While working at Bioware, Casey Hudson made his name as the director of Mass Effect 3, though he left the studio in August last year. Today, Microsoft announced that he will be joining the company as its new creative director.
His main focus is going to be on Microsoft’s augmented reality headset, the HoloLens. “I am extremely passionate about the potential of this kind of technology, as anyone who’s talked with me over the last couple of years can attest,” Hudson said in a press release. “I feel that the work being done at Microsoft on mixed reality and holographic computing will have a tremendous impact on how all of us interact with technology in the coming years.”
While we knew games were going to be a part of the HoloLens package, it’s exciting to see someone so explicitly from the games industry oversee the development of the technology. When he describes the potential applications for the headset, however, games are literally the last thing he mentions:
“I was fortunate to try an early prototype of HoloLens before it was announced, and I was blown away by the technology and what it was already capable of. Walking on Mars while sipping coffee in an office setting, Skyping with a friend who can draw on the walls of my environment, sculpting an object in 3D modelling software while a hologram of it sits on a table next to me.
“These first experiences cemented my belief that holographic computing was where I needed to be. There’s no end to the potential of this technology, and I look forward to being able to influence the full-spectrum experience on HoloLens, from hardware to OS, to applications and games.”
HoloLens won’t be his only focus. Hudson says he will be “involved in driving a creative focus for Xbox and Windows gaming” too.
I just hope he makes HoloLens Clippy a reality.
This post originally appeared on Kotaku UK, bringing you original reporting, game culture and humour from the British isles.
Comments
10 responses to “Bioware’s Casey Hudson Is Microsoft’s New Creative Director”
Sorry Casey, but Bioware is better off without you. Good riddance!
Hope that comment made you feel good about yourself, what a crappy thing to say.
Read up on how the Mass Effect 3 ending was conceived. Basically Hudson was an egomaniac about it and refused to put the ending scenario through the normal peer review process that the rest of the game had been put through. Doesn’t make me feel good but I’m happy to call Hudson out on shoddy workmanship. I’ve a lot of respect for Bioware as a team, but the ME3 ending was basically Hudson and Walters on their own.
Unless I’m mistaken this is the guy responsible for KOTOR and Mass Effect so……. Yeah…. NAAAAA
Responsible for the hot mess that was the ME3 ending.
And the beauty that was the other 95% of the complete trilogy.
Ultimately I think it comes down to if you think the ending ruined the entire series or not. Personally I probably didn’t hate it as much as some, it felt rushed and incomplete but I wasn’t signing petitions or anything.
It certainly didn’t sully the rest of the series which I still regard and my favourite set of games I’ve played.
Well, the way I see it is that Drew Karpyshyn was the lead writer in ME and ME2. Those games were great – well-written, reasonably well-designed etc. The majority of the story in ME3 was great, even though Drew was no longer there. Fair enough, but the way the scenes were written involved passing them through peer review for feedback and changes. Now you come to the ME3 ending. It was shit, or at least clumsy and generally unsatisfying. What was the difference? Hudson and Walters closeted themselves away from the other writers and did not submit the ending for peer review. Maybe because the ME3 story had already been leaked once, but there you go. No other writers had any influence over the ending. Hudson therefore has major responsibility for the ME3 ending debacle. His general competence as a director is not in question, but his decision about the ending was a grade-A fuck up in my view. He will be remembered for that more than his direction by many people.
So does this mean the new creative direction for Microsoft will involve promising the world and then delivering nothing of the sort?
Business as usual really. They should balance the new talent by hiring Peter Molyneux as their PR director.
Under Casey’s leadership, the Hololens will come in three colours that ultimately look the same and satisfy no-one.
Windows 10, now coming in Red, Green and Blue boxes 🙂