After several weeks of rumours, speculation and uncertainty, SWTOR has officially been transferred from Bioware to Broadsword. There was a news post on the Bioware blog and everything. Now that was an exercise in marketing speak! I don't know anything about Bioware General Manager Gary McKay, so I don't want to accuse him of not meaning what he says, but comments like "we’re enormously proud of the work the team has done" certainly rang a bit hollow considering Bioware's past treatment of the game.
SWTOR Executive Producer Keith Kanneg's addendum at the bottom was much more heartening to read, as he confirmed that he'll be making the transition and is still as passionate about the game as ever. I remember when he first took charge more than six years ago now!
This was followed by many of the current members of the team piping up on Twitter as well to confirm that they are remaining with the game. Swtorista has been on the ball as usual and has compiled all their comments on a single handy page. I was happy to read that Community Manager Jackie Ko, Narrative Director Ashley Ruhl and Lead Writer Caitlin Sullivan Kelly among others will be staying on. Currently not entirely sure what to make of Eric Musco's silly gif response...
I also thought it was interesting to see how many of them commented on how much they love their work environment and colleagues. The games industry has been rife with many stories about game developers having to deal with horrible things at work in recent years, so I'm happy to hear that the SWTOR team seems to be one of the lucky ones.
I've got to say, I'm feeling pretty good about this whole thing right now. When the news first leaked three weeks ago, it was very unsettling. I mean, I wanted to remain calm and stay positive, but there were just so many things we didn't know; it was certainly worrying! With all the new information that has come to light since then, the future certainly looks a lot brighter. I can absolutely believe that nothing much will change for us as players in the near future. What comes later is more unknown of course, but then it always is and positive developments wouldn't have been guaranteed under Bioware either. I'll just keep my fingers crossed and hope that things work out for the best - if nothing else it's nice to know that we (players and devs) are all on the same side in this and want the game to prosper under its new ownership.
In a way, it makes perfect sense that they'd stick together. The old Ben Franklin quote about how we all "must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately" applies to the SWTOR team.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, the Bioware GM was using doublespeak indeed.