Pachter: ME3 "Whining" May Have Driven BioWare Docs Away
Gaming analyst Michael Pachter thinks all the complaints surrounding Mass Effect 3's ending may have driven BioWare's founders into retirement.
For several years, GameTrailers has played host to Pach Attack, a weekly, 7-minute Q&A segment featuring games industry analyst Michael Pachter as he answers related questions submitted by viewers. In this episode, which was posted on Saturday, he talks about the closure of Pandemic and the departure of BioWare founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk.
"I think that we've seen a lot of nasty stuff lately," he said. "I think that the whining about the ending of Mass Effect 3 really very much could have been the straw that broke the camel's back for the doctors. I mean, if you look back at the BioWare blog, Ray Muzyka said he notified EA in April of his intention to retire in November. April was right about when all that Mass Effect 3 noise was hitting."
He then goes on to address all those gamers directly. "I think you guys who were out there whining vocally about how BioWare screwed you out of a happy ending in Mass Effect should really look in the mirror and wonder... now you're not getting anything like those games again with the two doctors gone. You might get good games, [but] they won't be the same," he added.
Ouch. He goes on to tell gamers that whining "pisses everybody off, it pisses off creative people, and every once in a while, [developers] say they would rather do something else." He then points out that Zeschuk is moving on to pursue his passion for craft beer, and Muzyka is moving on to pursue his passion for helping animals. Gamers won't get anything out of these new pursuits, he said.
"Shame on you, you whiners," he said.
Over two years ago, Pachter answerd a question about the death of PC gaming in Episode 108, saying that (at the time) packaged PC game sales were only 6 to 7-percent of the overall games sales. It's becoming a declining industry because you can get a near-PC experience on a console right now, he said.
"And I know flamers, you all have PCs that just crap all over the PS3 and are much more powerful, but the PS3 is a pretty powerful box, and is probably more powerful than 90-percent of the PCs out there," he said. "The Xbox 360 is probably more powerful than 85-percent of the PCs out there. Again, I'll wait for the flamers to tell me that's wrong, and that it's 79-percent."
Eventually he said that PC gaming isn't dead as long as the industry has MMOs which is "perfect for that market" – just look at World of Warcraft and you'll see it's a "robust market." What's more, as long as Valve is around, PC gaming will be around, he said.

"now you're not getting anything like those games again with the two doctors gone. You might get good games, [but] they won't be the same,"
Actually, we won't get anything like those games because EA is at the helm.
"now you're not getting anything like those games again with the two doctors gone. You might get good games, [but] they won't be the same,"
Actually, we won't get anything like those games because EA is at the helm.
Sometimes I wonder if people think complaining makes them sound smarter, and thats why they do it.
We already have words from ONE OF THE FOUNDERS, saying that is BS.
Could of sworn TH even did a story saying that too.
Hey idiot, ME was on Xbox first.
More likely, a lot of long time people in the game industry are leaving because of people like Kotick, Probst, Riccitiello, and others. The passionate people about creating games is dwindling because of the people he want profits over good game play.
But I have a problem with this attitude of 'If you don't like my game, I'll take my ball and go home.'
Where is the professionalism? How about taking the criticism and other pro's and con's then using it to refine the next game?
lol
Attention stupid people.. We bought a product. We are the consumer. We are entitled to make our complaints known as to avoid more bullshit endings and bad games.
This is how the consumer exercises their power...
By complaining, by boycotting, by not voting with their dollars.
Blizzard is the perfect example of this..
Consumers rewarded blizzard with money in essence saying "we approve of how Diablo 3 was handled"
If you are an uninformed consumer, an emotional product buyer, you can't blame anyone but yourself for making poor purchasing decisions.
This is why I never pre order games, and wait till reviews come out from USERS, not paid reviewers.
Video games is a very competitive industry. I'm glad those guys left. They could obviously not handle it, which will free up room for more talented people who listen to their customer base and provide products we want.
This "Michael Pachter" is dead wrong in this regard.
And please, someone tell this "gaming anal-yst" to pick up a keyboard and try playing some of these games, and really, if the founders of Bioware want to retire and make Beer and rescue animals I say AWESOME! They have brought us many great games and deserve their time.
Fungi
It wasn't the ending in particular, there was a big difference in the quality from ME 1 to ME 3. Any studio sucked up by EA tends to go downhill.
As people grow up, they tend to whine less and adapt more (of course that doesn't always happen now, does it?).
Some people have thick skin and can ignore temper tantrums. Some do this to a fault--to the point of negligence.
tl;dr version: I agree with boogalooelectric's first sentence: Lots of immaturity to go around here.
Like your comment.
Lets see if not buying their crap will help them out.
I like whole statement, 'cept it's wrong.
There was a huge community upswell, people were taking donations, volunteering time, and even wanted to fix the problem themselves.