When Electronic Arts decided to shutter legendary RPG studio BioWare on Oct. 21, Greg Zeschuk, one of BioWare’s co-founders alongside Ray Muzyka and Augustine Yip, found out through a flurry of text messages. In an interview with 80 Level, Zeschuk revealed that shortly after the news broke and he went home, his feelings about the closure were fairly muted.
“I didn’t have the immediate impact,” Zeschuk told 80 Level, speaking from his home in Edmonton — the home of BioWare. “I wasn’t there to share in the moment, which in some ways was nice because I was able to kind of just take my time with it.”
Zeschuk clarified that this didn’t mean the closure wasn’t sad or monumental, adding that Edmonton would be hit the hardest by the studio’s shutdown. However, Zeschuk said he and his fellow co-founder, Muzyka, had already said their emotional goodbye when they left the studio in 2012. His empathy, however, is more reserved for those who have lost their jobs.
“Anyone getting put into the job hunt is a sort of terrifying endeavor and super sad,” Zeschuk said.
Zeschuk slams inexperienced game executives
While Zeschuk’s feelings about BioWare’s closure weren’t overtly emotional, he had plenty of passion and ire to direct at executives with no game development experience, and at their over-involvement and reliance on AI.
“There’s this weird belief that you can just kind of recreate great games with random people and AI. It doesn’t work,” Zeschuk told 80 Level. “The other harsh reality of almost all these companies, the people that go down the business track never really come from the development track. Because 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.”
Zeschuk isn’t wrong. Epic Games, the creator of Fortnite, remains “all-in” on AI in its video games. In an Oct. 28 statement, Epic’s executive VP of development Marcus Wassmer clarified how the company is using AI for Unreal Engine 6, its gaming portfolio, and everything else. Rather than fostering traditional development skills, Epic reportedly encourages developers to use generative AI tools (like Anthropic’s Claude) to assist or speed development. Generative AI may not have caused BioWare’s shuttering, but given how much generative AI is involved in game development, Zeschuk’s concern isn’t unwarranted.