BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk believes that the acquisition of Electronic Arts by new owners became the decisive factor in the fate of the studio, which closed nearly 30 years after its founding. In his view, EA has changed significantly since purchasing BioWare in 2007, and executives who have never engaged in game development often fail to understand how successful projects are created.
In an interview with 80.lv, Zeschuk spoke publicly for the first time about the closure of the studio he co-founded. Alongside Ray Muzyka, he left BioWare in 2012, shortly after the release of Mass Effect 3. According to the developer, he had emotionally processed parting with the company back then, so the recent events did not come as a shock on the scale they might have been earlier.
Zeschuk also recalled the circumstances surrounding the sale of BioWare in 2007 and dismissed assumptions that the studio could have gone bankrupt without the deal. According to him, at that point the company was in good financial standing and had several paths for further growth.
One of the primary objectives was securing funding for Star Wars: The Old Republic, an ambitious multiplayer role-playing game developed by the BioWare Austin division. Ultimately, leadership decided that joining a major publisher would be the most suitable option.
We really did have options. We thought we chose the best one available at the time. The company had good prospects, but ultimately we decided that perhaps it would be better for us to become part of something bigger.
In his view, the acquisition of Electronic Arts by a consortium comprising Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake Partners, and Affinity Partners became “the final nail in the coffin” for BioWare.
The developer emphasizes that today's EA is an entirely different company compared to the one that acquired the studio in 2007. He suspects that the new owners will primarily be interested in sports games and the Battlefield franchise, while other projects may be seen as secondary.
Separately, Zeschuk criticized the management approach in gaming companies where key decisions are made by executives without hands-on development experience. In his view, a lack of understanding of the production process prevents business managers from assessing the real needs of teams and the realities of game development.
The harsh reality of almost all these companies is that people pursuing business careers rarely come from development. They have never truly made a game—never sat down and built one from start to finish, even if it was a small project. They simply don’t understand how it all works