Casey Hudson, project director on games like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and the whole friggin’ Mass Effect series, has left BioWare. Most recently he was heading up a new series for the role-playing powerhouse. Damn.
Hudson explained his decision in a farewell post on BioWare’s blog:
“After what already feels like a lifetime of extraordinary experiences, I have decided to hit the reset button and move on from BioWare. I’ll take a much needed break, get perspective on what I really want to do with the next phase of my life, and eventually, take on a new set of challenges.”
“Though there’s never an easy time to make a change like this, I believe this is the best time for it. The foundation of our new IP in Edmonton is complete, and the team is ready to move forward into pre-production on a title that I think will redefine interactive entertainment. Development for the next Mass Effect game is well underway, with stunning assets and playable builds that prove the team is ready to deliver the best Mass Effect experience to date. And the Dragon Age: Inquisition team is putting the final touches on a truly ambitious title with some of the most beautiful visuals I’ve seen in a game.”
“But while I feel that the time has come, this is without a doubt the most difficult decision of my career. BioWare is as magical a place today as it was when I started. The projects we are working on are some of the most exciting and prestigious in the world. The talent in our teams is second to none. And the people here are some of my closest friends. I’ve spent more time with many of you than my own family, and I have enjoyed every day of it.”
Just two months ago at E3, Hudson had been offering gamers a hint of the bold new universe he was creating for BioWare at the company’s Edmonton HQ. You can see for yourself at about 1:15 of this clip:
The timing of Hudson’s is slightly strange, given that BioWare seems to be right on the cusp of revealing what is, presumably, the new universe Hudson put so much work into a new universe;. The company’s released a series of teasers declaring “YOU’VE BEEN CHOSEN” and showing cryptic visuals like:
BioWare is holding a “special fan event” during Gamescom in Germany next week. There, the developer will, in all likelihood, take the wraps off its wild, weird new world.
Hudson was also serving as executive producer on the new Mass Effect, which BioWare recently talked a bit about at Comic-Con.
NOTE: This post originally speculated that BioWare’s next game, set for reveal at Germany’s Gamescom event, was going to be Hudson’s project. It is not. That detail was confirmed late last month when BioWare boss Aaryn Flynn revealed that the mystery Gamescom project was not being developed by BioWare’s Canadian studios. We apologise for the error and have updated this article with E3 2014 video of Hudson talking about his new Edmonton-developed project.
Comments
15 responses to “Mass Effect Visionary Leaves BioWare”
Aw man, this is sad news. Casey Hudson was my favourite dev at BioWare. Atleast we still have David Gaider. All the best on whatever you do next, Casey!
Wasn’t he the guy responsible for the ME3 endings?
I’m not sure, but Mac Walters was the lead writer, after all.
The generally accepted version is that Casey and Mac wrote the ending in secret after the ‘dark matter’ script was leaked and they didn’t submit the ending to group criticism as was the case with every other scene in the game, meaning that if you dislike the ending, you can blame Casey and Mac.
I believe he was responsible. There was a huge outcry against him back in the ME3 days. Hopefully this means they wont destroy the world at the end of the new ME series, haha.
I’m one of those people who’s convinced that there’s some sort of tell-all waiting in the wings as to why the hell they went with that ending so if nothing else I’m hoping that Hudson leaving will make that more likely.
Yep, and the fans are responsible for being idiots.
I wouldn’t call this idiocy as much as misinformation from the developers themselves. They said the choices throughout the trilogy would impact the conclusion, and that there would be dozens of endings based on said choices.
So when you’re slapped with three (now four) binary endings with the choices made throughout the entire saga having no real impact on them, it’s disappointing.
Yep, and to think there’s a guy suing Sony because Shadow Fall wasn’t ‘native’ 1080p. I would have thought that anyone who bought ME3 based on Casey’s assurances that the ending would not just be an A, B, C choice, would be disgruntled when they found out it was, in fact, an A, B, C choice.
A, B, C choice? You mean A1, A2, A3 choice?
“Visionary”?? Really, Kotaku? 🙂 It’s surprising how low a respectable medium can get sometimes when blasted from the nostalgia gun….
*shock* Bioware loosing some key personal. Pretty sure they lost Brent Knowles as well. He left having large misgivings about the direction of DA:2. They were of course well deserved i wouldn’t’ want my name attached to that game either. Just a further indication that Bioware is just being chewed up and spat out by EA.
I guess it’s just history repeating itself. Owners of popular company x want to cash out – sell to large publisher. Large publisher wants to milk as much money from it as possible. Current employees don’t like new working conditions, eventually leaving. *yawn* seen it before will no doubt see it again, it’s still rather sad tho.
Sad news indeed. Casey was one of the driving forces behind Mass Effect and I have to say he will be missed by fans.
Good riddance. He told us the ME3 endings will not be “a,b and c” and look at what happened!
Yeah. Because nobody makes mistakes. At all.
So one of the two key men responsible for the thematically, logically and lore inconsistent ending of Mass Effect 3, which singlehandedly ruined what could have been the best game series of a generation is leaving BioWare, a studio that is slowly but surely losing all of its flair and originality due to the influence of EA, a corporate gaming entity that consistently fails to learn from its past mistakes in absorbing and destroying development houses?
I’m neither surprised nor particularly disappointed.