Last week, two leading producers — old-timers of the studio – left BioWare at once. One of them was working on Anthem, the other was working on the future Dragon Age 4.
Ben Irving
On August 15, Ben Irving announced his departure. He worked at BioWare for 8 years. According to Irving, he was offered a job at another game studio. He did not give its name.
Ben Irving
At BioWare, Irving was the lead producer of Star Wars for several years:
The Old Republic. He then took a similar position while developing Anthem. Recall that this service game was released in February of this year and disappointed most players. Now the BioWare Austin office is working on its improvement, but the promised updates are constantly delayed.
It is worth noting that during Irving’s work on SWTOR, users were also not satisfied with the state of the game. After several unpopular decisions (including those related to loot boxes), the outflow of players from the title began. Irving had to publish an open letter to fans who demanded his resignation.
Fernando Melo
The next day, Fernando Melo also said goodbye to BioWare. Of the 12 years he spent in the studio, he devoted the last two to the concept of the future Dragon Age 4. He started working on this project together with executive producer Mark Darrah.
Fernando Melo
For the Dragon Age series, Melo is one of the iconic figures.
He led several areas of development of two games at once — Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age II. In the next eight years, the focus of his activities shifted. The Melo team took up online elements in Dragon Age: Inquisition and Mass Effect: Andromeda, as well as satellite services for both games.
The reason for Melo’s departure is related to his desire to take a break from his career. Nevertheless, his departure immediately after Irving was perceived by the community with suspicion. Numerous scandals are associated with the name of the studio, many key people have left it in recent years. BioWare’s problems were also discussed by its CEO Casey Hudson in a letter to employees.
Also on the topic:
- Everything is wrong with the development of Anthem: how BioWare created their most failed gameAnthem doesn’t have enough players to recruit full-fledged teams
- BioWare accused Kotaku of trying to divide the industry.
- Kotaku in response accused BioWare of cowardiceBaldur’s Gate and Dragon Age Designer left BioWare