EA's Relationship With BioWare a "Bear Hug," Says Zeschuk

18
Lee Bradley

BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk has opened up on the studio’s relationship with EA, describing the company’s management style as a “bear hug.”

EA acquired BioWare, along with Mercenaries dev Pandemic, for $860m in 2007. Since that time BioWare has developed Mass Effect 2 and 3, the Dragon Age series and PC MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Zeschuk left the studio last year with fellow co-founder Ray Muzyka. The shock move has been put down to the “fan negativity” bought on by the reception to Dragon Age 2 and the ending of Mass Effect 3, among other factors.

Reflecting on his time under EA, Zeschuk hinted at potentially difficult relationship, saying "I think one of the reasons that we survived and succeeded within EA was that our company was mature enough and there was enough good people throughout to handle the EA bear hug - something that is well meaning but vigorous." 

"We needed to be strong to survive that and I think we did and you evolve from that as well."

Zeschuk’s well-mannered words may suggest the co-founder’s real reason for leaving Bioware. Or maybe he really did just want to spend more time with his beer.

[via Polygon]

Comments
18
  • EA is ruining them. Always sad when stuff like this happens ,like with the AC series.
  • $860? What a bargain!
  • @1: And what got all this do to with AC which is developed and published by Ubisoft?
  • Nothing, besides one of the head guys(desilets or something) left after ac2 for "creative differences". It's not the same, I just don't like when someone has a hand in creatine something great, then ends up leaving because of where it ends up.
  • EA has poisoned them, whether they want to believe it or not.
  • Yeah a nice bear hug, the kind where the bear digs it's claws into you and refuses to let go
  • but on the other claw of that bear hug kept that team alive with finances. nobody but their own greed sold those companies to ea. anyway wasn't ea who made those guys leave bioware. from the sounds of it was the bitching moaning so called game fans. they spent years making them games to play and they moan about an ending. mmmmh i don't like vader getting killed off in return of the jedi should i demand and bitch to george lucas to change it? so if anybody is killing bioware it's the moaning because that only resulted in less games sold once the minority polluted the waters with negativity.
  • It's no secret that ever since EA brought Bioware into their grasp, Bioware has lost a lot of credibility as a games developer. Whenever you saw "Bioware" on a case, or list as being the developer or involded in a game, it usually stood for a high quality, great complete game (a few exceptions to this of course, but you get that with all companies). Nowadays, many gamers see Bioware as just another Cash Cow that's being milked to death by EA, all in the name of a profit. EA are a company that are ruining great games all for the sake of getting a profit. Micro-transactions are fast becoming the norm in their games, while quality of the products they launch is falling rapidly. EA need to change their business model and approach, or people are going to say enough is enough, and take their money elsewhere.
  • @8: It's not like EA said "Hey, wanna Millionz cash?" and Bioware was all like "Sure". It's a little more complicated than that. (Well, it's more like the shareholders that "Sure" in the end :P ) And Star Wars Fans complaining to Lukas is a VERY bad analogy. They bitch about every change this man makes to their Messiah of movies. And you can see a steady lack of quality ever since EA took over compared to the non EA games.
  • Does your Krogan need a little more strength, does your Issac need a few more credits to build the perfect line cutter, maybe just a tad more firepower, do you wnat some meaningless DLC months after you have saved the (oh btw the ENTIRE) galaxy??? Well, step right up to the EA store, for just the low, low, bargain basement price of $1.99 all that and MORE can be yours - INSTANTLY...
  • @7 to be fair you probably wouldn't have to bitch at lucas to change it, he'll probably do it himself
  • Better EA than Disney. Oh and the whole bear hug thing is rather gross.
  • It's a thin line between maintaining artistic freedom and working within the parameters of a corporation to make a nice paycheck.
  • Bear hugs can be good or bad depending on the hugger. Sadly, in this case the hugger just happened to be Satan. It makes more sense to assume that difficult working conditions is a better reason for the departure then idiotically blaming the fans.
  • Also, I do love that the sign in on the wall says 'Independence'.
  • Bioware have been going down hill since the start of the Mass Effect series to me, at this point they're a laughable former shell of what they were. Another studio absorbed in EA, More examples include DICE, Crytek and Maxis
  • Not a bear hug more like strangled
  • "EA acquired BioWare, along with Mercenaries dev Pandemic" RIP in piece Pandemic.
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