BioWare co-founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk have both announced that they’ve left the company they formed and the industry they influenced. Muyzka is leaving the company to “pursue an entirely different set of challenges”, whilst Zeschuk is ” pursuing some personal passion-driven projects related to craft beer.”
More about both after the jump.
“After nearly two decades in videogames,” writes Ray Muyzka in his departing blog post, “I’ve decided to move on to pursue an entirely different set of challenges. This has been an incredibly difficult decision to make; after thinking about it for many months, I made the decision to retire from videogames back in early April 2012 – at that time I provided six months’ notice to EA, to help enable a solid transition for my teams at BioWare.
“With the growth of BioWare to multiple locations as part of a public company, following two decades of multiple successful product launches across many platforms and business models, I’ve largely personally achieved what I wanted in videogames; I now desire to take on a brand new entrepreneurial challenge. I believe strongly in the power of free enterprise to enable sustainable change, so my next ‘chapter’ will likely focus on an entirely new industry, something exciting, different and frankly downright scary – investing in and mentoring new entrepreneurs, and more specifically, the field of social/impact investing.”
Greg Zeschuk, on the other hand, writes: “I’ve reached an unexpected point in my life where I no longer have the passion that I once did for the company, for the games, and for the challenge of creation. For the people I have had the privilege of working with, however, my passion burns as brightly as it did the day we started. The people I work with now, and that I have worked with in the past, have inspired me and really made all of the challenges we’ve collectively faced over the years worthwhile.
“Some of you will be curious what I’ll be doing next, and I can state that I’m not going to be working in games for a while, and there’s a strong possibility that I won’t be back. After my departure I’m going to be spending significant time with family and friends, as well as pursuing some personal passion-driven projects related to craft beer. The main project I will be working on is a web-based interview show called The Beer Diaries where I interview notable brewers and showcase their beers. If things go well, I’ll work on other beer-related shows, apps and projects. If not, I’ll have drunk a lot of tasty beers and may be back in games or even something else completely different. Ultimately time will tell.”
It’s sad to see the doctors go, Bioware has gone from strength to strength, working on many influential series in their time -Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect, and Dragon Age – successfully navigating the company through the jump from isometric to 3D gaming, and all the while having games that went against the mainstream, and pushing to create complex stories for their players.
Though with yesterday’s announcement of Dragon Age 3, now at least is a good time for the pair to exit.