BioWare Founders Announce Retirement

[irishScott]

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2012/...-muzyka-and-greg-zeschuk-announce-retirement/

And EA grinds another one into the dust...

 

[ArenCordial]

Sad new indeed. Thanks for the many years of great memories. Hoping the best for them, and that they get back into the game once the non-compete clause expires.

Finally here's to supporting Project: Eternity, Obsidian may just be the last bastion for those looking for a party based RPG.

 

[BladeVenom]

Seeing EA ruin all their franchises is enough to make anyone want to retire.

 

[mindcycle]

Guess that's one way to get away from EA.. Good for them.

 

[smackababy]

You're right! Man how dare EA give these guys a bunch of money and then after 17 years they be allowed to retire. The last thing I want is for some old people, who have put nearly 2 decades in the industry, to be able to retire and relax. Fuck EA!

 

[Bateluer]

You're right! Man how dare EA give these guys a bunch of money and then after 17 years they be allowed to retire. The last thing I want is for some old people, who have put nearly 2 decades in the industry, to be able to retire and relax. Fuck EA!

Motion to give this guy a swirlie?

 

[irishScott]

Motion to give this guy a swirlie?

Only after we make him sit through 2nd grade math class.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BioWare

The next few years saw a number of changes in BioWare's corporate status. In November 2005, it was announced that BioWare and Pandemic Studios (itself founded by former Activision employees) would be joining forces, with private equity fund Elevation Partners investing in the partnership. On October 11, 2007, however, it was announced that this new partnership (organized as VG Holding Corp) had been bought by Electronic Arts.[7] BioWare therefore became a unit of EA, but retained its own branding.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

I wonder how much the Star Wars TOR fail boat had to do with this. An EA thing or these guys deciding they're too old to be effective or do they plan to start a new studio once their non compete claus expires?
And so it begins....

 

[lupi]

guess their contractual requirement for staying on after selling out has expired so they decided to bail.

 

[irishScott]

I wonder how much the Star Wars TOR fail boat had to do with this. An EA thing or these guys deciding they're too old to be effective or do they plan to start a new studio once their non compete claus expires?
And so it begins....

Maybe another big kickstarter when said clause expires?

 

[Elixer]

From reading their blogs, they want out of the game industry, and are moving on to something else.

They made their money, so perhaps rocket engines are next!

 

[smackababy]

Only after we make him sit through 2nd grade math class.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BioWare

WTF are you on about? They founded BioWare in 1995. That was 17 years ago.


And the blind EA hate because two people decided to retire is hilarious. "OMG two guys from BioWare are retiring, EA must be the devil!"

 

[Gothgar]

WTF are you on about? They founded BioWare in 1995. That was 17 years ago.


And the blind EA hate because two people decided to retire is hilarious. "OMG two guys from BioWare are retiring, EA must be the devil!"

Yeah, cause this is definitely the first case of EA buying up a once amazing developer and it breaking apart into a million pieces shortly after.

Yup... move along people, def def the first time.

 

[smackababy]

Yeah, cause this is definitely the first case of EA buying up a once amazing developer and it breaking apart into a million pieces shortly after.

Yup... move along people, def def the first time.

So, they are not allowed to retire after 5 years with EA? It has to be EA's fault they no longer want to be in this industry? Again, how dare they be allowed to retire 5 years after EA purchased their company and they sold DOUBLE the units with Mass Effect than they sold of the Baldur's Gate series. I'm sorry they were a SUCCESS before and after EA, more so after.

Again, the blind EA hate is hilarious. Nothing shows the retirement has anything to do with EA or the management of the company they founded and SOLD to EA.

 

[SMOGZINN]

WTF are you on about? They founded BioWare in 1995. That was 17 years ago.


And the blind EA hate because two people decided to retire is hilarious. "OMG two guys from BioWare are retiring, EA must be the devil!"

I think it has to do with the fact that they are both retiring at the same time. It makes it smell fishy.

 

[smackababy]

I think it has to do with the fact that they are both retiring at the same time. It makes it smell fishy.

And why is this? Maybe, because I'm sure they are pretty close, they both decided it was a good time to leave the industry? I'm sure they have talked about this together. They have both been doing this for a while.

