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Home News BioWare Co-Founder Discusses Surviving The "EA Bear Hug"

GAMING NEWS

BioWare Co-Founder Discusses Surviving The "EA Bear Hug"

Posted on Tuesday, January 29 @ 08:46:31 Eastern by Alex_Osborn


BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk, who parted ways with the studio not too long ago, has shed a bit of light on what it was like to work under the thumb of mega-publisher Electronic Arts.

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

When asked if negative fan reaction to Mass Effect 3 played a part in his retirement from the games industry, Zeschuk explained:

Everything's a factor. There's nothing that's not a factor, but there's no single one thing. I think the best way I can describe is: Do the same thing for twenty years and it's very, very intense. It's very high pressure. It's very high stress. It's challenging. It's sometimes rewarding and sometimes it's not. And you just get tired of it after awhile. That is probably the easiest way to for me to describe it. Sometimes you just need to change things.

One of the few things I find kind of funny is the responses of the fans, because they sort of respond that they are kind of mad at us for leaving because they think we owe them more games. You know it's sad I wish I could deliver on that, but I don't think I would be as good as I was in that space historically. Like I said, the fire wasn't there.

It's sad to see such a brilliant mind lose interest in the industry, but it's easy to understand how someone like Zeschuk could come to a place like this. After having to work with EA for several years and then dealing with all that ME3 fan backlash can't be fun, and would certainly squash any passion anyone might have left.
Related Games:   Mass Effect 3, Mass Effect 3
Tags:   BioWare, EA


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Comments
  • Jobin_Wendy
    Jobin_Wendy
    Joined: Mar 2012
    Posted: Jan 29th, 2013 at 9:38 am
    He should make a Kickstarter project. It's the cool thing to do. He doesn't even need an idea, just a page asking for money for something secret, and I think he'll make a few hundred stacks.
    0 2
  • SolidSevchinko78
    SolidSevchinko78
    Joined: Jun 2012
    Posted: Jan 29th, 2013 at 9:49 am
    I understand that the ending of Mass Effect 3 wasn't the one that everybody was hoping for but having a guy like him lose interest in the industry because of all the backlash from fans is crazy. I know some of that had to do with EA as well but that's crazy to think that people could get so mean and hateful over a game ending like that. It's people like that, and tough economy is why I'm happy I decided to not go to College for game design but instead focus my energy elsewhere.
    0 3
  • Lien
    Lien
    Joined: Feb 2008
    Posted: Jan 29th, 2013 at 9:56 am
    He said in the statement that it wasn't the main factor he left but i greatly understand you. All this fan backlash at recent games (DMC, Diablo 3, Mass effect 3, etc...) is really hurting the game community and, like you said, is discouraging people in working in the game industry.
    I certainly do not want to work designing a game to then see myself accused of being the scape goat by an angry mob.

    On behalf of the gaming community, I want to apologize Greg Zeschuk for any traumatizing stress he endure at the mass effect 3 fan backlash. We are all not like this.
    1 5
  • Jobin_Wendy
    Jobin_Wendy
    Joined: Mar 2012
    Posted: Jan 29th, 2013 at 10:31 am
    I blame Square-Enix. And crack/cocaine.
    0 1
  • MootCoffee
    MootCoffee
    Joined: Jan 2007
    Posted: Jan 29th, 2013 at 10:41 am
    I fail to see how any kind of "fan backlash" is bad for the gaming community or industry. While I agree the reasons can range from solid to totally silly, any kind of feedback on that scale is just evidence of a passionate fan-base. If anything, I'd think it'd be an exciting time to be a game-developer in such a high risk/reward environment.

    This guy just sounds burned out. I don't feel much sympathy for him because he held a big-buck position at a big-buck company making games for an incarnation-of-Satan-publisher. The stress and strife are apart of that deal. I'm actually happy for him. Sometimes the best thing is for somebody to realize that they're not in a situation conducive to their happiness.
    1 0
  • Lien
    Lien
    Joined: Feb 2008
    Posted: Jan 29th, 2013 at 11:16 am
    You do realize that if you reverse the order of your two paragraphs, it would contradict each other, right? hehe... Ahem! Back to seriousness!

