# Casey Hudson leaves BioWare



## Simon (Aug 7, 2014)

Geoff Keighley Tweet



> Very sad for news to break that @ caseydhuson is leaving Bioware. End of an era.




Letter



> Casey Hudson’s Departure from BioWare/EA
> From Aaryn Flynn, BioWare Studio General Manager
> 
> After nearly 16 years of game development at BioWare, Executive Producer Casey Hudson has made the decision to move on from BioWare and enter a new stage of his career. We thank Casey for his hard work and dedication as we look back on his time with BioWare.
> ...



If this doesn't show that Bioware is done then I don't know what does.


----------



## Enclave (Aug 7, 2014)

Wonder how long it'll be before he decides the next step in his career is joining Obsidian.


----------



## Wan (Aug 7, 2014)

Good luck to him in whatever he chooses to do next.  He was the director behind Knights of the Old Republic and the Mass Effect series.  He will be missed.


----------



## dream (Aug 7, 2014)

Perhaps this will spur Bioware to change and not suck as much as they lately have been. 

Anways, good luck yo Hudson and his future endeavors.


----------



## Enclave (Aug 7, 2014)

Dream said:


> Perhaps this will spur Bioware to change and not suck as much as they lately have been.



Unlikely, EA still is in charge of them after all.  Bioware has been going steadily downhill ever since EA bought them.


----------



## Wan (Aug 8, 2014)

Enclave said:


> Unlikely, EA still is in charge of them after all.  Bioware has been going steadily downhill ever since EA bought them.



I found Mass Effect 2 to be largely an improvement over the first game, and it was done under EA's ownership.  ME3, botched ending aside (which I don't think was EA's fault), was mechanically even better than ME2.  Dragon Age 2 was subpar compared Origins, yes, but by all accounts Inquisition seems to be a return to form.  There's plenty of potential still left in BioWare; the days when "BioWare" had an unconditional connotation of quality storytelling in video games are gone, though.


----------



## Simon (Aug 8, 2014)

Enclave's blood lust for EA still going strong.


----------



## Wan (Aug 8, 2014)

Oh, it's not strange.  It's cool to hate on EA these days.  Some are good reasons, some are ill-founded reasons but they get piled on anyways because of the bandwagon.


----------



## Buskuv (Aug 8, 2014)

Hate on EA nowadays? 

They've been the bane of PC gaming ever since they started buying up companies like Bullfrog and Maxis, gutting them and hanging their corpses out to dry.  I know that there's a lot of silly hate going on for EA recently, but EA has been a bad company for a long, long time, and it's not going to get any better.  There are people who hate EA for one terrible ending on one game, sure; there are more who have been fed up with EA since the late 90s.

Just because they buy up good studios who make good games doesn't make them a good company--they just have no idea what organic growth is and instead choose the 'scorched earth' business model.

EA has put out some legitimately good games, but they're abhorrent company which has been the death knell for close to a dozen good studios.


----------



## Agmaster (Aug 8, 2014)

I'm confused.  Good will was lost with the way they finished up and released mass effect 3, bioware's name is already mired.  Hope the guy enjoys his spoils, but how is this news?


----------



## ShadowStep (Aug 8, 2014)

I've been a bioware fan since Baldur's gate 2 but after Mass Effect 3, I've decided not to buy any of their games until it goes on sale. Here's a couple of things that I feel were wrong with the game.

- Voice acting took a nosedive, it didn't have the same punch that the last 2 games did.
- Too linear.
- Day 1 dlc that was actually in the game the entire time.
- Some story elements didn't make sense...if I remember correctly a few characters were too busy with their own problems e.g. Miranda was busy worrying about her sister instead of more pressing matters like- you know, the end of the world?
- Player choice didn't matter as we reached the ending. It's not entirely bioware's fault that the ending got leaked a few months before release date though they could've made a better effort.
- You have to play the game twice or the multiplayer to get the surprise ending which is a lame attempt to make us play the game.
- Party members were limited and the new ones like that sergeant was boring as hell. Interaction between characters also left a lot to be desired.
-This is a personal issue that we never got to talk with any other reaper apart from Sovereign in the first game because let's face it, speaking to Sovereign was one of the greatest moments in the series.
- Using EA's Origin should be a choice, not a necessity- particularly when steam is vastly superior.

A few positives:

+ Better graphics.
+ Improved gameplay- loved the cover system and glad they brought back grenades.

I sincerely hope that Inquisition and ME4 not follow in their predecessor's footsteps and prove that Bioware can still produce great games like KOTOR and Baldur's Gate 2 even after Casey Hudson's departure.


