Casey Hudson leaves Bioware

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PatODay

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2HeadedNinja

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wow, that seems big. Wasn't he supposed to head a new IP they were working on?

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PatODay

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@2headedninja: Sounds like it. There was a quote in the letter referencing that.

"Though there’s never an easy time to make a change like this, I believe this is the best time for it. The foundation of our new IP in Edmonton is complete, and the team is ready to move forward into pre-production on a title that I think will redefine interactive entertainment."

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kittykatman1

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#4  Edited By kittykatman1

Casey was a defining force behind some of the most important and entertaining games I've ever played. Seems like a pretty significant loss for Bioware. It sucks to see him move on but it'll be interesting to see where not only he goes from here, but Bioware as well.

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Jimbo

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Casey deserves more recognition I think;. For me he's one of the most important design talents of the post-Meier / Wright / Molyneux etc. era. His (and his team's) work on KOTOR and Mass Effect was as important to that genre as Bungie's was to console FPS or Epic's was to TPS.

He is a huge loss for Bioware, but perhaps fresh faces and fresh ideas are exactly what that company needs. The ME3 ending debacle did whiff of someone who was just burnt out on this and needed to be doing something new. It'll be interesting to see what he chooses to do next, and hopefully that will still be in gaming. Ideal scenario is a publisher gives him a blank cheque and says 'Make whatever you want'.

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Rebel_Scum

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Hmm, now if they can only hire Drew Karpyshyn to rewrite ME4 we'd be in business. I can wait. Just take the time you need Bioware.

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EXTomar

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This happens a lot at transitions to new projects. No conspiracy theories need to apply here. It would be much more suspicious if he walked away half way through something new.

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VoshiNova

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I want new ending for ME 3!!!

Seriously though, can't wait to see where he ends up.

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SomberOwl

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I can say without a second thought that the Mass Effect trilogy are my favourite games of all. Casey Hudson has definitely impacted my life and many others.

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soulcake

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Casey Hudson directing a new expendables movie ? theirs a bloody N7 Logo in that movie ?

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GERALTITUDE

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Hm! Excited to see what he does next, no doubt.

@jimbo said:

He is a huge loss for Bioware, but perhaps fresh faces and fresh ideas are exactly what that company needs. The ME3 ending debacle did whiff of someone who was just burnt out on this and needed to be doing something new.

Yerp! Them's my thoughts pretty much.

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Sackmanjones

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Good luck to him. He made Mass Effect 2, my favorite game of all time. I really am excited to see what he does next

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GaspoweR

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#13  Edited By GaspoweR

Man, the comments I saw on the Facebook post of his departure by the Polygon page were a lot of "good riddance" and saying things like its great that he's no longer there because he apparently was the one who fucked up Mass Effect 3. Man, still so much vitriol because of that ending.

He deserves a much needed break after all that.

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EXTomar

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Personally I think Casey Hudson was overrated. And I am curious to see what he does next but no one should deny the fact that he did screw up the ending to Mass Effect 3.

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GaspoweR

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#15  Edited By GaspoweR
extomar said:

Personally I think Casey Hudson was overrated. And I am curious to see what he does next but no one should deny the fact that he did screw up the ending to Mass Effect 3.

Man I thought the ending wasn't great too but we should really stop bringing that up and blaming it all on him to be honest.

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kittykatman1

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@gaspower said:
extomar said:

Personally I think Casey Hudson was overrated. And I am curious to see what he does next but no one should deny the fact that he did screw up the ending to Mass Effect 3.

Man I thought the ending wasn't great too but we should really stop bringing that up and blaming it all on him to be honest.

Seriously, this. Allowing a (hugely) unpopular hour-long segment of game to overshadow the hundreds of other hours of great stuff he was a part of crafting is petty and moronic. Whether you like him or don't, you also cannot deny the fact that he was a hugely important part of some of the most heralded games of their era.

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Coafi

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#17  Edited By Coafi

Forget about the ending ( I haven't finished ME3 yet), but he had a hand in creating a great series, and other great games. It's sad to see him go, but who knows where he'll end up next. I hope he keeps making sci-fi games.

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EXTomar

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#18  Edited By EXTomar

@kittykatman1 said:
@gaspower said:
extomar said:

Personally I think Casey Hudson was overrated. And I am curious to see what he does next but no one should deny the fact that he did screw up the ending to Mass Effect 3.

Man I thought the ending wasn't great too but we should really stop bringing that up and blaming it all on him to be honest.

Seriously, this. Allowing a (hugely) unpopular hour-long segment of game to overshadow the hundreds of other hours of great stuff he was a part of crafting is petty and moronic. Whether you like him or don't, you also cannot deny the fact that he was a hugely important part of some of the most heralded games of their era.

