Bioware has a lost a senior producer

lostin3d

lostin3d

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Melo Fernando's last day at BIoWare was Friday August 16th. He's been there for over twelve years and worked on both the Dragon's Age and Mass Effect games. He very clearly posted his reasons for leaving and indicated that it's really just a choice to move on but is incredibly thankful for all the experiences.

1/4) Today was my last day at BioWare. After 12 years.. that's a heck of a lot of feels. :) Tonight I got to write my name up at our local pub, alongside many other amazing peers over the years, and it reminded me of a lot of folks no longer here that I miss dearly.

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(2/4) There's really no easy way to sum up all the fantastic experiences and friendships across our studios, our partners, and in our community, that I've been so fortunate to have been a part of over these years.

(3/4) Here's my parting email to the studio since it also goes out to all of those I've had to pleasure to work with before, and helped to make it a fun and unforgettable ride, but couldn't get that email.
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(4/4) To be clear, this is my own decision. I've been wanting to take some time to disconnect and explore a couple ideas for next chapter in my career. So what's next ... well, watch this space :)
 
With senior leadership leaving Bioware, I wonder if it's time for that one doctor to get out of beer making (which is the last update that I heard about him), and gather the old guard into a new developer.

I'd be all over a return to basics Bioware without the EA influence.
 
In previous articles most of Biowares senior management were saying that EA had given them a lot of free range and really from what I have seen it’s more like they leave enough slack on the rope to hang yourself with. Mass Effect Andromeda has very little EA oversight, same with Anthem and Dragon Age Inquisition.. I think after 12 years working on the same products a change of pace is a good one, but it seems this year a lot of the senior talent at BioWare is leaving and that makes me a smidge sad, all I can do is wish them the best of luck and look forward to what they do in the future.
 
Lakados said:
In previous articles most of Biowares senior management were saying that EA had given them a lot of free range and really from what I have seen it’s more like they leave enough slack on the rope to hang yourself with. Mass Effect Andromeda has very little EA oversight, same with Anthem and Dragon Age Inquisition.. I think after 12 years working on the same products a change of pace is a good one, but it seems this year a lot of the senior talent at BioWare is leaving and that makes me a smidge sad, all I can do is wish them the best of luck and look forward to what they do in the future.
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Yar, I heard similar info as well. Too many hands in the pot, sorta deal (ie: nobody laying down design specifics, too much feature creep).

I also heard about Frostbite engine being forced on development and engine support for Bioware projects taking a back seat to other EA projects.

And, yeah, I'm a smidge sad too. There were a few years of gaming where the big releases for me, and that I enjoyed the most, were all Bioware games.
 
12 years - that's a good run, my friend worked at EA Seattle in its early days (Need For Speed 2!), I think he only made it 8 years before he left. It's a hard industry. Fun in its own way, but I think most people find out it isn't what they thought it would be.
 
Meeho said:
Bioware is still shit either way.
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I wasn't going to go that far, but I did have to look them up on Wikipedia to see what games they've made. I haven't played any of them, and don't really have any interest in them either.

They are kind of a "meh" developer to me.

I've heard people wax poetic about the Mass Effect series, but I could never get into it. I absolutely hate the 3rd person console-inspired perspective.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
I wasn't going to go that far, but I did have to look them up on Wikipedia to see what games they've made. I haven't played any of them, and don't really have any interest in them either.

They are kind of a "meh" developer to me.

I've heard people wax poetic about the Mass Effect series, but I could never get into it. I absolutely hate the 3rd person console-inspired perspective.
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Neverwinter, Baldurs Gate, MDK2, and KOTOR.. All amazing games.

I enjoyed the first two Mass Effects, and Dragon Age Origins is now a modern classic as well.

With Dragon Age 2 & Mass Effect 3 they've gone to shit since then.
 
Mchart said:
With Dragon Age 2 & Mass Effect 3 they've gone to shit since then.
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Yeah, Dragon Age 2 was a letdown (though I preferred the combat in that versus DA:I).

I enjoyed Mass Effect 3 and the conclusion of certain character story threads, but definitely agree that the rushed ending and tacked on multiplayer was a 'beginning of the end' of that Bioware quality.
 
Well, when you're on a sinking ship it is a good choice to move on. And make no mistake bioware is a sinking ship. Anthem is officially a failure, and it's only a question of time when EA flips the switch. If they're lucky it will happen after Dragon Age 4, if that development goes as well as ME:A or Anthem it might even happen before.