----------



## Buskuv (Aug 8, 2014)

It was just the original Mass Effect writers setting themselves up to fail, but talking to Sovereign was chilling in Mass Effect because it was like talking to some sort of technological Lovecraftian being, full on cosmic terror; the horror of a being beyond actual comprehension.

And then we got Mass Effect 2 and 3.


----------



## Axl Low (Aug 8, 2014)

*hallelujah*


----------



## Agmaster (Aug 8, 2014)

ME2 was fine with the soldiers of the dark force on the attack.  The threat level just feel disconnected by part 3.


----------



## Enclave (Aug 8, 2014)

Simon said:


> Enclave's blood lust for EA still going strong.



Perhaps if you actually educated yourself on their shit company you'd actually agree with everybody who says they are a shit company.


----------



## Simon (Aug 8, 2014)

Enclave said:


> Perhaps if you actually educated yourself on their shit company you'd actually agree with everybody who says they are a shit company.


Did I ever say I disagreed?


----------



## Enclave (Aug 8, 2014)

Certainly implied it, that's generally why people call out somebody else in the manner you did.

If you agree with it then cool, I take back my snippyness.


----------



## Gaawa-chan (Aug 8, 2014)

Dr. Biscuit Kardashian said:


> Hate on EA nowadays?
> 
> They've been the bane of PC gaming ever since they started buying up companies like *Bullfrog* and Maxis, gutting them and hanging their corpses out to dry.



It's... so sad...


----------



## Wan (Aug 9, 2014)

ShadowStep said:


> - Voice acting took a nosedive, it didn't have the same punch that the last 2 games did.



 The voice acting was fine.  Mark Meer in particular was much improved as MaleShep over ME1 and ME2.



> - Too linear.



Plenty of great games are linear.  It's a story about a war; there's not a lot of opportunity there to go meandering around.


> - Day 1 dlc that was actually in the game the entire time.



Nope.  There were some bits and pieces, but the majority of the DLC's content was not on the disc.



> - Some story elements didn't make sense...if I remember correctly a few characters were too busy with their own problems e.g. Miranda was busy worrying about her sister instead of more pressing matters like- you know, the end of the world?



Miranda was worried about her sister because of her father -- a former Cerberus supporter, back in the fold now that Miranda had left Cerberus.  Y'know, the group contributing to the end of the world.



> - Player choice didn't matter as we reached the ending. It's not entirely bioware's fault that the ending got leaked a few months before release date though they could've made a better effort.
> - You have to play the game twice or the multiplayer to get the surprise ending which is a lame attempt to make us play the game.



These were addressed by the Extended Cut.



> - Party members were limited and the new ones like that sergeant was boring as hell. Interaction between characters also left a lot to be desired.



I liked James Vega.  He was an improvement as the "normal guy" over Jacob.  The game had just as many party members as ME1; building an elite squad wasn't a theme of ME3 as opposed to ME2.  Interaction between characters was actually improved over ME2, as you could find them around the Normandy having conversations and just talking.



> -This is a personal issue that we never got to talk with any other reaper apart from Sovereign in the first game because let's face it, speaking to Sovereign was one of the greatest moments in the series.



Shepard does talk with the Reaper destroyer on Rannoch.  He also talked with Harbinger in the "Arrival" DLC for ME2.



> - Using EA's Origin should be a choice, not a necessity- particularly when steam is vastly superior.



ME3 not being on Steam was ultimately Valve's decision, not EA's.  Here's why:

At some point, Valve changed their terms of service for publishers.  Previously, they had allowed games sold on Steam to have a system for purchasing and installing DLC separately from Steam.  Such games included Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age Origins. But Valve changed things so that all DLC for games bought through Steam had to be bought and installed through Steam, giving Valve a piece of those sales.  Valve and EA apparently tried working something out, during which time Dragon Age II and Crysis 2 got posted to Steam with separate DLC purchase systems.  But they couldn't come to an agreement, so _Valve_ removed Dragon Age II and Crysis 2 from Steam, and has not allowed EA games with separate DLC purchase systems (such as ME3) on Steam since.  But EA isn't trying to force business away from Steam; when they released a version of Crysis 2 with all the DLC included, it got posted to Steam and you can buy it there today.

So yeah, blame Valve for ME3 not being on Steam, not EA.

Anyways, when was the last time Steam gave away free games like Dead Space, or had an official, no-questions-asked return policy?  Because Origin has done both.


----------

