Navigating a Legacy: Insights from a BioWare Co-Founder on Mass Effect 3’s Backlash, Life Under EA, and Misguided Guidance from Xbox

BioWare’s co-founder Greg Zeschuk has reflected on his experiences at the company during the development of Dragon Age, Mass Effect, and Star Wars: The Old Republic, and discussed some of the studio’s most infamous moments, including his relationship with the major publisher EA.

In conversation with Simon Parkin on the My Ultimate Console podcast, Zeschuk mentioned that EA had been a reliable partner, despite some fans of BioWare believing that the studio’s acquisition marked the beginning of its decline.

“I often say that EA gives you enough rope to hang yourself,” Zeschuk remarked. “What I mean by that is you need to learn to operate within the complexities of the process, and I believe we did quite well, if you consider the Mass Effect [trilogy that] emerged from it. It was indeed a remarkably successful journey.

“However, you need to adopt simple yet effective strategies to function within a large corporation. For me, that was the turning point. It felt like, ‘oh, I don’t enjoy large companies.’ So by the second year, I knew I would eventually leave. I just didn’t know when.

“I lived in Austin periodically for two and a half years while developing Star Wars: The Old Republic, and that felt like my farewell to the industry,” Zeschuk elaborated, reflecting on his final project. Both of BioWare’s co-founders dramatically departed the company and the gaming industry in 2012, and Zeschuk now happily dedicates his time to craft beer.

“I understood that it was kind of a one-way path,” Zeschuk stated regarding his choice to focus on BioWare’s ambitious Star Wars MMO endeavor. “If it turned out to be extraordinarily successful, Ray and I might have attempted to initiate a takeover of EA from within, being the corporate pirates that we are. But it needed to be something like $2 billion in annual success. It didn’t happen, so I thought, ‘I’m okay with that.'”

Regarding EA in general, Zeschuk noted that the publisher behind FIFA and Madden “allowed us to operate independently” – although BioWare’s behavior often stirred surprise.

“There were all sorts of antics we engaged in,” Zeschuk reminisced. “We even created Facebook games under deceptive pretenses, using false names.”

Zeschuk remembers a project about a yeti running around delivering items, which BioWare employees created as a test to explore the platform.

BioWare was not permitted to develop mobile games, Zeschuk continued, yet some staff members were curious about it – so they invented a fictitious company name to conduct experiments. The premise was that BioWare might want to integrate mobile features into one of its larger games – which indeed occurred with Mass Effect 3‘s Galaxy at War application.

“You can’t run a company full of cowboys,” Zeschuk stated. “I wouldn’t label us as cowboys; we were generally quite strategic in our actions. But we enjoyed experimenting. So when they found out we had a few Apple development devices and we weren’t part of the mobile division, they questioned, ‘what are you up to?'”

While discussing his biggest regret from his time at BioWare, Zeschuk recalled advice from another gaming giant – Microsoft – which ultimately led the company to release Jade Empire for the original Xbox to a lukewarm reception.

“Microsoft was like, ‘no, no, you should release it now, right at the end of the cycle, because it’s a great time’,” Zeschuk remembered. “It was the worst recommendation, utterly foolish advice from them, the most ridiculous thing ever. I might say that, and Peter Moore might give me a punch in the mouth the next time he sees me. It wasn’t his fault, but we should have definitely pushed it to the start of the [Xbox] 360.

“We could have enhanced [Jade Empire], we could have elevated it. We could have said no. We simply missed the opportunity… I wish I had said, ‘this is a terrible decision, give us another six months, let us make it a launch title for 360,’ and we would have potentially had another franchise. Who knows? I just believe it would have been a much more successful product at the beginning of a cycle than at the end because, by the time it was released, people weren’t even purchasing Xbox anymore; they were eagerly awaiting the next one.”

Zeschuk recounted concerns within BioWare regarding the company’s acquisition by EA, particularly about the perception that the publisher fostered a culture of excessive work or ‘crunch.’ However, this was an issue BioWare was already familiar with, he noted.

“There was a pretty intense all-hands meeting in the studio to discuss the sale and whether EA would impose its philosophical work-life balance on us,” Zeschuk conveyed, “but in reality, we all did it to ourselves. We were the ones…”