Casey Hudson and Mark Darrah left Bioware. Even if the mood inside the studio is bad, I hope it won`t affect Bioware Austin and Swtor. Goddamit........

I read about this last night, including the statements from EA as well as Messrs. Hudson and Darrah.

 

https://blog.bioware.com/2020/12/03/a-message-from-laura-miele-chief-studios-officer-electronic-arts/

 

It seems pretty clear this was the right decision for all parties concerned. I am not privy to any of the inner workings (nor should I be), but I was pleased to read the parting seemed to be as amicable as possible.

 

With respect to Mark Darrah, he gets in a slight zinger about Bioware wandering away from the "central guiding pillar" at times, but puts a positive spin on both forthcoming Dragon Age and Mass Effect projects.

 

Regarding Casey Hudson, and I want to choose my words very carefully here because it may sound like I'm zinging him when that is not my intent...

 

I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner. Maybe he wasn't able to oversee and implement his vision of Mass Effect: Andromeda and Anthem the way he wanted b/c of clashes with EA -- who knows? Regardless, the last two major releases by Bioware were both critical flops. In the case of Anthem, a major flop. Just as a head coach can't survive a season with a 20% win record, I don't see how someone can survive overseeing two such disastrous projects.

 

Again, not saying it was Hudson's fault, and maybe his hands were tied. Regardless, it is good for all parties concerned, including Hudson's, since he is now free to pursue projects better aligned with his interests / talents (which are considerable). But at the end of the day, EA is still a business and there clearly was a clash or disconnect of some sorts. And whatever one may say about EA, its financial track record is quite solid.

 

As to the impact on SWTOR, again, who knows? I've always viewed it as a nice little niche corner in the Bioware offices that just chugs along on its own. With that said, I think all of us would like to see more resources directed to SWTOR. After all, given the success of The Mandalorian (and the number of Mando characters flooding the game)...

 

This is the way.

 

 

Dasty

Edited December 5, 2020 by Jdast

All else aside, this game'll be fine. Like JDast said, it just sort of chugs along.

I don't know how much involvement either of those two had in SWTOR but I'm guessing not much so I think we will be fine.

As far as I know they had literally no involvement. They're Mass Effect and Dragon Age producers primarily -- and Hudson departing, while the general manager, isn't going to cause any major disruption. Edited December 5, 2020 by jedimasterjac

I read about this last night, including the statements from EA as well as Messrs. Hudson and Darrah.

 

https://blog.bioware.com/2020/12/03/a-message-from-laura-miele-chief-studios-officer-electronic-arts/

 

It seems pretty clear this was the right decision for all parties concerned. I am not privy to any of the inner workings (nor should I be), but i was pleased to read the parting seemed to be as amicable as possible.

 

With respect to Mark Darrah, he gets in a slight zinger about Bioware wandering away from the "central guiding pillar" at times, but puts a positive spin on both forthcoming Dragon Age and Mass Effect projects.

 

Regarding Casey Hudson, and I want to choose my words very carefully here because it may sound like I'm zinging him when that is not my intent...

 

I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner. Maybe he wasn't able to oversee and implement his vision of Mass Effect: Andromeda and Anthem the way he wanted b/c of clashes with EA -- who knows? Regardless, the last two major releases by Bioware were both critical flops. In the case of Anthem, a major flop. Just as a head coach can't survive a season with a 20% win record, I don't see how someone can survive overseeing two such disastrous projects.

 

Again, not saying it was Hudson's fault, and maybe his hands were tied. Regardless, it is good for all parties concerned, including Hudson's, since he is now free to pursue projects better aligned with his interests / talents (which are considerable). But at the end of the day, EA is still a business and there clearly was a clash or disconnect of some sorts. And whatever one may say about EA, its financial track record is quite solid.

 

As to the impact on SWTOR, again, who knows? I've always viewed it as a nice little niche corner in the Bioware offices that just chugs along on its own. With that said, I think all of us would like to see more resources directed to SWTOR. After all, given the success of The Mandalorian (and the number of Mando characters flooding the game)...

 

This is the way.

 

 

Dasty

 

As far as I'm aware Hudson didn't work either on Andromeda or Anthem and was in fact brought back to shore things up after those duds.

 

And Dragon Age franchise has kinda been Darrah's baby.

 

These 2 guys leaving at the same time is telegraphing a lot and none of it good future projects wise. Especially combined with past news on DA4 reworks into live service and whatnot.

 

I held out some hope EA had learned a lesson from JFO success and would give BW the backing and space to do what BW does best, but this makes me think the battle for the soul of the studio has now been decisively lost.

 

 

TOR wise what's there to change for the worse honestly. This game already had its KOTFE hail Mary pitch to turn it around and it didn't pan out, it's on minimal effort autopilot for as long as the SW licence lasts.

Edited December 5, 2020 by aeterno

As we all know, games on minimal effort autopilot expand their team, add a new community manager, and launch on new platforms all the time.

Casey Hudson said in his blog post: "this year we have been inspired by the continued community support for our ongoing work on Star Wars: The Old Republic..."

 

So maybe we are okay.

As we all know, games on minimal effort autopilot expand their team, add a new community manager, and launch on new platforms all the time.

Yeah, they most definitely get steam front banner during its launch day as well.

Casey Hudson said in his blog post: "this year we have been inspired by the continued community support for our ongoing work on Star Wars: The Old Republic..."

 

So maybe we are okay.

 

...and Anthem.

 

So maybe not

 

In all seriousness, I don't see this impacting SWTOR.

Man... I miss old BioWare. NWN, KotOR, Jade Empire..........

 

Miss Lucas Arts too.

To put things in perspective, the purveyors of Everquest / Everquest 2 and other games has been bought out by a Swedish company.

 

To quote one of the first things players said on the forums about it: "FREE MEATBALLS!"

 

So obviously it's a non-panic over there.

Probably any change down the road for this game should not be a panic over here, either.

Sky's not falling, people.

Edited December 10, 2020 by xordevoreaux

Pretty much. There's no real reason to shut down an MMO that has:

 

1.) a stable, if not huge, playerbase

2.) been generating a profit for multiple years now

3.) multiple lines of revenue

4.) one of the most popular IPs in the world

Let's hope BW can make a comeback with ME remake and DA

Has Anthem been canceled yet?

Has Anthem been canceled yet?

 

It is now.

Sad news for the Anthem community and their dev team working so hard on the new improvements I guess, but on the other side it will hopefully back up SWTOR. Edited February 24, 2021 by Jesseriah

Sad news for the Anthem community and their dev team working so hard on the new improvements I guess, but on the other side it will hopefully back up SWTOR.

 

Not likely much, resources are being shifted to Dragon Age and Mass Effect, both primarily out of the Edmonton office. SWTOR is based in the Austin office.

Not likely much, resources are being shifted to Dragon Age and Mass Effect, both primarily out of the Edmonton office. SWTOR is based in the Austin office.

 

We can always hope one of them will miss their layover flight and wind up in Austin by accident.

Which would be better, a game based on rockets & rayguns, or a game based on 80s/90s cgi?