Social Network and it's the most negative place on earth. I've seen negativity on here, IGN... what place are you talking about?
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.
Oh, Mike Laidlaw is still around. Thank goodness. After all, the creative mind behind Dragon Age 2, and the man who worked a little bit on Jade Empire and Sonic Chronicles, is truly the kind of creative genius that will save BioWare now that they're making Command & Conquer games.
Good riddance. Now all that's left is for everyone else to be let go/absorbed, their assets liquidated, and for all their IPs to be left rotting in archives where it belongs.
I just read a tweet from Ben Fritz pointing out that it's been five years ago this month that EA bought bioware, so they're contracts just may be up. They were in charge of a lot more than just a single studio out of Edmonton, and maybe that's just a lot more than they really wanted out of the deal. Also, the last 2 years haven't been great for them, and with a $200 million project going in directions they never planned, it's hard not to see why maybe they don't want to do this anymore. And it would explain why they are going out at the same time. It's also possible that with the way EA's stock has been going, that there is going to be a big shakeup of executives, and this is just the start of things to come.
Seems like they stayed on for contractual reasons and are now ready to leave. They are entrepreneurs and investors who formed a company to make money which it did and they sold it for a ton of money and secured its future. I can see why they got out but I seriously doubt if this actually effects the quality of the games they make.
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.
My question is, what do you mean by "Did"? Are they programmers? Writers? Creative directors? Or did they just make use of their 'remuneration' to help fund projects that suited their tastes? I wasn't really too into the personalities back when those games were being made, but every interview I saw them on in the past 5 years, they seemed like mildly interested spokespeople at best.
I've always wondered the same thing. As great a sales pitch as they make, and a sort of quasi-uncle-gamer vibe they have, I've never been all that sure what they do exactly other than help fund the projects, and as such never held them responsible for the successes or failures of BioWare. Ergo, I'm not really moved by their decision. If anything, I'm amused with their weird choices of future endeavors, being "doctors" and everything. Impact investing and beer? Awesome! I guess?
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.
That's too bad...but I understand how Dr. Z feels. I've been going through a bit of that myself recently. Games are losing their allure for me. Probably due to the fact that everything is a sequel and nobody wants to try anything new or different. The industry is going to stagnate and die if no-one wants to, or can do anything original.
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