jesus christ, are 343i and Bioware just... cursed?
this used to scare me, now I think it would be a merciful kill
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Casey Hudson, Mark Darrah leave BioWare
- Thread starter BigTnaples
- Start date
I remember reading this same kind of doom and gloom when EA bought BioWare; then, when Dragon Age 2 released; then, when Mass Effect 3 released; then, when Ray and Greg left; then, when Andromeda was released; then, when Anthem was released; and then now.
Just like when all past events happened, I don't believe BioWare is shutting down or whatever. Casey and Mark were very clear that they are retiring from the company. That's all there is to it. People who have worked on the first Dragon Age games are now working on the next game on the series. People who have worked on the Mass Effect Trilogy are no working on the next game on that series. BioWare Austin is on SWTOR and Anthem.
If any of these projects are canceled (with the exception of SWTOR), I'd be worried. Right now I'm not.
Just like when all past events happened, I don't believe BioWare is shutting down or whatever. Casey and Mark were very clear that they are retiring from the company. That's all there is to it. People who have worked on the first Dragon Age games are now working on the next game on the series. People who have worked on the Mass Effect Trilogy are no working on the next game on that series. BioWare Austin is on SWTOR and Anthem.
If any of these projects are canceled (with the exception of SWTOR), I'd be worried. Right now I'm not.
Casey mentioned the new Mass Effect in his post on the BioWare blog.
Mark has always been there but Casey rejoined in July 2017
I would be very surprised if EA didn't cancel DA4 and shut down Bioware in the next couple of years.
I agree with you. I never said the game was perfect it had it's issues but with what they did and how they did it, still makes it one of the best series of games ever made.
the guy who directed anthem live services and used to work for blizzard will surely have something new to say lol
I was so excited to see what Hudson could do. :(
Early happy holidays to all the BioWare devs who are getting the news as well, I hope next year can bring good news to the studio.
Early happy holidays to all the BioWare devs who are getting the news as well, I hope next year can bring good news to the studio.
...especially without even shipping a game in that timeframe. Mega yikes.
The trajectory was present in those games, they just rode off the coat-tails of pre-established methods and systems of the previous games. DA:I was them giving their all after DA2 was hit with backlash. But both MEA and DAI to me felt like a lot of the same mistakes that, to me, started in ME3, which was the slightly awkward fanfiction level of writing (yes, I think that begins at ME2's DLC and continued ever since - writers left the company before that) the abandonment of "Classic BioWare" really set in with and after Mass Effect 3.
He shipped Anthem.
I trust that Dragon Age remains in solid hands. I said this back when Mike Laidlaw left and I still mean it today. Despite the infamy of DA4's development the creative minds at the helm are truly talented and I hope that shines through in the final telling. But between Laidlaw and Darrah departing (and David Gaider if we're going farther back), there's something damn sad about it all.
As for Casey Hudson, he's a nice dude but I'm not as fussed. The one thing I'll note is that (and this is 100% conjecture) I'd be less concerned over Mark leaving the company if he didn't do so simultaneously with Casey. Maybe there's nothing to that. Maybe they simply mulled it over together (or even separately) and this was the best time for them to leave. But to me, it feels like Mark Darrah has positioned folks to take over more smoothly whereas (from what limited public information we have via those blog posts) I don't know that the same can be said for Hudson. Which makes the synchronicity here potentially troubling.
As for Casey Hudson, he's a nice dude but I'm not as fussed. The one thing I'll note is that (and this is 100% conjecture) I'd be less concerned over Mark leaving the company if he didn't do so simultaneously with Casey. Maybe there's nothing to that. Maybe they simply mulled it over together (or even separately) and this was the best time for them to leave. But to me, it feels like Mark Darrah has positioned folks to take over more smoothly whereas (from what limited public information we have via those blog posts) I don't know that the same can be said for Hudson. Which makes the synchronicity here potentially troubling.
Mike Laidlaw and David Gaider had no clue he was leaving.
Almost makes me think they were pushed out by EA. /tinfoilhat
Almost makes me think they were pushed out by EA. /tinfoilhat
The secret is that Mass Effect 3 isn't some franchise murdering piece of shit despite the ending. The game even went on to have well-liked DLC. It's not ME3's fault Bioware completely fucked up Andromeda, no matter what some dramatist "gamerz" would tell you.
