The Old Republic lead designer quits BioWare?

EA is a lot like the Reapers: they destroy great game companies before they become too big and by doing so allow smaller companies to be able to grow and make great games themselves for a time, then they destroy them before they become too big.

EA cannot allow anybody to become as big as them, because then they'd lose money and EA cannot have that.

lol they don't want to be controlled by EA or what?

these guys can just go and open a new studio :P

Jeez, this is bad news. EPIC just lost Rod and Cliffy. Bioware lost the Doctors and now Daniel Erickson. Insane.

EA is a cancer.

Do whatever it takes to escape EA's clutches guys. Run and don't look back.

This is what happens when you taint yourself with EA, and make one crap game after another.

sad. but atleast their not working for ea anymore

Well since EA management keeps saying everything in the future will be free to play and the poor fan reception to several of their recent games it is not surprising that there a large number of high profile departures. I am guessing morale at Bioware probably is not at an all time high.

What else can you do when you're on a ship that's sinking pretty quickly? I sooo wanted this game to succeed but nothing in the recent past seems to show it's going anywhere but down... so sad.

So corporate greed finally killed the awesome Dragon it once was. Now only bones remain to remember this once majestic creature.

Erickson too?So let me get this straight Ray, Graig , Erickson , Knowles, Vogel are out of BioWare and some of the only noteworthy people remaining is Mark Darrah...Yup..After Dragon Age 3 flukes as well (and i am sure it will) Darrah will also "retire" and we are gonna have the official shut down of BioWare.Thank you EA for being such a disgusting and terribly money hungry company that drives amazing game developers to "retirement"

EA/Bioware should have made kotor 3 instead of a lame mmo imo. It probably would have gotten better feedback from fans and cost less to make.

This is rather standard of EA. BUy a great developer, and once they hit a bump in the road it's time to shore up the profit margin and start executing.

Black Isle Studios since you are back, please bring back the love of classic RPG

EA destroys another company.

Origin (R.I.P.)

Maxis (R.I.P.)

Jane Studios (R.I.P.)

BullFrog (R.I.P.)

Pandemic Studios (R.I.P.)

D.I.C.E. (R.I.P.)

GameStorm (R.I.P.)

Westwood Studios (R.I.P)

Harmonix (R.I.P.)

[b]Bioware (R.I.P)[/b]

Welp, Bioware... prepare to be shot in the head and tossed in the unmarked grave with all the other dev studios that EA killed.

John Riccitiello is going to have to start cloning himself to find employees soon. Now the public has to do thier end of the deal and stop buying EA games. This is not about hate for EA, it is about giant publishers controlling the industry with a heavy hand.

Sounds like he is burned out. Fresh minds, fresh ideas. Replace them with some people that have some passion, and SWTOR will come back better than ever! I look at this as a good thing. Look at Bungie with Halo. They were burned out on it, here comes 343i with passion for Halo. Now Halo 4 looks like it will rejuvinate the franchise, on steroids.

There's nothing I can say about EA that you don't already know. All I can say is I hope these developers reunite and make a new company and continue to make the best rpg's they can, rpg's way better than any game EA can possibly make.

Bioware is dead, and the Old Republic won't make it another 6 months. Biggest bust in MMO history. lol $200 million dollars down the toilet.

Abandon Ship!

holy-molly! hitman design the old republic!

going to bethesda's battlecry i guess ?

hey i though SWTOR is "Not Losing Subs" . the lead writeer left, the founders left, and now bunch of devs left too. i guess it official it's BioDead

And people said it wouldn't happen to Bioware. HAH! Let this be a lesson, STOP GIVING IN TO EA! Do not sell out to them, do not buy from them, let the dry up and disappear like the cysts they are. EA is like a morbid golem made of the faces of studios they've destroyed and/or are destroying, screaming out to be set free.*sings* LET MY DEVELOPERS GO! Ahem...on a serious note, I hope these guys leaving the studio will get back together and form a new one, hopefully a lot smarter now about how publishers like EA work.

Seriously EA has done this FOREVER.

Westwood

Origin

Bullfrog

They take these great studios with the talented developers. Then they slowly strangle the life out of them by putting the publisher/stockholders ahead of the developers and creativity.

When the studio starts to falter and sales go down the once talented developer starts to lose it's key developers, eventually til it's just a shell of its former self.

Then EA either gets rid of it, folds the name into it's own studio, or just abandons it.