 

[thespyder]

So, they are not allowed to retire after 5 years with EA? It has to be EA's fault they no longer want to be in this industry? Again, how dare they be allowed to retire 5 years after EA purchased their company and they sold DOUBLE the units with Mass Effect than they sold of the Baldur's Gate series. I'm sorry they were a SUCCESS before and after EA, more so after.

Again, the blind EA hate is hilarious. Nothing shows the retirement has anything to do with EA or the management of the company they founded and SOLD to EA.

No one is saying EA is the devil BECAUSE these guys are retiring. They are saying EA is the devil because they have a proven track record of moving in and forcing changes in the gaming that, although boosting sales,for the short run, often ruin franchises. This is in evidence with DA series and with ME series and with SW:TOR, just to name a few.

EA tends to break or ruin elements of the game so that it will appeal to 'Casual gamers', taking well thought out ideas and complex concepts and dumbing them down to idiotic levels. Sure the company makes money, but it is the equivalent of a rock band allowing their songs to be jinglized to do diaper commercials.

And it is very likely that they are leaving after 5 years precisely because they are sick and tired of all of the changes they were forced to greenlight on their company that they would never EVER have agreed to without EA pushing them through. That can really crush someone's soul. I don't blame them for wanting out after that. I do blame the Corporation that forced them to basically run the franchises into the ground in front of their eyes.

It isn't blind hate. It is very solidly seated in fact and past experience.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Plus the idea that they won't publish a game without online features. Some of the best games i have ever played didn't need to be online. KOTOR, legend of zelda, mario 64, da: o, baldur's gate.

Heck even skyrim does not have online play. Mass effect didn't until ea got hold of it...

 

[mikeymikec]

I was not a happy bunny when I found out there wouldn't be any more KOTOR games. Those two are definitely in my top ten best ever games.

I hope irishscott is right.

I agree whole-heartedly with thespyder's post.

Bioware was the sort of company that broke moulds such as the one that the creator of "Elite" encountered: "Any game we green-light must have three lives and a ten-minute play time".

 

[Skel]

Plus the idea that they won't publish a game without online features. Some of the best games i have ever played didn't need to be online. KOTOR, legend of zelda, mario 64, da, baldur's gate.

Heck even skyrim does not have online play. Mass effect didn't until ea got hold of it...

I always hate it when they tack on multiplayer on every game. ME 3's MP causing the ending to change was a slap in the face to me. If you want to add on MP for the people who like it whatever, but don't require me to play it just to get a "good" ending.

 

[Maximilian]

So, they are not allowed to retire after 5 years with EA? It has to be EA's fault they no longer want to be in this industry? Again, how dare they be allowed to retire 5 years after EA purchased their company and they sold DOUBLE the units with Mass Effect than they sold of the Baldur's Gate series. I'm sorry they were a SUCCESS before and after EA, more so after.

Again, the blind EA hate is hilarious. Nothing shows the retirement has anything to do with EA or the management of the company they founded and SOLD to EA.

You are an idiot

 

[thespyder]

nvm

 

[irishScott]

WTF are you on about? They founded BioWare in 1995. That was 17 years ago.

Yes, and the way you worded it you apparently thought they'd been with EA all that time.

 

[DigitalWolf]

No one is saying EA is the devil BECAUSE these guys are retiring. They are saying EA is the devil because they have a proven track record of moving in and forcing changes in the gaming that, although boosting sales,for the short run, often ruin franchises. This is in evidence with DA series and with ME series and with SW:TOR, just to name a few.

Yet the thing to me is that people go on and on about EA. BioWare was a privately owned company. Which means they had no share holders aka no external force on them to "sell". *edit* Nor was there any possible hostile takeover as a privately owned company does not have publicly traded shares... (like EA tried to do with Take 2 Interactive *I think it was Take 2* for around 2 billion .. about the same time they aquired BioWare).


Yet these guys who are obviously intellegent and knew what EA did.. decided to sell their privately owned company for oh with stock options it was a bit over 860 Million USD (you can google the EA aquisition of Bioware.. if you don't remember it when it happened).


From my point of view the "sellers" have to be as much the devil as anything EA did/does.

There was certainly the recent lesson of Mythic, so there could be no claim of confusion from the "real bioware" on EA's motives.

 

[lupi]

Yes, the sellers do deserve as much crap as is given to ea/ubi/activision when they buy these companies out but that apart generally gets skipped in the public criticism chain.