BioWare Interview
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I last spoke with you right after the announcement of the EA buyout, but things have become clearer. I saw John Riccitiello speak at DICE about the city-state model. When I first heard you guys went to EA, I thought that it must mean that EA is changing. Then when I saw that speech...
Ray Muzyka: John knows us really well. We worked with him for two years, and he knows what Greg and I are like, and Andrew and Josh and Greg. We know what he's like, because we worked with him directly beforehand for three years. He was our CEO at VGH, at Pandemic.
I think he knows we're pretty passionate about what we do, and he knows that we fit into it in a certain way. We're good at something, and we really strive to make good games. We care about our fans and our employees, and we're not going to abandon those values. I think his talk... I found it pretty inspirational, too. I don't know what you were going to say about it, but...
I was impressed. But I know that I did talk to some developers afterward and they were like, "Yeah, right."
RM: The proof's in the action. I see myself... I've got to take a leadership role in order to show that we can be successful within that framework, and BioWare can continue to be successful within the framework. I'm excited about that opportunity.
I think the proof is out there. As he said himself, if you look at what happened with Westwood and Origin, I think those are sad stories. And Bullfrog. But if you look at what happened with Maxis...
RM: Or DICE. We've heard very good success stories. And Criterion as well. They're all making great games, and they have great people, and they're doing really well. They've actually got unique brands, as well. They're starting to make something and resonate with the fans. It's what it's about, right?
(...)
When it comes to Austin, I believe there are basically no details -- except for the fact that you have a studio in Austin.
RM: Yeah. I agree. People are working away on something there that we're really proud of. It's a good game. It's going to feel like a BioWare game. It's going to have the best of breed of MMO features, and some new innovations that when we reveal them, hopefully they'll be impactful for people.
I hope so. I think it's a genre that's ripe for innovation. I think that WoW was the last landmark title, and of course it still drives success, but it's probably time for someone to step up and do something.
RM: I agree. And it's not a slight at all on Blizzard. I think they've done a great job. But the fact that people want to play that kind of game is an opportunity to really deliver that level of polish and quality, and innovate in a few key areas, while they continue to innovate in a few key areas, too.
I got to sit next to Ron Pardo for like three hours yesterday at this dinner I was at with a bunch of other studio leaders, and I just talked in admiring terms of how much I love their games, and how I've played every single one of them and finished every one of them.
And he's played all of our games, and we were debating the merits of different design philosophies, and he's telling me how they built GUIs, and I was telling him how we built GUIs and hired people and approached design concepts. It's just awesome, right? We're very different from them, and yet it's a very similar starting point and end point, in terms of the quality we give our fans.
