BioWare Co-founders leave company

[Hyro-Sama]

Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk, the co-founders of the popular (or not so popular depending on how you look at it) gaming developing company BioWare have chosen to leave the company to pursue other interests. Both men have written blogs explaining their decision to leave the company. See the jump for more info.

Source
BioWare's Official Blog

 

[RupeeClock]

Reckon it has anything to do with the EA Acquisition?

Especially suspicious that this would come so soon as the Dragon Age 3 announcement.

 

[Clarky]

It wouldn't surprise me, this is a similar to the Rare Ware /Microsoft buy out where the people who made the company will jump overboard now...or similar to when EA have bought out companies in the past. Still it is early days yet, maybe they had there own personal reasons for going, I know one of them has decided to brew his own beer apparently.

 

[Gahars]

Reckon it has anything to do with the EA Acquisition?

EA acquired them back in 2009. If that was the sole reason, they probably would've left a while ago.

 

[Vampire Lied]

Maybe they feel they already have enough money to retire on and decided to stop working altogether. If I was a multi-millionaire, that's what I'd do. Wonder if his beer will be any good.

 

[ShadowSoldier]

I'm going to guess I'm the only gamer who thinks that EA, isn't that bad?

I mean, in the past, sure, they were douche bags, but now, they're acquiring all these big studios and small studios, and giving them the money to make their games. Yeah BioWare could have done without them, but they had the support of a big company, I'd do it. Not to mention, EA didn't go anywhere near Mass Effect to touch or change anything.

The only bad thing about EA is the new dick they have working there who obviously doesn't care about gaming, and puts social shit into every game just so he can make more money. That's the only bad thing.

 

[Prime_Zero]

I wonder if this means the quality of Bioware games will continue to lower.... well now that I think of it at this point the only bioware game im into is the Mass Effect so I guess im good as that games finished now.... huh so I guess this effects me in no way awsome!

As for EA... I don't hate them, as I will buy EA games... but if you count hating Origin as hating EA then ya.. I hate them.. I hate them big time... I don't like having to wait like two or three year's to get to play games that go to Origin first. As well as I don't like having to have more then one progrem for playing games aside from steam... its annoying. There are other reasons but im lasy and don't feel like talking about them. Such as how Mass Effect 3 was Origin only even the retail copies...the retail copies man... why!.. why!

 

[Qtis]

BioWare has made great games for a long time, but if they run out of ideas or have done all they thought possible at the company, why not leave? Hopefully they continue to give us what BioWare has become famous for

 

[Guild McCommunist]

I'm going to guess I'm the only gamer who thinks that EA, isn't that bad?

I mean, in the past, sure, they were douche bags, but now, they're acquiring all these big studios and small studios, and giving them the money to make their games. Yeah BioWare could have done without them, but they had the support of a big company, I'd do it. Not to mention, EA didn't go anywhere near Mass Effect to touch or change anything.

The only bad thing about EA is the new dick they have working there who obviously doesn't care about gaming, and puts social shit into every game just so he can make more money. That's the only bad thing.

EA just becomes the community punching bag for all their broody issues with modern gaming. It's not like EA trumpets the horn on DLC or DRM but people hate on them for it because it's easy. They're not great by any means but people make them out to be dastardly evil.

I don't exactly know their reasons for leaving. I mean Dragon Age 3 is basically on deck, a new Mass Effect game is also to be announced, there's more Mass Effect 3 story DLC coming soon (involving Omega), plus there's a lot of other projects to do. I think the company still produces some fine games, Dragon Age 2 being the exception, but Mass Effect 3 was a quality game and I'm glad to see more of it.

 

[Rydian]

EA just becomes the community punching bag for all their broody issues with modern gaming. It's not like EA trumpets the horn on DLC or DRM but people hate on them for it because it's easy. They're not great by any means but people make them out to be dastardly evil.

See, the whole problem with the "they're not as bad as people say they are" thing is that it hinges on companies NOT doing what people say they're mad about. EA has been famous for it's asshole DLC.

Lose connection in the middle of a single-player game and it kicks you out, losing your progress? That's asshole DRM, and that shit's not accidental. That was built on purpose, with an intended goal. It's not even like "that was once, this is now" with that stuff. AC:B was just last year (for the PC version with the DRM). SimCity? Earlier this year we were still getting reports of upcoming games requiring always-on DRM.

Going further back, EA's been including asshole DRM for years. Spore's activation limit? EA's response was to increase the activation limit from 3 to 5 on their next game. That's something that's done on purpose. The Sims 2? Good ol' SecuROM with it's misread discs, refusing to run if drive emulation software is installed, and more.

So I think people have plenty of reason to bash on EA for their practices (DRM being the most common one), seeing as the transgressions actually happened, were on purpose, and have happened over a large amount of time and with a large number of titles.

 

[MelodieOctavia]

Don't think I be carin' either way about those scurvy lubbers. I'd soon as see em walk the plank.

 

[narutofan777]

I guess no more good games, nba live is whack, madden is whack. 2k will destroy ea.

 

[AlanJohn]

R.I.P BioWare.
1946-2009

 

[Clarky]

well one of the employees has started to talk....

The last time I met up with [Greg], I felt his exhaustion. Punch out, eject, get the hell out. You have to love games and you put your heart into them to create them. To have the fans creating petitions against the work is pretty hard to take, especially when you've spent the last few years crunching overtime to try and ship a game. It can be hard to shut off the overwhelming negativity the internet spews forth, especially when it has your name or the name of your company in it." - Trent Oster, former BioWare employee