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The Old Republic lead designer quits BioWare?

Tweets claiming to be from Daniel Erickson indicate longtime Electronic Arts developer and Star Wars MMO creative director looking for new work.

By Eddie Makuch on October 4, 2012 at 6:27AM PDT

It appears BioWare is facing even more high-level turnover. Tweets from a newly created account claiming to be BioWare lead designer and creative director Daniel Erickson suggest he has left the development team on Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Erickson will not have a hand in The Old Republic's future, it seems.

Rumor of Erickson's departure from BioWare's Austin, Texas branch were sparked in September when the developer updated his LinkedIn page to say he was "actively looking for new opportunities."

An Electronic Arts representative was not immediately available for comment.

If true, Erickson joins a host of other longtime BioWare staffers to have left the company recently. BioWare Austin cofounder, producer, and vice president Richard Vogel left the company in July, and is now heading up new Bethesda outfit Battlecry Studios.

Additionally, BioWare founders Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka announced their retirement from the company last month. This followed a restructuring of BioWare Austin in May, which may have cut as many as 200 staffers from the studio.

Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com

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Edited By Shaun373

I see this as good news. If EA keeps purging all of the talented folks from BioWare they can just get the band back together under a new company name.

15 • 12 years ago

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Edited By TruthTellers

@Shaun373 One can only hope. Maybe they'll form a new company called, "New Bioware: Now Resitant to the EA Strain"

4 • 12 years ago

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@Shaun373 ^This.

Upvote • 12 years ago

102

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And nobody gave a f*ck, again :3

Upvote • 12 years ago

50513

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If they released another Old Republic, or even just did HD editions of the originals, they'd be fine....

Upvote • 12 years ago

deactivated-619938f48614f

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Edited By deactivated-619938f48614f

I'm tired of sequels/remakes. I want new IPs.

8 • 12 years ago

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Bioware-EA is a wreck. They should've gone the way former Black Isle are going (Obsidian and inExile) - funding really awesome RPGs via Kickstarter.

2 • 12 years ago

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@Morphine_OD I cannot second this enough. If all these pioneers of epic RPGs went to Kickstarter, they would have lifelong careers and we would have lifelong great games, all without having to go through a publisher.

3 • 12 years ago

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Edited By timmy0001

Dev studios empty faster by bringing in EA than pulling the fire alarm. Though, people typically re-enter the building after the "all clear" with a fire alarm, and the EA disaster never ends.

5 • 12 years ago

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Edited By IgotEpixx

Just like WAR all over again.

Rushed release.

Overhyped.

Biggest MMO launch (for its time)

Subscriptions drop off quickly.

Mark Jacobs "moving onto other projects".Week later he's left.

2 • 12 years ago

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@IgotEpixx It's sad really how they completely destroy great IPs. Seriously, how can you ever go wrong with Games Workshop's WarHammer. That isa franchise thats pack full of lore and ideas just waiting to burst at the right developer. hell, I'm sure Arc studios could make a "guilty-gear-esc" fighting game out of that franchise....

You are exactly right. It's literally the mess all over again.

Upvote • 12 years ago

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Ding dong bannu.

Upvote • 12 years ago

187

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Seriously, as gamers that frequent this site and others; that are very passionate about the games we play, and attribute respect to makers of amazing game experiences, I think it's safe to say that...

"Noone is surprised by this news!"

EA sadly, has lost touch with it's core gamers, and with it's core designers it seems...this is bad, especially in a world today with "so many other options" it's much easier to move on to other things besides EA-published products..And it seems the devs got the same idea apparently..

8 • 12 years ago

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whats this? national leaving day? everyone leaving somewhere

3 • 12 years ago

MJ12-Conspiracy

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MJ12-Conspiracy

Watch all the talent slowly leave then they'll be left with the hacks.....Bioware one of the best developers to ever grace the biz murdered by EA....It's just business as usual for EA......

12 • 12 years ago

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@MJ12-Conspiracy Though a little vulgar for my tastes, I couldn't agree more with your comment.

Upvote • 12 years ago

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Edited By OrianaDorta

next month news: BioWare closes its doors.

