BioWare's Design Docs

An Interview with founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk
3/19/2008 12:00 AM | 0 Comments | Page 3 of 5

Muzyka: There was a bit of a transition period in the beginning as we were getting used to working under this new partnership, especially since nothing like this had ever been done before. We were lucky enough to be working with some great people for whom we had a tremendous amount of respect, people like Andrew Goldman, Josh Resnick and Greg Borrud at Pandemic, and John Riccitiello as the founding CEO of BioWare/Pandemic Studios. It was essentially a partnership of some of the best minds in the gaming industry, each with a passion for making great games, and that's always a great fit when you can find it.

Crispy Gamer: What about the recent sale to Electronic Arts -- apart from trying to make the world's richest people list, what was the impetus for permanently hopping in bed with this kind of corporate goliath, especially when you were already keeping company independently with the likes of LucasArts and Microsoft?

Muzyka: We've always had a friendly relationship with Electronic Arts, but a big part of our decision to join them was actually John Riccitiello himself. We worked closely with him during his time as our boss (John was the founding CEO at BioWare/Pandemic Studios) and developed a terrific relationship with him. He shares our vision and values for our studio and our games, so there was a natural desire to explore this opportunity under his leadership at EA.

In the past few months of integration, we've had an opportunity to meet a range of people from Electronic Arts and without exception we've been incredibly impressed with how smart, passionate and talented they are. We're really excited about working for Frank Gibeau, the president of the EA Games Label, and the rest of the team that John and Frank have assembled at EA.

Crispy Gamer: Since you've effectively switched sides now to the evil empire, it begs the question: Can independent game studios still survive in this day and age, and do they still stand any reasonable chance of competing with the big boys, let alone producing a breakout hit?

Muzyka: There are a lot of interesting opportunities available for smaller independent studios, in areas as diverse as handheld or mobile development, post-release downloadable content, expansions, outsourcing, porting to new platforms, developing new titles using engines or toolsets released with other games (along the lines of what fans did for BioWare's Neverwinter Nights or Valve's Half-Life 2) or Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network or WiiWare downloadable content. The key is to understand your core competencies and focus on delivering something that stands out against your competitors.

Crispy Gamer: Word on the street has it you've got an MMO in development -- why choose to go the massively multiplayer route in terms of future development?

Zeschuk: We love playing MMOs ourselves and we'd been thinking about getting into that space for a while now. We've reached a point in our growth and experience where we feel ready to take on the MMO space, and we're planning on bringing a lot of the great qualities for which BioWare is known (great stories and characters) into that genre in a way that's never been seen before. We can't say too much about it right now, but we're very excited and we think the fans will love what we've got in store for them...