BioWare - Greg Zeschuk Interview @ Los Angeles Times Online Edition

The online edition of Los Angeles Times has a rather interesting interview with Greg Zeschuk, one of the two co-founders of Bioware who left the company in September 2012. It's interesting because of what he says in it. Apparently he doesn't lile console games much these days:

“Console stuff has become really boring,” he says, adding that it’s indie publishers these days who are doing the “progressive stuff.” “The big guys,” he says, “are doing these really boring same ol’, same ol’ games,” he says, referring, broadly, to action titles and games of the “Call of Duty” ilk.

And what does he say about Bioware's own games? Well, here's what he say about
those, although first his praises go to a game called Spaceteam

created by former BioWare employee Henry Smith. It’s a mobile game, designed for iOS, and it requires at least two players. Players must be in the same room, as they’ll need to shout instructions at each other as they try to prolong the inevitable explosion of a ship. It’s fast, simple and not at all similar to the massively complex heavily layered games of BioWare, be it the “Mass Effect” series or its online multiplayer game “Star Wars: The Old Republic.”

Do I detect a slight dissatisfaction with how ME3 and SW:TOR turned out in his
comments?
More information.

“This is fun,” he says. “I don’t work for anyone. Me and the team do what we want to do to get our job done. There’s no higher authority messing with it. Sometimes a higher authority can be helpful and can bring greater knowledge. Sometimes it’s just a giant pain in the butt because it generates work.”

Sounds like someone was tired of EA messing with his work. Such is life when you "sell out".

Being independent can be even more stressful. I am not surprised why any dev would want someone else to take some of the financial burden off. Continuing as indipendent could have burned him out even sooner. That's the same reason why Richard Garriot sold Origin to EA.

Originally Posted by Lemonhead
Sounds like someone was tired of EA messing with his work. Such is life when you "sell out".

BioWare was sold to EA by VG Holding Corp, not the doctors. That's just a common myth around here it seems.

Originally Posted by Maylander
BioWare was sold to EA by VG Holding Corp, not the doctors. That's just a common myth around here it seems.

Correct. But just because tax reasons favor a structure that involves several steps does not necessarily mean that the doctors were caught by complete surprise when they heard the sound of EA jackboots marching towards their boardroom. Even if they were caught by surprise (a big 'if', imho) then they had 'sold out' to Elevation Partners rather than EA, but sold out nevertheless.

Did they need to sell out to anybody? Until someone obtains the 2004, 2005 and 2006 financial statements out of BioWare we will never know.

Who owns VG Holding Corp ? And why was Bioware its property ?

a) Elevation Partners. They are owned by several private investors, for example U2's Bono. It seems VG Holding Corp was the legal construct to hold their two developers and be ready to resell them.
b) EP bought Bioware and Pandemic and parked them there.

It's clear the doctors sold to EP. It's not clear if or to what extend the Biodocs were involved in the plan to sell BiowarePandemic to a big publisher for much more money. Everything is possible but nothing confirmed. It is quite probable that the former studio owners negotiated a deal which secured them a certain percentage of the additional value created throughout the whole deal.

“The big guys,” he says, “are doing these really boring same ol’, same ol’ games,” he says

Of course every other Bioware game has been a pinnacle in innovative design, characters and storytelling.