Upvote • 12 years ago

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Wow, Bioware is pretty much dead now. It's sad, before been picked up by EA they where an amazing dev team, and even when they first moved to EA they released one of my favorite games of all time, Dragon Age: Origins. EA destoryed them after that though, both Mass Effect 2 & 3 where letdowns, as was Dragon Age 2, TOR wasn't bad, but it was just your standard MMO with voice acting thrown in, nothing special really, not like the original KotOR.

Upvote • 12 years ago

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Bring back Star Wars Galaxies?

Upvote • 12 years ago

187

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@legolas506 Ha! I dont think that will ever happen!

Upvote • 12 years ago

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@Rammone-X Not by SOE, but http://www.swgemu.com/forums/index.php has been working on it to bring back themselves.

Upvote • 12 years ago

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Edited By RogueJedi86

@legolas506 @Rammone-X

Haven't they had a working server for years? An MMO emulator without a playable server doesn't really count as an MMO emulator I would think.

Upvote • 12 years ago

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@RogueJedi86 @Rammone-X This is a non profit group, that is why it is taking so long, but they currently have a working server going. I've been testing with them for a very long time. Great stuff.

Upvote • 12 years ago

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@legolas506 @Rammone-X

Not really holding my breath on that. They've been trying to make that "emulator" since the NGE happened 7 years ago, and still don't have it "complete". Maybe it'll get finished around the time same the KotOR2 Restoration Project is done.

Upvote • 12 years ago

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Edited By Rammone-X

@legolas506 Wow..thats pretty exciting. I'll be following it closely.

Upvote • 12 years ago

9917

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Yep First the Doctors now this.... expect an exodus of top talent leaving bioware over the next few months

Upvote • 12 years ago

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The fourth developer leaving within 3 months. I'm starting to think that's in fact related to EA.

7 • 12 years ago

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Another one jumps the burning ship!

Upvote • 12 years ago

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TOR's future hasn't been looking good for a while now, losing 400k subscribers by May, and some of the uncertain speculation surrounding the F2P switch. I'm not surprised one of the leads has quit (possibly fired).

/speculation

Of course any news like this is ultimately seen as "EA corruption", etc.

Upvote • 12 years ago

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Grag and Ray were the soul of the company, now that they are gone, all that's left is a slowly decaying corpse infected by EA.

Upvote • 12 years ago

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It appears that EA may be loosing it's grip on it's employees.

Upvote • 12 years ago

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Edited By GrendelSP

And we are now witnessing the death of the single player game as well as the death of the true RPG. It was a good run, but all good things...

2 • 12 years ago

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Good! He's better off without EA!

Upvote • 12 years ago

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Edited By ccgod

Proof that once EA takes you over its all down hill from there

Upvote • 12 years ago

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@ccgod Speculation does not equal 'proof' just because you don't like EA.

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Edited By ccgod

@Lhomity i kinda like them but they killed command and conquer, and they're terrible when they move in and take over and limit development just so they can rehash it for future projects to make more $$. They used to buy small companies in the early 90's and then fire everyone and shut it down because they were making violent games....

3 • 12 years ago

deactivated-5ee7c440a05b6

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Edited By deactivated-5ee7c440a05b6

@Lhomity @ccgod The three games you mentioned were not profitable by EA's standards. As well as their respective developers; 38 Studios is gone, and Double Fine and Grasshopper Manufacture never intend to work with EA again, from what I've read.

Upvote • 12 years ago

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@ccgod I don't believe that the EA that exists *today is anywhere near that evil though.

*FIXED >.<

Upvote • 12 years ago

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Edited By Lhomity

@ccgod Yes, EA have a long history of questionable, if not downright dirty actions/decisions. I don't believe that the EA that exists is anywhere near that evil though.

EA has made a lot of strides this generation with several new and sometimes-innovative IPs, and the general quality and polish of their games is still top-tier. Their partners program has always brought us some great stuff, such as Brutal Legend, Shadows of the Damned, Kingdoms of Amalur, and so on. EA is still successful, still profitable, and still kicking after all these years. Sadly, they're slowly drifting away in social/mobile platforms, free-to-play models and eventually abandoning physical media formats altogether, because they think that's the only bright future for them. Even sadder is, they are probably right.

Upvote • 12 years ago

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westwood studios of this generation.

6 • 12 years ago

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Use your keyboard!

ESC

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