THE CRUNCH
BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk has criticised games industry leadership in the wake of EA's closure of the studio he helped build, arguing that executives who have never developed a game fundamentally misunderstand the craft. "None of these people have ever made a game, like, never really sat and made one, like, from start to finish, even a small thing, they just don't know how it works," he told 80lv in an interview reported by PC Gamer. Zeschuk, who left the industry nearly 15 years ago and now runs a brewery in Alberta, was responding to last week's shutdown of BioWare by Electronic Arts, which also cancelled the next Mass Effect game and saw roughly 400 people laid off across the company.
Zeschuk learned of the closure hours after it happened while on a fishing trip, and said the delay gave him time to process it. He described the news as sad, particularly for Edmonton, where BioWare had shown "you could do something really special in a place that was not known for doing things like that." His main concern, he said, is for the studio's staff now looking for work, calling the job hunt a "terrifying endeavor and super sad."
He also connected the closure to a wider pattern, criticising the idea, visible in recent studio mergers and AI-driven cutbacks, "that you can just kind of recreate great games with random people and AI. It doesn't work." Zeschuk suggested BioWare's fate was partly predictable after EA's acquisition by a consortium including Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, noting the studio's long, complicated games fit poorly with a business built on annual sports releases.
Despite the outcome, Zeschuk said he has no regrets about selling BioWare to EA, which he felt offered stability as the studio grew. He ruled out any return to development, saying the personal cost of making a great game is not worth it: "Having gone through the crucible of game development, I'm not going back in there."