And from the rumors DA4 won't be the game to save bioware. If anything I expect it to be an ever bigger flop than ME:A, and possibly a much worse game riddled with propaganda.
 
polonyc2 said:
merging with EA was the worst mistake BioWare ever made
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As much as I agree with it I honestly think BioWare would have folded with our EA’s backing. Development takes a lot of time and I don’t think they had the money left to finish what they were working on at the time.
 
Lakados said:
As much as I agree with it I honestly think BioWare would have folded with our EA’s backing. Development takes a lot of time and I don’t think they had the money left to finish what they were working on at the time.
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BioWare was hurting financially at the time?...I always thought they were doing well, they had a lot of critical hits as well as sales
 
They sold out, and only saw the money not caring about quality.

The evidence of this is the growth of their studio and not being able to effectively manage multiple products, but doing so anyways just to get more cash from EA.

If they had focused on just Andromeda or Anthem we would have gotten a pretty good game. Instead we got two pieces of shit.
 
polonyc2 said:
BioWare was hurting financially at the time?...I always thought they were doing well, they had a lot of critical hits as well as sales
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BioWare was originally part of Interplay and when that folded they bounced around between Atari, Lucas Arts, and Microsoft, eventually landing with Pandemic that was then bought by EA. Interplay took most of what they made with the BG series, KotOR and Jade Empire went mostly to Lucas Arts and Microsoft. So yes BioWare has traditionally made a lot of money for other publishers and done a good job but they were never truly an independent studio.
 
Dead Space 1 & 2 were really good, too. Dead Space 3 wasn't bad - just not as good as 2.
 
lostin3d said:
I've been wanting to take some time to disconnect and explore a couple ideas for next chapter in my career. So what's next ... well, watch this space :)
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I've been working on an exciting new property that's going to take the gaming world by storm! I call it 'Taco Smuggler', and it's a Thief / Splinter Cell style game where you're an infiltrator smuggling tacos and vegan burgers into the various Republican 2020 election functions in order to turn RINOs into Democrats ("Here, sir, some delicious tacos for all your hard work, and some literature for you to consider while you're eating.") Along the way you'll be subduing security guards, photobombing congressmen and killing Russian Facebook Hackers, with the final goal of sneaking into the 2020 Republican convention and subverting a majority of delegates into nominating Senator Francis Pooshoes for the 2020 Republican ticket!!!!!

Awesome, yes?

We should talk.


P.S. We should! Talk!

P.P.S. My therapist wants me to talk.

P.P.P.S. "Agent Calypso, this is going to be a speed run - those are genuine de Lengua beef tongue tacos, and they have to be fresh!"
 
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DF-1 said:
what kind of propaganda?
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The kind that makes me close books and throw them in the dumpster. A'la Mass Effect Uprising.
Social justice propaganda that says reason and science should be thrown out the window and replaced with what feels right from a subjective, ignorant point of view of an individual.
A world where the feelings of one or a few people outweighs the needs of the many.
 
I'm not sure that the words Bioware and "shit" or "meh" can logically be used in the same sentence. Currently a shadow of their former glory but they were one of the best studios in the business at the height of their powers producing some of the greatest games ever made and some of my personal favourites. One only need mention Baldur's Gate or Neverwinter Nights for incontrovertible evidence ☺
 
Having worked for BioWare and EA......yea EA may have let have some slack in terms of games, but that is literally to let them hang themselves if stuff goes sideways
Met the founders of BioWare as well. nice guys
 
Ranger101 said:
I'm not sure that the words Bioware and "shit" or "meh" can logically be used in the same sentence. Currently a shadow of their former glory but they were one of the best studios in the business at the height of their powers producing some of the greatest games ever made and some of my personal favourites. One only need mention Baldur's Gate or Neverwinter Nights for incontrovertible evidence ☺
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Agreed. Some people just gotta be too cool for school, I guess. Whether or not their games are the kind a person personally enjoys, their list of classics is huge and they're clearly one of the greats. Shame what's happened to them, but the glory days were glorious indeed.
 
More than not when I see companies like Bioware being bought up by entities like EA or Microsoft what happens is a small company with a relatively small team and looser management suddenly has a large team with more resources and tighter management demands. The management style needed to direct larger groups and smaller ones is not at all the same and what ends up happening things that were working well suddenly don't and the whole work dynamic falls to pieces. Some groups due to their familiarity manage to tough it out but as more people come in and others leave that dynamic breaks down and what you are left with is uncoordinated chaos, project costs suddenly go up, things fall behind schedule and quality of work suffers as people are suddenly having to work double time to catch back up and the end product ultimately suffers. Biowares IP's are still good, their developers, artists, and writers are top notch, what they need is firm management and somebody used to working and directing large disjointed groups and keeping them on task and on schedule.
 
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