BioWare Interview

The Penny Arcade Report is offering an interview with the BioWare co-founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk, which focuses on the launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic and the upcoming Mass Effect 3, although some time is also devoted to the chance of seeing an MMO set in the Mass Effect universe. Here’s a snip:

(We’re the fastest-growing MMO in history, and it’s really a credit to our fans,) Muzyka said. (The launch was fantastic.) Taking on World of WarCraft was considered a near impossibility in the world of online games, but Bioware has the strength of the Star Wars brand alongside the company’s ability to tell wonderful stories. It’s a hard game to say no to, even for MMO beginners like myself. They also had the advantage of a late December launch, which was more good luck than planning.

(We didn’t want to launch until we were ready. Even coming up towards the fall, it was very hard to see how things would pan out,) Muzyka said. (It’s almost like we could exclude dates, but we couldn’t guarantee one. There were so many moving parts. It was like making the largest Xbox game ever while making Xbox Live at the same time. And they both had to work flawlessly when you launch them on the first day.)

The final beta test was actually larger than the launch itself, and Zeshuk remembered watching the number of players logging into the game, while other MMO veterans remarked that the numbers had surpassed the launch of other titles they had worked on. (You just passed our launch,) someone would say. The numbers would continue to climb. (You just passed our launch,) another developer would point out. The numbers continued to climb.

(Soon no one was saying that,) Muzyka said.