Fuck all of this Bioware/EA hate, I'm just ready for their next title to come out:

I can't say I'm too surprised. BioWare is a shell of its former self at this point and has been getting consistently worse this generation, all while being under the oppressive thumb of EA.

@Hailinel said:

@Enigma777

@AlexW00d

@pbhawks45 said:

@AlexW00d said:

Didn't this happen some months ago?

E: Also what's the point in replacing the and with a comma? Such a lazy trend in news articles.

That's called AP Style. What's with people bitching without knowing what the fuck they're talking about? Such a lazy trend in internet commenting.

If I knew, I wouldn't mention it would I? No need to be a cunt.

Don't worry. AP style is a bunch of outdated nonsense anyways.

No, it's not.

When it means adding in grammatically incorrect commas, I think I'm with Enigma on this.

Godspeed sirs. :(

Well holy fack! This just caught me completely Una-WARE.

Not remotely surprised. It wouldn't surprise me if there had been a clause in the contract when Bioware was bought by EA committing them to stay on for a set amount of time and that time has just expired.

Well, good luck chaps. You made a bunch of money, so I guess it's time to go and enjoy it.

this is a huge blow not only on Bioware but on the gaming world. Still these guys gave us great games and we( or me lol) will always appreciate that. Fucking Star Wars lmao.

@Jace said:

Fuck all of this Bioware/EA hate, I'm just ready for their next title to come out:

indeed

@Dick_Mohawk: Agreed. According to Tycho from PA today is 5 years exactly from the day of the buyout.

The quality of their games has dropped in the past couple years... Maybe they'll hire someone who is actually interested in making ganes now!

Guess what Ray and Greg had very little to no design input since Neverwinter Nights. This will have no impact on the games.

Man..that sucks.

Best wishes to them and BioWare. I'm sure they played a big role in the vision of the company but I wouldn't be so quick to write off the other hundreds of BioWare employees as clowns and idiots who will undoubtedly make garbage quality games from without them. Having said that, Dragon Age III will really be a make or break for whether this is the start of another great era for the company or the beginning of the end.

@Packie said:

Hey guys, Obsidian is still hiring. Just saying.

That would be like Mark Zuckerberg leaving Facebook to work for MySpace or something.

@Hailinel said:

@Enigma777

@AlexW00d

@pbhawks45 said:

@AlexW00d said:

Didn't this happen some months ago?

E: Also what's the point in replacing the and with a comma? Such a lazy trend in news articles.

That's called AP Style. What's with people bitching without knowing what the fuck they're talking about? Such a lazy trend in internet commenting.

If I knew, I wouldn't mention it would I? No need to be a cunt.

Don't worry. AP style is a bunch of outdated nonsense anyways.

No, it's not.

When it means adding in grammatically incorrect commas, I think I'm with Enigma on this.

also this 

Damn, its most likely because I'm from Edmonton but I've always felt a little more attatched to bio-ware than most. They've been lacking in quality with the last couple of releases but this just seems like the last nail in the coffin. hopefully the studio continues on to make better more original games than as of late.

It's a shame...

I guess this isn't really a surprise, but it really does suck. That's the last of the credit the BioWare brand buys gone.

@Vegetable_Side_Dish: Who is that quote from?

It’s unclear why Zeschuk and Muzyka are leaving.

Is it? Is it really?

Bioware has been slipping long before this. No longer do they possess any franchises that I will buy day one no questions.

Now it's time to show and prove...or dig their grave next to Bullfrog and Pandemic.

Did anyone even read the article? It clearly says that both of the doctors are leaving the video game industry entirely. It's not like they are tired of BioWare and want to form a new studio; they are both leaving the whole industry, for at least the next little while. Every other response in this thread is something to the extent "I can't wait to Kickstart their next game/Hopefully they start their own company away from the evil clutches of EA".

@Beomoose said:

Excellent!

@ahynds: Its probably a non-compete clause. They couldn't start a new studio if that was the case, they'd have to wait.

I'm starting to actually believe the tinfoil hatters that say EA buys up companies with the deliberate intention to destroy them and their legacies.

EA can kill your passion. Both leaving testifies to that. If just one left, I wouldn't think that. EA is a black hole for joy.

