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Mike Laidlaw (Dragon Age Creative Director) leaves BioWare [Up: DA still alive]

Awww... Jade Empire and Dragon Age: Origins are my favorite Bioware games and in my top 5 western rpgs in general. Well, good luck to him, I wish him the best.

I hope there's still a future for Dragon Age and that Anthem won't be a game-as-a-service juggernaut that will overtake all of Bioware.
 

Lime

Member
I don't for a second think this means "Dragon Age is dead".


On the other hand, it is now on the "main" ME team that is working on Anthem to do us all proud and usher in a new age for interactive, fantastical adventures.

Hope you like Destiny because that’s what Anthem will be as your “new fantastical adventure”
 

Complistic

Member
We really should stop calling them bioware. It's not really them, they're so past gone.

da2ot-09.jpg
 

Capella

Member
I hope this doesn't mean the end of Dragon Age. I love the series despite its flaws and would hate to see it just end after everything they revealed in the Trespasser DLC.
 

jdstorm

Banned
You could make a Single Player RPG as a GaaS. It's not common but those two things are not mutually exclusive.

Yep. Just make it a Hero action game where your co op buddies are the characters in your party and then regularly release expansions/DLC episodes that continue to tell the story you were telling.
 

Jarmel

Banned
I’m curious if this would be fallout due to Andromeda in that now Bioware has to consolidate resources around Anthem or that EA shitcanned a DA game in favor of SW?
 
S

Steve.1981

Unconfirmed Member
Hope you like Destiny because that’s what Anthem will be as your “new fantastical adventure”

I like Destiny, a lot. It has it's flaws though, and I'd be very excited to see another take on it's somewhat unique formula.

Maybe with more of a focus on characters and story.

Maybe from a great team with a rich history like Bioware.
 

Arulan

Member
I talked to him at PAX East this year. Despite my feelings towards modern BioWare and the last two Dragon Age titles, I really enjoyed our conversation. We discussed recent RPGs such as The Age of Decadence and Divinity: Original Sin, how AAA RPGs are handling the balance of mainstream appeal and that of RPG enthusiasts, and if there was any room at BioWare for smaller, but more focused RPGs. My impression was that he was well aware of how unappealing their last few titles have been towards RPG enthusiasts, but that there wasn't a whole lot of room for other ventures with EA.

Best of luck to him.
 

RDreamer

Member
God I hope they don’t fuck up the Dragon Age series. After Inquisition they really have an amazing setup to make something great. With Mass Effect gone now my fix will have to be with Dragon Age. No real hope in Anthem scratching that same itch at all.
 
Best of luck to him.

You will remember him best as a Lead Writer on Jade Empire, then as one of the three Lead Designers on Dragon Age: Origins, and then he effectively became Creative Director for the entire series afterwards.

Which has more input, Lead Designer or Creative Director? Trying to see if the series got worse as his role grew or worse as his role shrank.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Best of luck to him.



Which has more input, Lead Designer or Creative Director? Trying to see if the series got worse as his role grew or worse as his role shrank.
There wasn’t a Creative Director on the first game IIRC.

Creative Director is a role akin to Art Director or Technical Director, but for game design. They still report to the Game Director and/or Executive Producer though.
 

Stiler

Member
Best of luck to him.

Really concerned about Bioware's DA now though, I mean they got a couple of big people back that left a few years ago from the Mass Effect team (who are on Anthem now) but now they've lost both the lead writer (David Gaider) and Marc, two top tier people that were part of creating the series.

I hope they can still pull out a great DA game though.
 

Teeth

Member
Sad to see him go, he always seemed like he had his heart in the right place. Trying to steer the ship through modern AAA demands must be an absolute nightmare.
 

LowRoller

Member
Sad to see him go, he always seemed like he had his heart in the right place. Trying to steer the ship through modern AAA demands must be an absolute nightmare.
This. Reading blood sweat and pixels made me appreciate inquisition so much more.
 

JMY86

Member
Hmmm this will most certainly have an impact on DA4. I am sad to see Mike go. I enjoyed DA:I and will never understand all the shit it gets here but regardless I really enjoy Dragon Age and look forward to the next installment.
 

CGwizz

Member
another one, this studio is dead. I hope they finish dragon age series this next game, the way they are doing things these days i doubt they will make another rpg ever again.
 

BeauRoger

Unconfirmed Member
I wonder if this has anything to do with Casey Hudson coming back and taking the role of GM. This doesnt have to be a bad thing.
 
How many notable people need to leave before all the Bioware fanboys see that the jig is up?

Well, for me personally, I know the old BioWare is dead. I just don't see the point in proclaiming EA should stop using the name or acting like the company itself filed for Chapter 11.

another one, this studio is dead. I hope they finish dragon age series this next game, the way they are doing things these days i doubt they will make another rpg ever again.

I have a suspicion that the Dragon Age series is on its way out. I don't think DA4 will be the last game, though.
 
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