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The Studio Head of BioWare and Executive Producer of Dragon Age 4 have both abruptly resigned

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Ever since Greg and Ray left (in case you don't know, they are the founders of BioWare), something was up. I think they realized they made a mistake selling themselves to EA and that the studio couldn't be saved.
EA rep: Hi, we're interest in buying your studio

Founders: Great. But only if we have control of content and we keep making games like we want

EA rep: Of course. We promise creative freedom. Just sign here

Founders: Done

EA rep: Great. It takes effect January 1st. Have a great Christmas holiday

Founders: Hey, I just got a meeting request for an important meeting the first day back from holidays. Is this to announce to everyone our studio merging with EA?

EA rep: Nope. It's a product review meeting and we will be going over all your games in development. Please be ready to show us the games you're working on and give our EA programmers access to change code. Have a great New Years!
 
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Well, I don't blame EA for pulling the plug from Bioware in the future. I can't even say that their track record has been good for the past generation or two. Rip Anthem 2.0, we'll never miss you.
 

JimmyRustler

Gold Member
Ever since Greg and Ray left (in case you don't know, they are the founders of BioWare), something was up. I think they realized they made a mistake selling themselves to EA and that the studio couldn't be saved.
Greg and Ray wanted to leave the industry and make some cash, hence they sold the studio to EA. I doubt they gave a fuck what happens to it. Can‘t blame them. You can‘t do this job forever and EA prolly offered the most money.
 

Lone Wolf

Member
ME3 was a fine game until the final hour and ending, I enjoyed it as much as ME2.
The whole point of the Mass Effect Trilogy was the choices you made, the impact they had on the universe. The ending negated everything, destroying the purpose of the games, and ruining the entire series.
 

godhandiscen

There are millions of whiny 5-year olds on Earth, and I AM THEIR KING.
I played some Anthem a week or so ago and enjoyed it. I wish it got a remake and more content. With the director gone, I hope this doesn’t mean the update got canned.
 

Sethbacca

Member
Well... if you had the misfortune to be born a man with white skin and work in a visible position at BioWare how often would you check your back for knives after a meeting with Kaitlin, VP of Diversity and Inclusion?

Plus is *Bioware*. ‘I drink white tears’ is literally an acceptable slogan to display on your desk there.

They hate men, they hate white people, and they want them gone. This is that.

And therein lies the problem. I don't follow nor care about really any of this. I follow games. I don't look at the industry for some reality tv drivel for geeks with nothing better to do with their time. Show me games, show me graphics, show me gameplay, the behind the scenes crap about who dislikes who and why is some serious reality tv crap that only the serious culture war people have any time to follow. Certain producers or directors or whatever may convince me to try a certain game if I was on the fence and I've liked one of their games before, but that's about all I care about when it comes to these people.

The people who REE about REE should just ignore this crap and focus on the games instead of promoting the culture war nonsense.
 

Ricky_Bee

Banned
And therein lies the problem. I don't follow nor care about really any of this. I follow games. I don't look at the industry for some reality tv drivel for geeks with nothing better to do with their time. Show me games, show me graphics, show me gameplay, the behind the scenes crap about who dislikes who and why is some serious reality tv crap that only the serious culture war people have any time to follow. Certain producers or directors or whatever may convince me to try a certain game if I was on the fence and I've liked one of their games before, but that's about all I care about when it comes to these people.

The people who REE about REE should just ignore this crap and focus on the games instead of promoting the culture war nonsense.

Well, if you don’t *care* that BioWare is openly, proudly, *aggressively* bigoted against white people I guess I can’t make you. 🤷‍♂️
 
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diffusionx

Gold Member
ME3 was a fine game until the final hour and ending, I enjoyed it as much as ME2.

I think it did a lot more wrong than just the last hour. Like, for example, introducing a long frozen Prothean that just explained all this stuff that was a mystery until then. It was really stupid. Especially since the character was DLC. And they wrote the ongoing events such that the choices you made in 1-2 really did not matter as you moved through the game tying up all the little plotlines. There were only a few that really delivered in the end but even then there were, IIRC, ways to get any outcome you wanted in ME3 no matter what you chose in 1-2.

I dunno, I liked the game, but I think it was a huge misfire in a lot of ways and get why people were turned off.
 

