Dragon Age 4 Lead Producer Leaves BioWare

Today, lead producer on Dragon Age 4, Fernando Melo, left BioWare, a company he has been at for the past 12 years.

[AngainorG7X]

I'm so worried about Bioware

[PiNkFaIrYbOi]

I already gave up on them,

[VenomUK]

Just two days ago Anthem's lead producer, Ben Irving, revealed he had left BioWare. Two high profile producers leaving in two days is significant. It may mean the company has a new focus and is restructuring with a renewed purpose. However, more often than not, it suggests that there may be tension between staff and management. I hope they work it all out because they have a legacy of great single player RPGs.

https://twitter.com/BenIrvo...

[UltraNova]

Venom,

Or it means that as higher ups they found out that the ship is going down and simply chose to get out before their name is forever tied to Bioware's demise.

[bluefox755]

Same. After Inquisition, I was out.

[Sirk7x]

They're already dead man, just let them go.

[Tross]

The time to worry was when EA acquired them. Now they’ve done what they do with every studio they buy and sucked the life out of them. Bioware exists in name but they’re really just a part of EA at this point.

People leaving that dumpster fire of a company is good news for the industry as a whole anyways. It’s not studios that make good games, but the people who work for them. Now some of these individuals are free to work for someone else or form their own studio, and make games without EA executives breathing down their neck.

[Fist4achin]

Agreed. Too much EA involvement and execs thinking they know game development better than the developers themselves. It's hard to see what it has become and EA has so many great franchises that have gone downhill.

[Duoma]

So basically EA is galactus and he eats studios(planets) to sustain his hunger

[Notellin]

This was one of the last developers from my era. Sad to see it but it was dead when the doctors sold it to EA.

[neutralgamer1992]

hopefully this one won't be filled with fetch quests

DA:I was nothing but fetch quests that you had to do to unlock main story missions

[Fluttershy77]

Don't worry so much. I mean, What's the difference between this dude leaving, and that Longo fella from Halo leaving?

[SyntheticForm]

I really think you just like saying the name "Longo" at this point.

[zodiac909]

This is not the Bioware that made KOTOR or Mass Effect 1-3, EA has COMPLETELY changed their approach to games over this past generation, and the latter half of the last generation. As long as EA holds the rights to ANY company, under their wing, don't expect a "fair" development of a game from any of the companies that represent them.

[Segata]

ME3 and DA2 is about when Bioware started going downhill.

[Segata]

It's dead jim.

[Relientk77]

I don't think Bioware is in a good place at all.

[Double_O_Revan]

We knew this was coming the moment EA bought them.

[WraithSpire]

Agreed. Bioware is not in a good place since they have lost all creativity.

EA's impact was more of endless sequels. Bioware was once a company that continuously created new intellectual properties (Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars: Knights of the old Republic, Jade Empire, Mass Effect, Dragon Age: Origins). I would like to note that's six new games all considered classics within 9 years.

Since EA has bought them what has come out other than Mass Effect and Dragon Age? Creativity has been starved...

[IamTylerDurden1]

Umm...ANTHEM. A new IP.

The irony is that had Bioware Edmonton stuck to Mass Effect rather than tossing it to a group of Jr Developers while they languish for 6+ years on a terrible new IP (Anthem) Bioware wouldn't be in such a precarious position. I appreciate your message, but your comment is deeply flawed considering it was a new IP that sunk them.

Also, before the Anthem/Andromeda fiasco Bioware was enormously successful perpetuating the ME and DA series and literally every single ME/DA game prior to Anthem/Andromeda was good other than DA2. Even ME3 and DAI for all the hate were extremely high rated and successful games. Even DA2, which admittedly was a low point in the series has an 82 Meta and was built in a mere year and a half. Point being Bioware was producing excellent games and the new IP gamble was a massive failure in this scenario. I love new IP as much as anyone, but i also was incredibly hyped for a new gen Mass Effect and it's disheartening to see the Bioware's flagship franchise treated with such disrespect. New IP are great, but Bioware had a responsibility to Mass Effect and their fans and they blew it.

[WraithSpire]

@ IamTylerDurden1
You're correct, I did forget about Anthem that came out six months ago... Seems more like a Destiny copycat than a RPG. My main point was that Bioware became monotonous and lost their edge.

In an unrelated note:
- Nothing wrong with an action-rpg (I loved Jade Empire!). I just don't like how we are moving farther and farther away from RPG and more towards FPS. Online games bring in far more money from micro-transactions which likely explains Anthem.
- If making a new IP is such a gamble I don't know why more RPG developers don't have 2nd and 3rd teams making games with graphics on par with FFX HD or Tales of Beseria. It would help offset the cost of creating new IP's in the age of where one wrong move can literally be a game-ender for a company. RPG's tend to be unique in that we will play them even if they are as old as the Super Nintendo (Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VI, etc). Story, gameplay, soundtrack trump graphics when dealing with this genre.

[Blu3_Berry]

I'm surprised Bioware even still exists right now. Things have been on a downward spiral for them for years now.

[robtion]

Agree. Inquisition was still really good but they need to remove all sjw garbage and microtransaction etc from future games and just focus on making a great single player rpg. Don't know if they can do it though.

