Co-founder of BioWare, Greg Zeschuk has commented on the closure of BioWare for the first time, placing the blame of closing the iconic studio on BioWare being taken over by a consortium of companies including Saudi Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake Partners and Affinity Partners. This new ownership of the studio is a big change for the Mass Effect and Dragon Age series studio and gamers and industry experts are now speculating how this new team in charge will affect game making in the future.
Greg Zeschuk blames new EA owners for misunderstanding game development
Greg Zeschuk blames the new consortium of companies including Saudi Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake Partners and Affinity Partners for the studio's fate. The co-founder calls the takeover the 'last nail in the coffin' for BioWare's independent creative freedom. It is an interesting comment on the intersection between consolidation of money and the actual realities of making games.
The central part of his argument is that the new team of executives don't have any development experience, that they work hands-on. The co-founder says that the executives who are oriented towards business aspects don't usually make games from start to finish.
They don't understand how things work on the production side, and as such they make decisions which are off from the needs of the development teams. Looking back at BioWare's past, Zeschuk remembers how the studio was in a good financial situation in 2007.
When they decided to go with Electronic Arts. It was a decision to finance the development of Star Wars: The Old Republic.
He thought it was the best thing to do. They were in a good situation and then, everything changed because of the takeover.
We've been covering BioWare, including when the co-founder spoke about Dragon Age remasters being a possibility (and our previous coverage mentioned the technical aspects of trying to remaster the old games). Now, we're seeing the co-founder talking about the closure and giving us a bigger picture of why it might be difficult with the new team in charge.
The comments from Zeschuk confirm the closure is seen by the co-founder as something that happens because of corporate decisions, rather than a creative failure. It's all about the new team in charge and how they are more oriented to business aspects rather than development knowledge. It's a good explanation for the closing of an era in gaming.
Source: IXBT
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