In news that's sure to set tongues wagging, veteran BioWare employees Casey Hudson and Mark Darrah have announced that they're retiring from the company.
This is actually the second time that Hudson has left BioWare. After spearheading the Mass Effect trilogy, his first departure came in 2014, but he returned to the studio in 2017 having spent a few years elsewhere. He was brought back in order to help shape the ill-fated ANTHEM before its launch in 2019.
Meanwhile, Darrah has played a long and substantial role in producing the Dragon Age series. A new Dragon Age game — often referred to as Dragon Age 4 — is in development right now, and Darrah was the project's executive producer.
In a blog post, Darrah writes: "This has been a very difficult decision for me. The team of amazing developers on Dragon Age, make my life fuller and better. They have taught me so much. But the strength of the team is also what makes this possible. I know that Dragon Age won’t just survive without me, it will thrive."
Darrah continues: "Dragon Age will be in good hands. Christian Dailey will be moving into the Executive Producer role. Christian Dailey is a strong leader and will provide great insight into the rest of the Dragon Age leadership who remain. This is a team that includes people with decades of experience at BioWare. I am confident that, together, this is the team that can make this Dragon Age the best one yet."
Some big changes at BioWare, then. The developer has endured a very rocky generation, with the aforementioned ANTHEM and Mass Effect: Andromeda both having a negative impact on the studio's once immaculate reputation. Dragon Age: Inquisition was a far better game than both, but that was a whole six years ago now.
Hopefully Mass Effect Legendary Edition — set to launch in Spring 2021 — gets the studio back on track.
[source blog.bioware.com]
Comments 24
They used to be my favorite developer.
Unfortunately again showing the case that BioWare's only resemblance to the company that made KOTOR and ME is purely in name only
sounds like great news, I do hope dragon age is nearly done and doesn't turn out to be a mess
Damn, developer departure season is awfully strong this week
Between Evil Abstergo (EA) pressuring them to create massive games with stupid deadlines and the backlash from ME Andromeda and ANTHEM, I'm surprised every single employee isn't permanently off sick foe clinical depression. I can't see this as a bad thing for them, they'll bounce back with the line "EA survivor" on their CV
I should really go back and play DAI. Had it for years and only ever put a few hours in to it.
Really hope that BioWare can turn their fortunes around soon. At their peak they were easily one of the best. DOn't think these departures are a good sign, though.
Is there any reason to look forward to their future work at this point? I just hope the trilogy comes out and isn't ruined before they go under.
Bioware died when EA absorbed them. They haven't really been bioware since ME1, with the brief exception of DA:O, but that's because they'd started that back in their black isle (now more or less obsidian) partnership days.
Bioware will bust soon. They just suck big time. Used to be my one of my favorite studios.
@Kidfunkadelic83 I'd suggest it but the Trespasser dlc made it much better, so definitely get that if you haven't already.
More nope. Nope nope nope.
@Rhaoulos
Yeah, Andromeda had stupid deadline of 5 years. But they messed it up good, and finally game was made within two years. That project had massive budget and enough time, but still they could not deliver.
I miss the days when Bioware made good games. Unfortunately I knew the day the company sold out to Electronic Arts that it would be all downhill and that's exactly the way it went.
Whatever, Bioware is dead since Muzyka and Zeschuk left, regardless
@Justifier if anything they probably had too much money and time. But too little focus meant they squandered it
Hopes for this new game dropped instantly.
@Flurpsel
Yeah, too little control.
Everytime i see ME wriiten down my first thoughts are Mirror's Edge. Would love a new one of those.
@Justifier The project should have been rebooted properly and get a new deadline or cancelled. I mean, EA chose to murder a Franchise instead of trying to limit damages.
Edit: come to think of it, there are games that were almost a decade in the making and still sucked, like FFXV or diablo 3 (when it was released)
@Rhaoulos isn’t ff15 royal edition pretty good? D3 sucks ass yeah.
SIGH Both ME and DA could have been so, so, so much more, had EA only been hands off and let them do what they wanted to do. These guys had massive ambitions and wanted to make eight games in the DA franchise. They wanted to make what we the fans wanted to play, and they weren't allowed. We'll see what happens now.
@Cheems I only played the royal edition, and it sucks. So many issues, like messy combat, a horrible second half, useless DLCs and countless problems you wouldn't even see in a game from the early 2000.
I'm still very excited about the ME Trilogy remaster since it was reportedly almost done and ust needed some polish on the first game. But as far as Dragon Age 4 and Mass Effect 5 go... I am now very uncertain. It's looking like Andromeda all over again, but on both teams. If just one of them left, I wouldn't have been that worried, but both the same day? Yikes. Very sad.
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