Gamasutra Interview - Bioware co-founder Ray Muzyka on the new Mythic/Bioware Group

[PhoenixRed]

Last week's news that Mythic and Bioware were re-organizing as a single group under the EA umbrella was, to say the least, a major development for both studios. Gaming site Gamasutra caught up with the new group's General Manager, Bioware co-founder Ray Muzyka, for some comments. Here's an excerpt - be sure to click the Source link for the full interview!

The actual announcement was a bit vague -- what are the practical ramifications of the BioWare and Mythic reorganization?

Ray Muzyka: Structurally, each of the organizations remains intact. They're working on the same projects they were working on before, I just have another studio that reports into me. It's not that BioWare or Mythic is changing; they're retaining their brands, their unique cultural identities, their projects they are working on. I'm really excited about what we're doing; we have great people at each location.

Rather, a new group is being formed that is more of a reporting structure of Rob Denton, the GM of Mythic; Richard [Vogel] and Gordon [Walton], who already report to me from [BioWare] Austin; Yannick [Roy], our studio director at BioWare Montreal, who already reports into me; and then BioWare Edmonton, and I already manage that studio myself.

It's a collaboration opportunity. Each of the groups continues to make the same thing in their [own locations]. But it's fuelling and enabling more communication, collaboration, best practice sharing, encouraging each other to play each others' games -- but no formal change per se in what anybody's doing. It's a recognition that there's a lot of synergy between them already. I'm going to make sure everyone at each location knows who the others are, and their comparable roles, and to make sure they talk.

So it's not so much about actual tech sharing or co-development?

RM: Not to start with, but we're already looking at it. A variety of studios across EA tech share, for example. We're all part of the same company at the end of the day. We're studios within the same organization, which is a group now within the EA Games label.

But in the future there could be co-development. There's nothing actively planned there right now, but I know the guys at Mythic, and in Edmonton, Austin, and Montreal are all really excited about this. They get along already, they've already made a bunch of trips back and forth before this thing was planned. We sent a gift to Mythic when they launched Warhammer. We love those guys. They're great people.

Source

[Plutonium]

So it's not so much about actual tech sharing or co-development?

RM: Not to start with, but we're already looking at it. A variety of studios across EA tech share, for example. We're all part of the same company at the end of the day. We're studios within the same organization, which is a group now within the EA Games label.



That smells like consolidation of resources.. aka downsizing to me.

[Thok]

Doomsayers will see this as the end, fanboys will herald the second coming of WAR. Methinks it's best to stay grounded until something actually happens.

[Siberwulf]

Originally Posted by Thok

Methinks it's best to stay grounded until something actually happens.

You must be new to the internet....

[Thok]

Originally Posted by Siberwulf

You must be new to the internet....

I prefer jaded.

[Azreell]

Had LOTD not been the complete and utter failure it is in terms of an X-Pac - I might have seen this as a good sign.

Unfortunately, now all I see War as is the playground for BioWare to test out ideas before releasing their mmorpg to avoid making the same mistakes Mythic did.

[oettinger]

Agreed, This will be a new Bioware testing ground until KOTOR comes out, and Warhammer will be shut down.

Let's just hope they get some new servers for KOTOR as the Warhammer ones are Epic fail.

[PhoenixRed]

If you look at the way EA Sports works, the studios that work under them are all independent but managed under one roof - Tiburon, Blackbox, and Canada all develop Sports games but are centrally managed by one or two individuals. The idea is to create a single group capable of making multiple games covering a variety of genres.

This is why whenever I see talk of "downsizing" and "this is a merger" and "they will use Warhammer like a tissue and throw it away" I'm not sold. The first problem is that EA hasn't come up with a name for this new group, like EA MMO or something, leading to speculation about a takeover from the Bioware side. The second is that there hasn't been enough time for the two studios to display any idea of collaboration.

I'm speculating that "EA MMO" or "BioWAAAGH" or "Mythware" or however you want to throw it around is just their way of, like Sports, making plenty of different games under the same umbrella to have multiple offerings. If you want a fantasy MMO, you'd go to Mythic, while Bioware would handle sci-fi. What the new management structure appears to offer, from what is said so far, is more oversight and direction. It's no secret WAR has struggled, so with more oversight from someone new, and a unified direction for both companies, one can only wait and see what'll happen. Will it be good, or bad? I don't know, and no one should purport that they know, either.

Like someone else said - negative people will see negativity and positive people will see positive outcomes. At least one person has already taken the answer to question two and tossed out the "downsizing" argument while ignoring the answer to question one. Is it that hard to be even-handed about the responses?

new servers for KOTOR

SW:TOR, not KOTOR. KOTOR is a different set of games, though both in the same timeline.

[Kingdom]

This is the end, beautiful friend, the end : (

[spirit]

I think people need to think of it more like a bunch of independent writers being brought in to work in the same office. Each still works seperately, but by having them close together they can motivate each other, share ideas, improve via competition with each orther etc. etc., but it doesn't mean that writer A (Bioware) is going to start writing writer B's (Mythics) articles, and it doesn't mean that writer A can tell writer B what to do. Although of course as the new 'editor' in the office used to work with bioware and came from their old office, it might mean he is more lent to their way of thinking and slowly steer Mythic towards their way of working.

The parallel with EA sports is a good one, and EA do it with pretty much all their game development areas. It was kind of inevitable once Mythic joined them that they were going to be joined more into the EA whole. But this whole talk of 'merger' and both the doomsaying and joy some people are expressing is a bit out of place.

[maximsuon]

WHY WOULD WAR BE SHUT DOWN? daoc has less then 3k people on the servers at one time if you look at there site and look up server stats. dont get me wrong the game is stale and lopsided, buggy, uninspired artwork, and a whole myriad of problemsbut theres people still paying to play.

[beav2rd]

Originally Posted by PhoenixRed

*snip*

I believe, PhoenixRed, that you and I are of a rare breed. We seem to be the only people on this website, and one the official forums, who seem to think that this game isn't a complete failure, and when something happens we're dome of the only people whom don't say "man, this is the end" or "why doesn't Mythic make a successful game?".

For that, PhoenixRed, I commend you.

[Thok]

Originally Posted by beav2rd

I believe, PhoenixRed, that you and I are of a rare breed. We seem to be the only people on this website, and one the official forums, who seem to think that this game isn't a complete failure, and when something happens we're dome of the only people whom don't say "man, this is the end" or "why doesn't Mythic make a successful game?".

For that, PhoenixRed, I commend you.

I think if you read some of the posts in this thread, you'll find you're not so alone. Also, unlike too many people on these boards, if I'm still posting I'm still playing.

[stiltskin]

You have to look at it a bit like a couple living under same roof . The large wife with rolling pin in one hand ( Bioware) and hen-pecked under the thumb husband ( Mythic) hoping if he's good then she might let him go to his potting shed for a smoke . Two different people , but ultimately they love each other and that's all that matters in the end.

[Thok]

Originally Posted by stiltskin

You have to look at it a bit like a couple living under same roof . The large wife with rolling pin in one hand ( Bioware) and hen-pecked under the thumb husband ( Mythic) hoping if he's good then she might let him go to his potting shed for a smoke . Two different people , but ultimately they love each other and that's all that matters in the end.

Regardless of whether I agree with you or not, got to admit I loled