[StalinSupremacy]

"sjw garbage" fucking incel

[Segata]

DAI was average.

[IamTylerDurden1]

Bioware was doing great until they decided to make Anthem. We know ppl have been leaving the studio for years, but until the Anthem decision, which unfortunately doomed Andromeda as well, Bioware was still producing excellent games. It was one ill-fated choice that caused this. ME 1-3 were fantastic regardless of the "ending" controversy. Every Dragon Age was good other than the historically rushed DA2. Even Inquisition was an 89 meta with numerous GotY awards, despite some ppl criticising it for sjw or whatever the fuck.

Anthem ruined Bioware and ME Andromeda. Prior to that Bioware was still quality.

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Bioware is no more

[BlackIceJoe]

It won't be long now until EA closes the doors on Bioware. Hopefully some of the ex-Bioware members can start up a new RPG company.

[Fist4achin]

Fingers crossed for that! Then the game developers can go back to developing games.

[theXtReMe1]

Obviously didn’t want to get caught in the vortex of water from the sinking ship. Be pulled down with it.

[annoyedgamer]

Bioware about to get EA'd

[Kabaneri]

Is there any studio EA doesnt ruin?
Dice and Respawn are next.

[Adirzzz]

Dice already going down, see Battlefield V.
Hopefully they’ll save themselves cause BF series are my fav.. go back to modern wars please

[SyntheticForm]

I haven't had faith in these guys for awhile - there's been no reason to. Thankfully I skipped over their last two titles and didn't impulse buy.

Bioware was already in the mud and this doesn't improve things.

[xxitalia12xx]

EA has destroyed another great video game studio .... RIP Bioware

[KwietStorm_BLM]

Bioware is looking a lot like Criterion these days. I'd be losing sleep if I was at DICE.

[Smokehouse]

Flopper incoming

[jjb1981]

I hope that their creative abilities are appreciated by another company and they give us something better. I bet that DA4 was going to have loot boxes because EA investors are scumbags. What a $hit publisher...

[InMyOpinion]

Bioware went to sh#t after its founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk left.

[2ndhandcorn]

Agreed those guys were so passionate hope they come back under a new name , its like all the great devs from last retired.

[victorMaje]

Please stop buying anything EA-related.
I know it’s hard, but if enough of us do it now we just might save other developers from the same fate...

[NeoGamer232]

So, how does stopping buying EA games save the developers of EA games?

One by one the studios get shutdown if their games do not sell well for the publishers when the publishers own them.

People should buy games if they are good games.

[knickstr]

Goodbye Bioware. Usually when people like this leave these positions its because they see a lot that goes on within the company and can read the writing on the wall. Best of luck to them in their next position. Sad to see EA kill off another talented developer.

[william_cade]

It's probably going to be a live service game.

[MWH]

https://youtu.be/kdqyG3CcoL...

[ajax17]

EA really have a knack for ruining developers

[Skuletor]

Bioware is dEAd, long live old Bioware games

[Thundercat77]

Wow... Another good studio destroyed by EA.

Very sad but I hope those who left form a new studio free from the evil hands of EA.

[Nacho_Z]

I think BioWare is doomed unfortunately. Not because of this but because of their recent output. It's very rare for a company to turn things around once the glory days are over.

[Sophisticated_Chap]

It's looking more and more like the end is near for Bioware.

[AK91]

EA doing its thing.

[Literal_Cringe]

Its honestly unbelievable how low Bioware has gone this generation, coming off the great Mass Effect trilogy (well 3 had its share of problems) and their game of the year dragon age inquisition which is almost 5 years old at this point, you'd think EA would treat them a lot better, but instead we got Andromeda and Anthem.

[zodiac909]

Everyone should leave anything associated with EA at this day and age.

[ZeekQuattro]

Abandon ship! Abandon ship!

[Knightofelemia]

Bioware a great studio but once EA bought them face first into the ground. I don't blame the guy for jumping ship if EA keeps this up I think Bioware will join the other EA acquired studios pretty soon and be shut down.

[StarkR3ality]

It's a shame watching a studio with an amazing history lose its way..

Dragon age origins, Mass effect trilogy, Knights of the old Republic.

Some of my favourite games ever. And now they're just releasing half baked products full of greed and technical issues. With a lack of any Story worthy of the studio name.

I think it's name to knock it down and start again, Bioware isn't a name that inspires faith anymore.

[TheEroica]

This studio had Mass Effect waiting in the wings for a next gen explosion of the franchise and the higher ups thought that an unfocused mess of a game like andromeda would suffice... I love my classic Bioware games. Jade, kotor etc... But the moment they treated their best franchise like trash is the day I knew it was over.

[Reefskye]

The writing was on the wall for Bioware with DA:I another game trying to be something it wasn't, Each game after just proved that point even more. How it ever got game of the year for its MMO style gameplay is beyond me.

[Vithar]

really sad to hear Bioware made the some of the greatest RPGs of all time :(
I hope they all reform somewhere else

[BlaqMagiq1]

Good. The more that leave Bioware the better. They are incapable of making a good game again.

[bluefox755]

They've become a shell of their former selves.

[Nodoze]

Bioware is DEAD.