I didn't mean that one hour should over shadow his whole career because (as I wrote) I think he was overrated long before Mass Effect 3. There were problems in quirks in other Bioware games that he was involved. But specifically, some of the issues with Mass Effect 3 ending where created because Casey protected that ended and kept it hidden and secret from the general team which the result blew up in their face. By that stage, Mass Effect had been written and crafted by so many people and so many teams that to believe he could handle the ending on his own with his hand picked team is quite crazy and we saw the results.

I personally think Hudson is just like Kojima and will do a lot better in midsized teams where he can't wall himself into an ivory tower. Leaving guys on their own is what borks the things they work on.

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ll_Exile_ll

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@gaspower said:

Man, the comments I saw on the Facebook post of his departure by the Polygon page were a lot of "good riddance" and saying things like its great that he's no longer there because he apparently was the one who fucked up Mass Effect 3. Man, still so much vitriol because of that ending.

He deserves a much needed break after all that.

I mean, it is true that a lot of the inside accounts point to him having a had a lot to do with the ending as it was originally, but it's still pretty ignorant to lay him with only the blame for that one not so great aspect of the fantastic series he was instrumental in creating. Anyone saying "good riddance" for the departure of the game director on all three Mass Effect games and Knights of the Old Republic is a moron.

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deactivated-630479c20dfaa

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Any person who was part of creating the epic that is Baldurs Gate 2 gets my respect and best wishes. Mass Effect 3 ending, whatever man.

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BoOzak

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#21  Edited By BoOzak

That sucks for Bioware. KOTOR is one my favourite games and I dont even care about Star Wars. Mass Effect on the other hand had a much cooler universe and despite the ending Mass Effect 3 played much better than the first two and still had a lot of cool character moments, which is the main appeal of the series for me. Looking forward to his next contribution to gaming. (assuming he doesnt go off brewing beers with the doctors)

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militantfreudian

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#22  Edited By militantfreudian

Glanced over the comments section on the GS page -- lots of vile comments (I know, shocking). I wish him the best of luck and I can't wait to see where he goes from here.

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TrafalgarLaw

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#23  Edited By TrafalgarLaw

@gaspower said:
extomar said:

Personally I think Casey Hudson was overrated. And I am curious to see what he does next but no one should deny the fact that he did screw up the ending to Mass Effect 3.

Man I thought the ending wasn't great too but we should really stop bringing that up and blaming it all on him to be honest.

The whole team was to blame, including Hudson. I don't care much about anything Bioware though, but I think if it's anything, it's the abysmal collection of 'writers' that is the real culprit. I suppose Hudson's better off at a new company.

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schlorgan

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@2headedninja: They said they are still making that game. It looks like starting that project was his last act there.

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syz

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Probably just didn't want to deal with another Edmonton winter.

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hassun

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He was there for the good times of and he was there for the bad times. Good to see him leave EA completely.

Let's just hope he stays in gaming and doesn't go to mobile.

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#27  Edited By PatODay

@syz: Maybe he'll head to Black Tusk for that Vancouver winter.

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ArbitraryWater

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I got the impression that a lot of what made the ending to Mass Effect 3 such a bummer was his personal doing, but the man is still responsible for some of my favorite games of the last decade.

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Hailinel

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As someone with no real experience playing his games beyond the Mass Effect 2 demo, I'm not particularly affected by this news. Though honestly, the only experience I have with Casey Hudson directly was the time he appeared on a Giant Bomb podcast interview and painted a not-exactly-accurate picture of how Mass Effect 3 would end, if I recall correctly. Not exactly a fair view of him, but it's really all I've got.

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deactivated-5e49e9175da37

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Hm. At first I was like "well then fuck BioWare" but then I thought about it.

BioWare, or EA BioWare at least, is probably at the point where it's happy to do The BioWare Thing for the next however many years. People who are getting new jobs at BioWare are people who want to do The BioWare Thing and make BioWare games. I typically like your bogstandard BioWare game so more of that doesn't sound too bad.

At the same time, this lets Casey Hudson, who is pretty good at the BioWare Thing, do his own Casey Hudson thing. At the same time, I can still get my usual BioWare games on top of this fancy new Casey Hudson game. Maybe it's a win win.

Sort of like... the Assassin's Creed franchise knows what it is and will keep doing the Assassin's Creed Thing for years. You didn't need Patrice Desilets around to keep doing the Assassin's Creed Thing. Patrice Desilets leaving, in an ideal world, let Ubisoft keep doing the Assassin's Creed Thing and let him do his own Patrice Desilets Thing. ... of course then Ubisoft bought him back and kicked him out and who knows what happens to it but never mind.

I dunno. Maybe it's not the worst thing in the world?

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Kevin_Cogneto

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@extomar said:

Personally I think Casey Hudson was overrated. And I am curious to see what he does next but no one should deny the fact that he did screw up the ending to Mass Effect 3.

I deny it. That original ending was rad. And while I get why people might not have liked it, yo that was years ago now, maybe it's time to move on with all our lives.

