BioWare has a message for critical fans who blame the company's perceived inadequacies on its corporate overlords at Electronic Arts. "I always chuckle because we are EA, we're BioWare -- we're both, and we still have huge autonomy in terms of what we do," co-founder Greg Zeschuk recently told Eurogamer.
Zeschuk and partner Ray Muzyka cover a lot of ground during the sit-down, and the docs indicate that they still play BioWare's games despite delegating day-to-day development duties to various project leads. "Most of our games, before we ship them, we finish them several times. The Old Republic, we're probably at that level or higher, in terms of hours," Zeschuk says.
Times have changed though, as both men acknowledge that today's BioWare is not the same company that made Neverwinter Nights or MDK2. "Way, way back, years ago, we didn't even consider those [commercial elements], we just made stuff," Zeschuk explains.
Reader Comments (137)
Posted: Oct 3rd 2011 1:07PM cotheer said
Suuuure.
Posted: Oct 3rd 2011 8:17PM Fabius Bile said
@cotheer
the fact that they have to step up and say this out loud should inmediatly raise some red flags.
have we ever heard any Blizzard employee saying the same about Activision?or any ArenaNet staff about NCSoft? no, only this muppets
and just wait, if their WoW-in-space is a bust they will learn the hard way how EA deals with divisions that dont turn profits...
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the fact that they have to step up and say this out loud should inmediatly raise some red flags.
have we ever heard any Blizzard employee saying the same about Activision?or any ArenaNet staff about NCSoft? no, only this muppets
and just wait, if their WoW-in-space is a bust they will learn the hard way how EA deals with divisions that dont turn profits...
Posted: Oct 4th 2011 12:28AM eyeball2452 said
@cotheer
I believe Mike Morhaime said the exact same thing about Activision and then two weeks later, the LA Times reported that Activision's 10k showed that Blizzard had lost its autonomy and Mike was reporting to some SVP at Activision.
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I believe Mike Morhaime said the exact same thing about Activision and then two weeks later, the LA Times reported that Activision's 10k showed that Blizzard had lost its autonomy and Mike was reporting to some SVP at Activision.
Posted: Oct 4th 2011 1:35AM oddshrub said
@eyeball2452
Well both Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka were given vice president positions within EA when EA bought Bioware so technically they are EA. :p
It's a little difference but to be honest I'd be more worried about what decision Lucas Arts have been making in regards to SWTOR because they've had influence and Lucas Arts is yet to make a decent decision in this millennium.
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Well both Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka were given vice president positions within EA when EA bought Bioware so technically they are EA. :p
It's a little difference but to be honest I'd be more worried about what decision Lucas Arts have been making in regards to SWTOR because they've had influence and Lucas Arts is yet to make a decent decision in this millennium.
Posted: Oct 4th 2011 10:00PM (Unverified) said
@smartstep You do realize the whole idea of running a business is based on greed right? If anything, their only failure is that they allowed their customers to realize it.
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Posted: Oct 5th 2011 12:17AM nomore7734 said
@(Unverified)
Greed is not itself part of the makeup of a true business. Maximizing profits and minimizing costs is the nature of any energetic system, from individual cells to multinational conglomerates. A business functions in the long term, whereas greed is fast money usually at the expense of a portion of or even the entire enterprise that takes up the practice. A business based on greed will fail (See Enron) whereas a business based on it's own long term stability will continue on indefinitely given favorable market conditions and sound business decisions.
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Greed is not itself part of the makeup of a true business. Maximizing profits and minimizing costs is the nature of any energetic system, from individual cells to multinational conglomerates. A business functions in the long term, whereas greed is fast money usually at the expense of a portion of or even the entire enterprise that takes up the practice. A business based on greed will fail (See Enron) whereas a business based on it's own long term stability will continue on indefinitely given favorable market conditions and sound business decisions.
Posted: Oct 3rd 2011 1:07PM nimzy said
The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
Posted: Oct 3rd 2011 3:18PM real65rcncom said
@hereafter
Exactly. Bioware is new to mmos so they don't seem to know what internet trolls are. They have no idea how those trolls will keep them bogged down and talking about things they don't need to talk about (really? EA?) instead of discussing their game.
Bioware has to realize that you cannot win internet discussions or debates with trolls. The more you state your position, the more fuel you feed them.
Trolls get stronger when you protest, they get weaker when you ignore them Bioware.
Stay on Target... focus on the game and not this small stuff please.
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Exactly. Bioware is new to mmos so they don't seem to know what internet trolls are. They have no idea how those trolls will keep them bogged down and talking about things they don't need to talk about (really? EA?) instead of discussing their game.
Bioware has to realize that you cannot win internet discussions or debates with trolls. The more you state your position, the more fuel you feed them.
Trolls get stronger when you protest, they get weaker when you ignore them Bioware.
Stay on Target... focus on the game and not this small stuff please.
Posted: Oct 3rd 2011 4:06PM OrangeGamer said
@nimzy Yeah I really didn't get suspicious until they said something. EA!!!! *shakes fist*
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Posted: Oct 3rd 2011 8:36PM Mighty Lawn Gnome said
@real65rcncom
Trolls are as inconsequential to Bioware as they are to me and you.
They know they have one of the strongest IP's available. They know that despite a minor misstep here and there they are respected by not only gamers world wide, but critics and their peers alike. Bioware is not sweating it, nor should they be. ToR will not tank despite the calls of nobodies in Massively's comments section.
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Trolls are as inconsequential to Bioware as they are to me and you.
They know they have one of the strongest IP's available. They know that despite a minor misstep here and there they are respected by not only gamers world wide, but critics and their peers alike. Bioware is not sweating it, nor should they be. ToR will not tank despite the calls of nobodies in Massively's comments section.
Posted: Oct 5th 2011 12:08PM (Unverified) said
@hereafter Instead of remaining silent or just coming out and saying they have the autonomy, an explanation would be nicer, like perhaps a few examples of the hard decisions Bioware had to make that EA wasn't a big fan of.
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Posted: Oct 3rd 2011 1:13PM drunkingamebar said
BioWare founders: "We wear the pants, and EA controls the zipper.'
Fixed.
Fixed.
Posted: Oct 3rd 2011 1:15PM SnarlingWolf said
@Ren54
Basically what they said was "Back when we made games for the sake of making good games and not based on how much money we could profit, we made stuff like NWN. Now we makre stuff based on profits alone"
Basically what they said was "Back when we made games for the sake of making good games and not based on how much money we could profit, we made stuff like NWN. Now we makre stuff based on profits alone"
Posted: Oct 3rd 2011 1:16PM Lucidus said
I'd take them at their word. Bioware is just a brand name used by EA.






