BioWare and Mythic: "In the future there could be co-development"

Following last week's news that EA has combined its BioWare and Mythic studios in order to create a specific MMO/RPG group, Ray Muzyka, the newly appointed manager of the group and former BioWare general manager, has elaborated on the move.

"Structurally, each of the organisations remains intact," Muzyka told Gamasutra in an interview. "They're working on the same projects they were working on before, I just have another studio that reports into me. It's not that BioWare or Mythic is changing; they're retaining their brands, their unique cultural identities, their projects they are working on. I'm really excited about what we're doing; we have great people at each location."

The move, which was announced along with the resignation of Mythic co-founder and general manager Mark Jacobs, is not about putting one studio above the other and Mythic won't be overshadowed in the move, according to Muzyka.

"It’s a collaboration opportunity. Each of the groups continues to make the same thing in their [own locations]. But it’s fuelling and enabling more communication, collaboration, best practice sharing, encouraging each other to play each others’ games - but no formal change per se in what anybody’s doing.

"The outward brands that are still very much the consumer-facing identities, the cultural identities, are Mythic and BioWare, and I’m really proud of those two brands. They’re storied brands, they’re award-winning studios. Very much they’re going to be partner studios. There are three BioWare studios already — Edmonton, Austin, and Montreal — and one Mythic studio, but Mythic is very much a strong identity and voice and brand and group. I’m really happy with that."

While tech sharing and co-development wasn't the reason behind the creation of the group, Muzyka reveals its a possibility that's already being looked into.

"A variety of studios across EA tech share, for example," he points out. "We're all part of the same company at the end of the day. We're studios within the same organisation, which is a group now within the EA Games label.

"In the future there could be co-development. There's nothing actively planned there right now, but I know the guys at Mythic, and in Edmonton, Austin, and Montreal are all really excited about this."