Sethbacca

Member
Well, if you don’t *care* that BioWare is openly, proudly, *aggressively* bigoted against white people I guess I can’t make you. 🤷‍♂️

I'm more concerned about the shift in content quality that comes from all devs being bought out by the EAs of the world than I am about the office politics of Bioware. The games will ultimately be good or bad. That's what informs my purchasing decisions.
 

Yoda

Member
Ship is most likely sinking faster than is observed from the outside. Two massive failures and we all know their only somewhat recently successful game (DA:I) got a pass because it was an early "next gen" game. Had it come out in it's launch state now it'd have been panned. EA wants GaaS with loads of micro transactions. BioWare's only good games are ones which have a laser focus on story over everything else, sadly (for EA) it's hard to add microtransactions to story content. I doubt it'll be around for the end of the current generation.
 

chikydee

Neo Member
Reading the good bye letters it is interesting that Samantha Ryan is mentioned so prominently as one of the strongest leaders in the industry by Laura Miele yet the two people who are leaving do not mention her at all, nor do they mention Laura Miele.

It comes across as this was not a collegial departure. No way of knowing for sure but odd for sure.
good catch.
Looks like another way to say they were fired.

There were rumors on twitter that one of the voice artists for Dragon age was asking for Mark Darrah to be fired, for his comments on cancel culture or something, I don't know the exact details, but this is strange timing. Perhaps Mark was being forced out and Casey decided to take a stand and leave too?

Edit: Check this out:

 
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Madflavor

Member
I don't think a Mass Effect Trilogy remaster would even sell all that well. The Trilogy ended almost a decade ago, during the 7th Gen


Ok this top reddit post regarding this news made me laugh:

"Can't wait to see another trailer of some Bioware dev pretending to work on a game in a studio apartment, some unfinished npc models being rotated for some reason and more concept art. "


God that's so true.
 

Ascend

Member
Greg and Ray wanted to leave the industry and make some cash, hence they sold the studio to EA. I doubt they gave a fuck what happens to it. Can‘t blame them. You can‘t do this job forever and EA prolly offered the most money.
Maybe... But obviously they're not gonna come out and say "yeah we left because we made a mistake and EA is a mess".
 

EDMIX

Member
Maybe... But obviously they're not gonna come out and say "yeah we left because we made a mistake and EA is a mess".

True. Folks need to consider, why isn't this happening at all EA teams? I think something within Bioware is wrong. I don't see it as a EA is a mess thing, I think its Bioware themselves. To go from Mass Effect Andromeda failing to Anthem failing shows something might be up. I think 1 more failure and its clear its an issue with the team. Its like like with DICE how they had an issue with BFV after doing well with BF1, BF4 etc
 

levyjl1988

Banned
Bioware is a sinking ship. I'm just waiting for the Mass Effect Legendary edition, you cannot fuck up a remake of three games.

After that Bioware is dead to me. They did so well with Mass Effect Trilogy and Dragon Age Origins, after that they just sucked.
Mass Effect Andromeda was shit, you can't make an attractive character these days because of stupid woke culture-making characters fucking ugly. Why the fuck do I want to play as an ugly character.
 

oagboghi2

Member
And therein lies the problem. I don't follow nor care about really any of this. I follow games. I don't look at the industry for some reality tv drivel for geeks with nothing better to do with their time. Show me games, show me graphics, show me gameplay, the behind the scenes crap about who dislikes who and why is some serious reality tv crap that only the serious culture war people have any time to follow. Certain producers or directors or whatever may convince me to try a certain game if I was on the fence and I've liked one of their games before, but that's about all I care about when it comes to these people.

The people who REE about REE should just ignore this crap and focus on the games instead of promoting the culture war nonsense.
This argument only works if Bioware doesn't put culture war nonsense into their games
 
Since Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka left , it’s been going downhill there. I used to love BioWare, as a non PC guy they were one of the reasons I loved the OG.Xbox and 360, great games.

Anthem was just soulless, nice visuals but a real lack of heart and Andromeda , whilst looking good at times and some decent ideas, again felt soulless particularly some of the writing which was more repetitive than my moaning in Xbox threads.
 

EDMIX

Member
Since Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka left , it’s been going downhill there. I used to love BioWare, as a non PC guy they were one of the reasons I loved the OG.Xbox and 360, great games.

