Former Bioware employee suggests "overwhelming negativity" to Mass Effect 3 and The Old Republic forced the founders out.
September 28, 2012
An ex-Bioware developer has claimed the negative fan reaction to Mass Effect 3 and Star Wars: The Old Republic led to company founders Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka leaving both Bioware and the games industry.
In an interview with Now Gamer Trent Oster, who worked in senior positions at Bioware from its founding until June 2009, shared that the last time he met up Zeschuk, he was visibly exhausted.
"The last time I met up with [Greg], I felt his exhaustion,” claimed Oster. "Punch out, eject, get the hell out", was my suggestions to him and it hit closer to the mark than I had realised. I also think the Mass Effect 3 fan reaction and the Old Republic fans' negativity was just too much.
"You have to love games and you put your heart into them to create them. To have the fans creating petitions against the work is pretty hard to take, especially when you've spent the last few years crunching overtime to try and ship a game. It can be hard to shut off the overwhelming negativity the internet spews forth, especially when it has your name or the name of your company in it."
But while he wasn't hugely surprised about Zeschuk deciding to leave as a result, Oster revealed that he never would have guessed Muzyka would depart as well, as he always considered him an "EA lifer."
"Ray surprised me. I had him pegged as an EA lifer," he shared. "My thought was the Ray agenda was to first usurp Frank Gibeau and then later John Riccitiello as CEO.
“I'm sure the internal culture at EA had pinned the Old Republic conversion to free to play as a failure and hung that completely on Ray, so that would have hurt his upward climb. But, I figured he would fight harder. EA upper management must have been even worse than I thought."
Though it originally launched to impressive player numbers, figures for The Old Republic have fallen in recent months and the game is now adopting a free-to-play option from next month. Mass Effect 3, meanwhile, polarised fans of the series with its ending, which eventually led to an alternate one being provided as DLC.
Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant and lifelong Bioware fan. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.
In an interview with Now Gamer Trent Oster, who worked in senior positions at Bioware from its founding until June 2009, shared that the last time he met up Zeschuk, he was visibly exhausted.
“
You have to love games and you put your heart into them to create them. To have the fans creating petitions against the work is pretty hard to take."You have to love games and you put your heart into them to create them. To have the fans creating petitions against the work is pretty hard to take, especially when you've spent the last few years crunching overtime to try and ship a game. It can be hard to shut off the overwhelming negativity the internet spews forth, especially when it has your name or the name of your company in it."
But while he wasn't hugely surprised about Zeschuk deciding to leave as a result, Oster revealed that he never would have guessed Muzyka would depart as well, as he always considered him an "EA lifer."
"Ray surprised me. I had him pegged as an EA lifer," he shared. "My thought was the Ray agenda was to first usurp Frank Gibeau and then later John Riccitiello as CEO.
“I'm sure the internal culture at EA had pinned the Old Republic conversion to free to play as a failure and hung that completely on Ray, so that would have hurt his upward climb. But, I figured he would fight harder. EA upper management must have been even worse than I thought."
Though it originally launched to impressive player numbers, figures for The Old Republic have fallen in recent months and the game is now adopting a free-to-play option from next month. Mass Effect 3, meanwhile, polarised fans of the series with its ending, which eventually led to an alternate one being provided as DLC.
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