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."
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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.
Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.
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jdog2pt0 Something tells me this guy hasn't touched a video game in his life.Reply
"now you're not getting anything like those games again with the two doctors gone. You might get good games, they won't be the same,"
Actually, we won't get anything like those games because EA is at the helm. -
greatsaltedone I'm glad someone is giving this attention. Between the half-cocked boycotting and the ME3 tantrum, PC gamers are just relegating themselves to obscurity. I've been playing PC games since my family's first IBM 286, but I certainly wouldn't want to deal with a fanbase that gets so hung up on the stink of everyone else's *** that they cant smell their own.Reply
Sometimes I wonder if people think complaining makes them sound smarter, and thats why they do it. -
tgoods44 I mean... they talk about the whining etc etc... but we all know what EA does to companies it buys. It happened again. EA has a perfect track record of this. It becomes about money, and not great games. Look at any of their IPs and you will see it. Not saying they don't occassionally make good games, but money is the defining factor sitting on them.Reply -
Kami3k WTF,Reply
We already have words from ONE OF THE FOUNDERS, saying that is BS.
Could of sworn TH even did a story saying that too.
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Kami3k greatsaltedoneI'm glad someone is giving this attention. Between the half-cocked boycotting and the ME3 tantrum, PC gamers are just relegating themselves to obscurity. I've been playing PC games since my family's first IBM 286, but I certainly wouldn't want to deal with a fanbase that gets so hung up on the stink of everyone else's *** that they cant smell their own.Sometimes I wonder if people think complaining makes them sound smarter, and thats why they do it.Reply
Hey idiot, ME was on Xbox first. -
balister More likely, what really pushed the Doctors out was not the whining, but the drop in quality due to EA's mentality of "get it out the door" instead of polishing the game. BioWare's quality has been dropping just as Blizzard's quality has been dropping since the 800 lb Gorillas (EA and Activision) entered the picture for both. (And if you think Activision's board has no say on what's happening at Blizzard, you're being clueless, Blizzard is not autonomous from Activision no matter how much Morhaime says otherwise.) Everything now is so profit driven that game quality is diminishing (Battlefield, WoW, Dragon Age 2 compared to 1, Diablo 3, and the list goes on).Reply
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.