Bioware News

Visual Novel Community Anime/Otaku Discussions
#1

The Doctors have left the building.

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic … x/14156018

I have to wonder though, If they are retiring because they’ve done all they want, or did EA force them out due to the lackluster performance of The Old Republic?

Interesting that they Both left at the same time. Stating the same reasons for their departures in their blogs. 20 years is a long time with a company so maybe I can understand their desire to do something different.

-Although as a side note Richard Garriot said just about the same thing when he left Origin.

#2

Nobody ever says they got forced out, until after they’re retired. They say stuff like what the Bioware founders are saying now. Of course, it’s also true that what they’re saying might simply be the truth.

So the short answer is that we’ll probably never really know.

#3

Well, if they really want to make games more and were forced out of Bioware by EA, what’s stopping them from making something new? Basically do what Inafune’s doing since leaving Capcom. Heck, they could do a Kickstarter program at the least.

#4

I’m kind of hoping they left because EA made them ruin Mass Effect 3, but yeah right =P

#5

I was more disappointed by time/budget cuts that made Dragon Age 2 so obviously underdeveloped…

It was obvious for some time now that Bioware is not the same anymore, hopefully they’ll find some way to regroup and return to business.

#6

More than likely, when the sell outs, cough I mean they sold the company to EA, bet there was a non compete clause for 1-5 years as part of the sale contract , if they ever left the company.

#7

I’ve heard that’s it’s standard in that kind of sellout to also promise to stay WITH the company for a certain amount of time. Both walking may simply mean that they intended to leave all along when making the sale, but had to stay on for a while as part of the transition.

#8

To be fair if I sold my company to EA I’d probably leave as soon as possible too.

EDIT: Yeah, looks like it. The announcement was made in October 2007 but it wouldn’t surprise me if the acquisition was actually finalised in the month prior, hinting that the BioWare founders got out as soon as their 5 year term was up.

#9

IGN’s theory over the departure:

http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/09/28/ … -departure

#10

Here’s Massively’s take:

http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/09/28 … uk-muzyka/