Anthem was just soulless, nice visuals but a real lack of heart and Andromeda , whilst looking good at times and some decent ideas, again felt soulless particularly some of the writing which was more repetitive than my moaning in Xbox threads.

I actually liked Mass Effect Andromeda a bit more then the original 3, but I never cared for the story in that series in the first place lol Last title I think I really, really liked from them is Dragon Age 3. They have many titles under EA that I like, so I don't even buy that its just EA, I think Bioware internally has issues.
 
I actually liked Mass Effect Andromeda a bit more then the original 3, but I never cared for the story in that series in the first place lol Last title I think I really, really liked from them is Dragon Age 3. They have many titles under EA that I like, so I don't even buy that its just EA, I think Bioware internally has issues.

Microsoft should of purchased them perhaps? I know that may or may not have been better than EA considering but they did a great job boosting the OG and 360 line up at the time.

Andromeda, I don’t hate it , it’s just lacking imo in writing, pacing , repetitiveness and it’s a shame as the concept is good, some of the planets are gorgeous and the nomad driving/shooting/combat is fun.
 

EDMIX

Member
Microsoft should of purchased them perhaps? I know that may or may not have been better than EA considering but they did a great job boosting the OG and 360 line up at the time.

Andromeda, I don’t hate it , it’s just lacking imo in writing, pacing , repetitiveness and it’s a shame as the concept is good, some of the planets are gorgeous and the nomad driving/shooting/combat is fun.

I feel MS is just as bad as EA in many respects, I also don't see EA selling those IPs or that studio. Restructuring? Maybe, closing down, could be, selling? Probably not. Even if they did, they'd still keep the IP and just have another one of their teams work on those properties or something.

Agreed with Andromeda too, the concept was very solid, so I'm hopeful for another Mass Effect game and that the team can turn things around. I think with EA having ReSpawn use Unreal Engine 4 for that Star Wars game, will likely allow them to just use Unreal Engine 5 to get the job done, vs using Frostbite if they can't smoothly put out games using it.
 

EDMIX

Member
Bioware has been done since ME3. I don't get some of you(s) guys replies.

You don't get that people have different opinions? Sad.

I simply didn't have much issue with Dragon Age 3 or Mass Effect Andromeda. The fact that they have several games planned doesn't sound like "done" to me so...
 
S

SLoWMoTIoN

Unconfirmed Member
I simply didn't have much issue with Dragon Age 3 or Mass Effect Andromeda. The fact that they have several games planned doesn't sound like "done" to me so...
They were trash games to me. Bioware doesn't even have the same people it once did that is a fact.
 

EDMIX

Member
They were trash games to me. Bioware doesn't even have the same people it once did that is a fact.

No AAA game company has the "same people it once did". Its a contracted business. If the game is good, concept intact and nothing game breaking, its a buy for me.

So who the publisher is or if the development team has 100% the same exact people are just not as relevant as the actual quality of the product to many. If Dragon Age 4 looks fun, solid and is of great quality....day 1. If the collection of the Mass Effect titles is of solid quality, day 1. If Mass Effect 5, Andromeda 2, Mass Effect reboot etc what ever they want to call it looks fun, solid and of great quality....guess what? Day 1.

Not everyone gets triggered over this shit. Most legit don't give a fuck, thats is a fact.... Many take this shit waaaaay too personally, like the team is your best friend or something or your in a romantic relationship with them. I only base game purchases on the actual merit of the title.

Not "omg did you read da twitter"
 
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S

SLoWMoTIoN

Unconfirmed Member
No AAA game company has the "same people it once did". Its a contracted business. If the game is good, concept intact and nothing game breaking, its a buy for me.

So who the publisher is or if the development team has 100% the same exact people are just not as relevant as the actual quality of the product to many. If Dragon Age 4 looks fun, solid and is of great quality....day 1. If the collection of the Mass Effect titles is of solid quality, day 1. If Mass Effect 5, Andromeda 2, Mass Effect reboot etc what ever they want to call it looks fun, solid and of great quality....guess what? Day 1.

Not everyone gets triggered over this shit. Most legit don't give a fuck, thats is a fact.... Many take this shit waaaaay too personally, like the team is your best friend or something or your in a romantic relationship with them. I only base game purchases on the actual merit of the title.

Not "omg did you read da twitter"
Are you on drugs
 
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