Well that fucking sucks. As someone said before, nail in the coffin for Bioware. I will always remember Mass Effect 1 as the last great Bioware game to me. I can't help but think that my opnion that EA effected the Bioware we knew negatively is supported by the departure of these two, mostly Muzyka - as he said that he lost his passion for the company. Big corporations will do that, especially EA who "streamlined" their games.

I wouldn't be surprised to learn that they left EA/Bioware for much of the same reason Peter Molyneux left Microsoft. The Bureaucracy and red tape that comes with being at the top of a big company could have sucked all of the enjoyment of making anything.

wonderful! the co-founders left bioware. good job EA, for destroying a great company

This is a huge bummer. I can't claim to be a long time fan of the company, but playing the Mass Effect trilogy has to be the most fun I've had gaming this console generation. It's a shame that the guys who made that possible are leaving the industry for who knows how long.

Thanks EA! For killing what used to be my favourite developer.

@darkness625 said:

wonderful! the co-founders left bioware. good job EA, for destroying a great company

Bioware did a damn good job of doing that themselves.

@august said:

SCOOOOOOOPS

hot, nasty, bad-ass scoops

Has there been any software developer where once acquired the founders actually stay long term? I'm thinking Naughty Dog, but only partially.

@TheDudeOfGaming said:

@Beomoose said:

Excellent!

This is exactly the same thing I was thinking. Another company creatively wrecked by EA. Pretty soon, if not already, Bioware will be nothing but a logo. EA probably knew it was headed that way when they purchased them. Thank god for the rise of smaller independent developers and companies like Valve who lash back against this kind of thing.

Just another company that EA has bought and then run into the ground or closed. That's not even saying anything of the ones that started internally.

Well, bioware's fucking done now.

Lets all blame EA and not Bioware. Not Bioware, who has employees who want to have options where skip the gameplay to get to the dialogue. You know, in a videogame. The same company who had a writer go on a message board and admit most of the writing staff was locked out of the ending and the endings were approved without anybody allowed to give criticisms. You all remember that? Of course you don't. Penny Arcade deleted the post and shut down any conversation concerning Mass Effects 3 endings on their message board to sanv their buddy's job. This is all EAs fault though and not Bioware. Keep telling yourself that as you play through Dragon Age 2.

FUCKING EA

The doctors have been in the games industry for a good while there and it's sad to see them go. I wish them both the best on the new trails they're trotting. I also hope the best for everyone still at Bioware, cause it seems everyone has written them off as dead.

More bad news? All these recent studio closures and now this? I heard one of my favorite games this year Sleeping Dogs did not do that well. Micro$oft releases their by far and away best downloadable game in a long time Mark of the Ninja on a Friday outside of summer of arcade with only word of mouth and review scores to carry it.

Hey scoops, any good news for video games? This shit is getting dark.

Just another company that EA has bought and then run into the ground or closed. That's not even saying anything of the ones that started internally.

EA just sucks the life right out of you, it seems. Sad, but we've seen other game makers in similar circumstances. Maybe they'll come back, maybe they won't, it's too early to say. I can't help but feel that the Bioware I loved for a decade is now no more. Another reminder that all things must end.

Hopefully that Obsidian Kickstarter will revive the RPG mojo that EA/Bioware squandered. I think Dragon Age Origins, Mass Effect 1, were the last gems in a now tarnised crown. You'd think being Doctors, they would realize EA was poisoning their product? But maybe after the EA payday they ceased to give a damn

And now an era definitively ends for a studio that I've followed and regarded with much respect for a long time. Where is all of the happy news about game studios lately?

@Subjugation said:

And now an era definitively ends for a studio that I've followed and regarded with much respect for a long time. Where is all of the happy news about game studios lately?

See one post above. Yay Obsidian!

I feel happy for these guys to let go and purse something new and exciting. Also, if you are reading this Zeschuk, please send me your brew!

@EDfromRED said:

Hopefully that Obsidian Kickstarter will revive the RPG mojo that EA/Bioware squandered. I think Dragon Age Origins, Mass Effect 1, were the last gems in a now tarnised crown. You'd think being Doctors, they would realize EA was poisoning their product? But maybe after the EA payday they ceased to give a damn

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.

This is why AAA is on the way out. It devours itself, and makes good portrait painters like these guys into industrial spray jobbers. There are fewer and fewer studios capable of pulling this off.