BioWare Co-Founder Calls EA Acquisition Studio’s Final Nail in the Coffin

Greg Zeschuk has reflected on the circumstances surrounding the sale of BioWare in 2007.

BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk believes that Electronic Arts being acquired by new owners proved to be a decisive factor in the fate of the studio, which faces closure nearly 30 years after its founding. In his view, EA has changed significantly since buying BioWare in 2007, and executives who have never worked in game development often fail to understand how successful projects are made.

In an interview with 80.lv, Zeschuk spoke publicly for the first time about the closure of the studio he founded. Along with Ray Muzyka, he left BioWare in 2012 shortly after the release of Mass Effect 3. According to the developer, he experienced his emotional departure from the company back then, so current events did not come as a shock of the magnitude they might have otherwise.

Zeschuk also recalled the circumstances of BioWare’s 2007 sale and refuted assumptions that the studio might have gone bankrupt without the deal. He stated that the company was in a strong financial position at the time and had several options for its future development.

One of the primary tasks was securing funding for Star Wars: The Old Republic, a massive multiplayer role-playing game being developed by the BioWare Austin division. Ultimately, management decided that joining a large publisher would be the most suitable path forward.

In his opinion, the acquisition of Electronic Arts by a consortium including Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake Partners, and Affinity Partners became “the final nail in the coffin” for BioWare.

The developer emphasizes that current EA is a completely different company compared to the one that acquired the studio in 2007. He suggests that the new owners will primarily be interested in sports games and the Battlefield series, while other projects may be treated as secondary.

Separately, Zeschuk criticized the management approach in gaming companies where key decisions are made by executives without practical development experience. In his view, an insufficient understanding of the production process prevents business managers from assessing the real needs of teams and the specifics of creating games.