Deus Ex, System Shock, and Thief lead Warren Spector has commented on the closure of Mass Effect and Dragon Age studio BioWare.
Coming after EA’s controversial acquisition by Saudi investment groups, BioWare has been completely shuttered. The studio, which was working on the next Mass Effect game, has been gutted with years of pre-production work scrapped on its RPG.
Spector, who saw the rise of BioWare in the 1990s alongside his own iconic games, took to social media to discuss the closure. “400 people at BioWare are gone,” he said. “Out in the cold with so many others.”
The immersive sim legend explained that “BioWare is more than just another studio”. He continued: “For decades, it’s played a central role in the history of our medium. They, for many years, as effective as any studio married art and commerce. Their work changed things.”
BioWare has suffered from a couple of not-great releases, although there are mitigating circumstances. Former studio veteran Mark Darrah explained in an interview with us at FRVR that many of the studio’s problems stemmed from EA interference. While many claim that the studio of old no longer exists, a lot of original Mass Effect and Dragon Age developers were still at the RPG company.
In his post, Spector said that BioWare’s closure is “such bad news”, adding that in “such a devastating historic event all I can say is that it’s utter bullsh*t. Anyone who participated in this travesty should be ashamed”.
“Actually, maybe all of the people who participated — the folks in suits (real or virtual) should lose their damn jobs,” they continued. “I ask them to ponder this: What do you contribute to gaming? What price do you pay for failure? I’d love to see THEM on the unemployment line instead of the people who do real work. Why is it always the do-ers and makers who pay the price? Someone explain that to me!”
In a follow-up comment, Spector explained that they’ve “had studios close under me, resulting in hundreds of people losing their jobs” over his decades in the games industry. “I had nothing to do with those business decisions, but I take responsibility for the creative and development ones that contributed.”
“Perhaps most relevant I was at Origin when EA acquired us,” the game director continued. “For a year or two, we maintained creative control but with bigger budgets. Turns out they’d given us enough rope to hand ourselves. I left before the last gasping breath was issues, but there were EA-driven things going on that drove me out of Origin. Things that were unsavory (NOT illegal to be crystal clear) and about which I will never speak.”
Despite the studio’s closure, BioWare leaves behind an amazing legacy of games. From the original Baldur’s Gate series to Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic to Dragon Age and Mass Effect, the studio was one of the greatest to ever do it.
