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Exclusive: Bioware's Doctors Talk Mass Effect 3

Bioware's main men Dr. Greg Zeschuk and Dr. Ray Muzyka talk about Mass Effect 3, Star Wars: The Old Republic, future unannounced games, and much more in an exclusive interview with Game Informer.

The good doctors co-founded Bioware back in 1995 and are still running the network of studios as part of Electronic Arts, which purchased the developer in 2007. Both hold a menagerie of impressive titles. Greg Zeschuk (pictured left) is the president of Bioware, general manager of Bioware Austin (developer of The Old Republic), and is a VP at EA. Ray Muzyka is the CEO of Bioware, the group general manager of Bioware Group, and a senior VP at EA.

With introductions out of the way, we present the interview as part of our month-long coverage of Mass Effect 3.

How does it feel to have the end of the Mass Effect trilogy in sight?

Ray Muzyka: Well, it’s exciting. That would be the word that comes to mind for me. It’s exciting to be able to deliver an epic trilogy and wrap up the story in a way that’s going to be really satisfying, and high impact, and intense. And answer a lot of questions for the fans and bring it to a really satisfying conclusion.

Greg Zeschuk: Another thing that’s cool is that we’ve been able to do it all on the same platform, as well.

Muzyka: We’ve added a platform to the trilogy, too, with PS3.


Mass Effect 2

Speaking of the PS3 version of Mass Effect 2, a lot of fans are wondering why the first game was not ported as well.

Muzyka: Well, it’s a range of factors. We made the determination that the game we thought represented the franchise the best was Mass Effect 2. And we brought it over and are really happy with the result. And as a result of investing a lot of effort into ensuring that it ran well and looked great and played great on PS3, now we can bring the trilogy to a close on PS3, and 360, and PC.

We knew the fans would want an introduction to the Mass Effect story arc so we added a special introductory sequence for the PS3 fans that kind of brought them into the mix and allowed them to make some epic choices that made the story their own and made it that much more personal.

One of the things that we’re really aware of for Mass Effect 3 as well is that we have a lot of new fans that are entering the fiction every time we launch one of these games. So we want to make sure it’s accessible and can appeal to someone who hasn’t played the first two games. Regardless of whether you played Mass Effect 1 or not or Mass Effect 2 or not, we want to make sure you have a great experience in Mass Effect 3. If you’ve played the first two games we want your choices to mean something. It’s really about building it for all of the different audiences we have to accommodate and delivering it at high quality.

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Comments
  • "But our core fans are really important to us. I can’t emphasize that enough. They helped get us to where we are today." That is my favorite line in the whole interview. It's great that they are listening to the fans and value their opinion. I love Bioware, can't wait until Mass Effect 3 and The Old Republic
  • Great interview. The only thing that made me laugh a bit was their reasoning for not bringing ME to PS3. We all know they would have had they been legally allowed to. MS owns rights to ME, that's why they couldn't. I don't see why they didn't just say that lol. I don't think it would have made anyone look bad had they said that, in my opinion.
  • As long as it's not another scavenger hunt for squadmates, I'm all for it. ME 2's lack of narrative focus was a big letdown for me. Most of the game is completely interchangeable.
  • Liked the interview. Great to see that BioWare listens to the community on ways to improve. Hopefully they don't over-work themselves with all the encumbering projects (notably TOR)

  • still a fan of Bioware...in light of how they treated Dragon Age this go-round.  I doubr i'll be playing it....at least, I won't be buying it at full price.

    the Old Republic looks beautiful and certainly fun....if you're into MMOs.  After LOTRO and this recent garbage known as dc universe online..I'm done with MMOs for LIFE.

  • I think BioWare's cooking some hardcore RPG in there...

  • Lol, I like how they danced around the question about not bringing Mass Effect 1 to PS3, but all in all, a great interview.

    EDIT: It's so hard to stay mad at Bioware. Even though I was disappointed with DA2 (and somewhat with ME2), they always try really hard to improve their games so that both core fans and newcomers can enjoy the franchise. Here's hoping Dragon Age 3 and Mass Effect 3 will be the perfect mixes of accessibility and innovation for newcomers, and loyalty to core fans.
  • I've been buying bioware's games for awhile now. The thing that really bugged me about mass effect2 and dragon age2 was the fact that they decided to really dumb down the customizations. I liked having to make sure all of my characters had good armor and weapons, and it was a big disappointment to see it all gone. (except the weapons part.) I realize they did this to try to pull in a bigger fan base so more people would want to play it, but at the cost of disappointing the fans that have been with them for years. The story however has been top notch which I loved, but I would like to see armor customization back for both games.
  • In my own opinion, Bioware has yet to make a bad game. I love the crap out of Jade Empire and KotOR on the Xbox, and Mass Effect 2 and both Dragon Ages were just fantastic. I trust them to keep up the great work. I have never been as emotionally griped in a game than I have with ME2. (Spoiler Alert) Tends to happen when you romance Jack, then not even 2 mins later she gets blown up by the Collector ship...
  • Great Interview. Really looking forward to Mass Effect 3

  • I might have thrown in a "Will you ever make a KOTOR 3?" question, because a lot of folk are leery of MMOs... I personally would much rather another huge KOTOR game for current-gen consoles. That would be sweet.
  • Bioware has had my attention the day I picked up ME 2.... that day was Jan 18 this year. I can't wait to see what they can offer next.

  • I'm really glad that they've taken note of some of the disappointment at DA2, though it brought in new player base.
  • I loved Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2. I loved the story of DA origins, DA 2 sucked the story was not very good and the same 6 or 7 dungeons got very old I hate being forced to be human only more choice is always better. Is it too much to ask for more of an open world maybe in DA3.I did like the new Magic it felt like you were a bad a$$. The shooting in ME2 was very good please keep it like that for ME3.
  • Personally, I loved both Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age 2. They both were great in there own way. And as for Mass Effect, I am counting down the agonizing days until 3 comes out. I already have it paid off in full. Bioware IMO know how to make great games and deliver every time.

  • Sick!!!

  • Im disappointed that this is the last game its an epic game and should be continued

  • Im disappointed that this is the last game its an epic game and should be continued
  • I wonder about the future of Jade Empire. I hope that Bioware does something with that IP, although I think that it might be dead. (cries in corner).

  • Annette your just so dang beautiful
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