    No, this isn't a good time to be in the game industry. All this back lash proves is that designers cannot succeed with their own ideas anymore, they must please the masses. We are now entering in a largely vocal and rude err... sorry i mean fan led based industry. If someone wants to work on a franchise he holds dear in the image he sees fit, he cannot experiment and he must make sacrifices to innovative ideas. Or else, the masses will roar, they will petition to fire his bestest friends he knew before his work and they will force him to read thousands of essays that contradict each other. Change = bad apparently
    And the sad thing in the end, these designers, creators, anyone in the industry actually, will never understand why they are receiving this hate... and will retire with their dreams buried for good. How is this good for gaming again?
    1 1
  • SolidSevchinko78
    SolidSevchinko78
    Joined: Jun 2012
    Posted: Feb 18th, 2013 at 2:28 pm
    Thank you! Well said!
    0 0
  • Sourdeez
    Sourdeez
    Joined: Feb 2012
    Posted: Jan 29th, 2013 at 10:17 am
    To be fair they even admited the mass effect 3 ending was done with only two people. They completely excluded the rest of the writers. I really dont blame the fans for all of this. I blame EA and these two guys " the game's finale was written by Casey Hudson and lead writer Mac Walters without any input from the rest of the team, and many protests from the other writers were ultimately ignored."

    As for Greg getting out of the industry i think its a good thing. People will not longer expect his kind of work out of bio ware anymore and will expect the kind of EA consumed dev produced product. Best of luck and wishes to Greg and his partner.
    0 2
  • Sourdeez
    Sourdeez
    Joined: Feb 2012
    Posted: Jan 29th, 2013 at 10:29 am
    And just to be clear I really liked the synthesis ending. Specially after they released the free dlc that fixed the endings to at least make a little more sense.
    0 3
  • darkvictory
    darkvictory
    Joined: Apr 2011
    Posted: Jan 29th, 2013 at 10:57 am
    The only problems I had with the ending is that 1) there was no closure for the rest of the crew, it just ended. I spent many hours invested in the games, getting to know and love these characters and they were just shoved to the side. 2) It seemed completely rushed and forced, in my opinion. 3) Shepard spent three games being able to question everyone he talked to, any idea that was presented to him, to the fullest extent. Until the ending. He just kind takes it and, I thought it was totally out of character. They fixed these things with the extended ending and I was satisfied. I am not one of the people who is crying and whinning about it still. All three games were amazing and I thank Bioware and Greg and his partner for creating an excellent sci fi universe.
    0 0
  • pennpsu
    pennpsu
    Joined: Sep 2010
    Posted: Jan 29th, 2013 at 1:53 pm
    I also loved the series, with all its faults, perceived or otherwise. But to employ a deus ex machina ending is the ultimate sin in film, print, or any media attempting to convey a narrative. It's just such a bad way to end the series.
    0 1
  • moretokes
    moretokes
    Joined: Apr 2011
    Posted: Jan 29th, 2013 at 11:26 am
    Its like I bust my back working to develop a masterpiece, and then the fans **** on the masterpiece, you get **** on by the publisher. It takes away your passion. No one wants to work hard make something and then get told everything they did is a piece of ****.
    0 2
  • tearatherflesh
    tearatherflesh
    Joined: Dec 2012
    Posted: Jan 29th, 2013 at 7:24 pm
    Dr. Zachyca....I will always remember you as an accomplished surgeon.
    0 0
  • Lok-Nar
    Lok-Nar
    Joined: Feb 2012
    Posted: Jan 30th, 2013 at 12:38 am
    Yeah, now Greg and Gorge Lucas can go form a support group for under-appreciated millionaires.
    0 0

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