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probablytuna

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Man, I don't know how I feel about this or the project he was running now that he's gone.

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#33  Edited By Karkarov
@kittykatman1 said:

Seriously, this. Allowing a (hugely) unpopular hour-long segment of game to overshadow the hundreds of other hours of great stuff he was a part of crafting is petty and moronic. Whether you like him or don't, you also cannot deny the fact that he was a hugely important part of some of the most heralded games of their era.

Well said. The ME3 ending wasn't great, but it wasn't even half as bad as people claimed it was. I beat the game, saw no spoilers, read nothing first, etc etc. After seeing the ending and coming online to share my thoughts I was honestly stunned no one had anything to say about the game other than "that ending sucked". What about the scene where you have to choose to kill Mordin or spare him? How about seeing the potential death of Miranda? The farewells with your team mates? That final charge up to the beam leading to the final confrontation??? Not to mention everything from ME1 and ME2. To throw all that out over a mediocre last 20 minutes to an hour is just borderline psychotic.

Bioware has lost one of their best employees and greatest driving force. I wish Casey Hudson luck and hope he sticks to the gaming business.

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EXTomar

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#34  Edited By EXTomar

@kevin_cogneto said:
@extomar said:

Personally I think Casey Hudson was overrated. And I am curious to see what he does next but no one should deny the fact that he did screw up the ending to Mass Effect 3.

I deny it. That original ending was rad. And while I get why people might not have liked it, yo that was years ago now, maybe it's time to move on with all our lives.

I guess I should (re)explain my stance then: It is a pretty neat ending explained horribly in a horrible scenario or it is a terrible ending that didn't consider most of the rest of the scenarios offered in game. So pick your poison because the ending doesn't fit the story or the story doesn't have the correct ending....so which is off? :) I'm inclined to believe that the ending is the piece that didn't fit since the rest of the game offered a great storyline and components. Hell even that last DLC was more aligned where trying to believe that the odd part that was that original ending was intended makes me scratch my head.

I tire of rehashing this as well where I only bring this up when people make excuses for him like it wasn't his fault when evidence points to the contrary. I don't hate Case Hudson since I don't even know him. But no one should deny has borked a several games he has touched ended up where Mass Effect 3 is just the prime example. If you want a specific example: The story for Knights of the Old Republic is another game with a superb story setup but the ending is "meh" because you can just guilt Bastila into either ending where neither make sense.

So again we have a game where Hudson built it up to care about all the choices made before but it comes down to an arbitrary conclusion and too boot it doesn't fit well either way you play it. People may love these things but I'm failing to see where the genius is how Hudson writes up endings where they leave me rubbing my temples wondering what happened with a good story that ends so bleh.

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Hunter5024

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@brodehouse said:

BioWare, or EA BioWare at least, is probably at the point where it's happy to do The BioWare Thing for the next however many years. People who are getting new jobs at BioWare are people who want to do The BioWare Thing and make BioWare games. I typically like your bogstandard BioWare game so more of that doesn't sound too bad.

At the same time, this lets Casey Hudson, who is pretty good at the BioWare Thing, do his own Casey Hudson thing. At the same time, I can still get my usual BioWare games on top of this fancy new Casey Hudson game. Maybe it's a win win.

I couldn't have said it better. A lot of people have been unsatisfied with Bioware lately, and maybe getting some new blood at the top will invigorate their stuff. And in addition to that, we get one of the masterminds to go make his own potentially rad game.

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#36  Edited By viking_funeral

@tothenines: I don't know. A lot of people touched Baldur's Gate 2. I don't think we really hear about the guys that truly brought that game about, because they're not the type for self promotion.

David Gaider has been trying to pass himself as the writer of BG2 for years, despite only being brought on to do parts for it.

I do think Casey will be missed, and I hope he finds something cool to reignite his passion.

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chimpchamp

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I can't believe he stayed on so long after the EA takeover. ME1 was an amazing game, but the series narrowed its scope pretty drastically from then on and cut so much of what was promised and hinted at. He must be one of the last senior Bioware people to leave?

Well, I thank him for ME1 and wish him well, and would like to take the opportunity to lay another voodoo curse on Greg and Ray for selling out Bioware in the first place. Just imagine what would have been if they hadn't.... *sigh*

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deactivated-60dda8699e35a

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Wow, this is huge news. He was pretty much the face of Bioware for me once Greg and Ray left the company.

I hated Mass Effect 3's ending as much as everyone else, but there's no doubt that he had a huge impact on the console RPG market as we know it. Hell, the Witcher series might not have ever come out if it weren't for games like kotor and ME1, so for that he has my gratitude.

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development

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For some reason I thought he already left months ago. Did some other big Bioware name leave? Anyway, this is probably good news for everyone. Hopefully, if his next project hits home in a huge way, he doesn't let his team be bought out by EA or anyone similar again.