These last few years have taught me to stop getting excited when I see the BioWare name. News like this makes that even easier.
People keep entering Bioware threads with silly takes like these so I'll keep reminding them:
Bioware and it's 2 main studios represent like 1/6th of EAs non marketing/sales/administrative workforce. A company as poorly diversified as EA with it's sports and Shooters is not going to simply kill off an enormous part of its company like that. As bad as the reception for anthem and andromeda were, they still made money and they are currently working on a sequel to one of EAs most successful games ever in Dragon Age. So no, it isn't likely. Not impossible, but Bioware isn't some 60 person team in a rented office park like viseral. They are a core part of the company
Honestly, I wish they would just change the name of of Bioware to EA RPG Factory.
Whatever made Bioware special has been dead and gone for many years at this point.
Whatever made Bioware special has been dead and gone for many years at this point.
Holy shit, Anthem launched... last year? It legitimately feels like it launched 4 years ago.
Creatively, both it and Mass Effect is in very good hands right now... but these two dudes are BioWare's management structure right now. Christian Daily was just in charge of the TOR/AnthemNext studio, and it looks like they either got fired or decided to leave abruptly to the point where Sam Ryan says "We are currently looking for a GM" and Chris has to just fill in on a whim.
This does not look like something that had been in planning for a long time, to me.
I mean both of them aren't even with Bioware anymore either.
Though I still think that their reactions show that something is up, cause they know how Bioware used to operate from the inside.
BioWare Departures Put The Lead Of The 'Anthem' Reboot In Charge Of 'Dragon Age 4' (forbes.com)
www.forbes.com
BioWare Departures Put The Lead Of The ‘Anthem’ Reboot In Charge Of ‘Dragon Age 4’
Some massive news out of BioWare as Mark Darrah and Casey Hudson have both left, and now the Anthem 2.0 head is in charge of Dragon Age 4, somehow.
www.forbes.com
This isn't how it works. For any major departure, especially if they work for a subsidiary of a public company like EA, the company's PR will always want to get out ahead of the news and break it in a way that works for them. Corporate comms 101
I thought the same thing when Aaryn Flynn left. It could depend on milestones. EA giving them a chance until certain date. The whole Anthem situation always weirded me out too. It failed so miserable when EA obviously spent extraordinary marketing money on it at first, I think they were legitimately surprised that it didn't pan out. And then Casey went and announced DA4 right up before Anthem's launch, which even at the time I saw people speculating if he was trying to pull attention away from its suckness, and maybe even use as leverage with EA, you know, to promise fans and make EA less likely to shut down what has already been announced (it would be bad PR?) Perhaps it was finally time after allotted "wait time" for EA to come over and ask "Have you hauled ass yet?" and they hadn't done enough?
Maybe I'm overthinking it? /tinfoilhat
I think it depends heavily on the Legendary edition sales. After two consecutive commercial flops they need to prove people are still interested in Bioware games. If the collection does good numbers I think they will get the budget to finish their in production games. If not, Bioware is dead. Forcing Bioware to use Frostbite might really be what kills the company.
As much as people love blaming EA (i do as well) the Anthem and Andromeda articles by Jason Schreier make clear that most of the blame goes to bioware, they had poor management, went ahead with projects unsure of how to do, all because they honestly believed in "Bioware Magic"
At worst, you can blame EA for mandating its studios to use the Frostbite Engine
At worst, you can blame EA for mandating its studios to use the Frostbite Engine
Bioware has been mired by mismanagement for years. It's no surprise that the managers were pushed out.
No idea if this is good news, but fresh blood has potential to improve things.
No idea if this is good news, but fresh blood has potential to improve things.
Could just be they gave it a go, see the writing on the wall and thought, yeah, time to go. However well their intentions and talent are, sometimes things don't work out.
Could also be EA just aren't happy with BioWare and time for a change.
Who knows, studios won't stay the same forever but sad to see sometimes because you have good memories of what they made before and hoped in the future.
Could also be EA just aren't happy with BioWare and time for a change.
Who knows, studios won't stay the same forever but sad to see sometimes because you have good memories of what they made before and hoped in the future.
