BioWare Co-Founder Calls EA's Buyout the "Final Nail in the Coffin"

Greg Zeschuk, one of the two physician-turned-developers who founded BioWare, has finally spoken about the studio's closure, which was announced last week. He called the outcome "kind of sad" and pointed to Electronic Arts' sale as the moment that sealed its fate.

The sale in question is EA's leveraged buyout by a consortium with Saudi involvement. Zeschuk said the deal "was the final nail in the coffin" for the studio, which had spent its later years under EA dealing with layoffs, project cancellations and shifting priorities.

Zeschuk founded BioWare in 1995 with Ray Muzyka and Augustine Yip. The studio built Baldur's Gate, Mass Effect and Dragon Age, and EA bought it in 2007. For many fans, those franchises are the core of its legacy, so Zeschuk's comments will read as a eulogy for a team that helped define modern role-playing games.