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Former Bioware boss Casey Hudson has closed his studio without shipping a single game

BennyBlanco

aka IMurRIVAL69

Humanoid Origins, the studio launched in 2021 by former BioWare general manager Casey Hudson, is closing. Hudson announced the closure in a message posted to LinkedIn, saying that "despite efforts to shield the studio from broader challenges in the industry, an unexpected shortfall of funding left us unable to sustain operations."

Hudson announced Humanoid Studios, as it was originally known, in June 2021, just six months after his surprise departure from BioWare. In 2022, he revealed the studio was working on a "multi platform AAA game, focusing on character-driven narrative in an all-new science-fiction universe," which sounded like a natural fit: During his long tenure at BioWare, broken up by a three-year split from 2014 to 2017, Hudson led the development of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and the original Mass Effect trilogy.

But while Hudson said the studio had a "playable prototype" in July 2022, nothing beyond a few pieces of vague concept art was ever shown publicly. Hudson said the studio is "heartbroken that we will not be able to bring our new science-fiction universe to completion," adding that the focus now is on supporting employees "in their transition to new employment."
 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
I was glad to see him go back to BioWare and then he just up and left again. I only know of the guy because of Mass Effect. I always thought he played a key role in ME’s success. It feels like everyone who made BioWare great either retired or left the studio. Sucks he had to close. At least he didn’t close because his game failed to be successful.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
I was glad to see him go back to BioWare and then he just up and left again. I only know of the guy because of Mass Effect. I always thought he played a key role in ME’s success. It feels like everyone who made BioWare great either retired or left the studio. Sucks he had to close. At least he didn’t close because his game failed to be successful.

Return to Bioware in time for ME4's development to kick in full gear?
 

BennyBlanco

aka IMurRIVAL69
I was glad to see him go back to BioWare and then he just up and left again. I only know of the guy because of Mass Effect. I always thought he played a key role in ME’s success. It feels like everyone who made BioWare great either retired or left the studio. Sucks he had to close. At least he didn’t close because his game failed to be successful.

Yeah, this is more respectable than taking the Cliffy B route and hyping up then shipping a huge flop.

Bioware is just a name brand at this point. All the talent left the building ages ago. At least we got good remakes of Mass Effect.
 

YuLY

Gold Member
Such a shame. After all these years there is still no alternative to Mass Effect, unreal. I guess theres that Exodus game but who knows...2 generations later and still the only game like Mass effect was the one made by Bioware earlier...SW Kotor. This industry is so fucking boring, lets make more souls likes and gaas and weeb shit. fuck everything
 

Loomy

Thinks Microaggressions are Real
Ofc it was a money laundering scam, called it back then. Its always these dumb fuck, "former x from famous company opens y studio" and 90% of the time they release a dud or just close.
You can't just say shit like that without any actual proof.

What likely happened here is they scrounge together enough money to work on a proof of concept for a few years hoping they could show it to a publisher for additional funding. When they couldn't sell their idea, they had to shut the project down. This happens a lot. The only reason it's news here is because Casey is/was a big name in the industry.
 

YuLY

Gold Member
Maybe BioWare can hire him back and fire their Queerosexual Gendermancer
Thankfully the game director for next ME is Mike Gamble who was with the company since ME2 and seems like a good lad, I dont think the gendermancer has anything to do with the next ME.

Still, how much are we going to rely on this one francize to carry the rpg space genre...
 

simpatico

Member
Is Bioware a profitable endeavor? You'd struggle to build a purpose-built money burner as efficient as post ME3 Bioware.
The fact that it takes nearly 7 years to complete a current gen game is why we have mostly remakes and remasters... something needs to change
Yeah we need better developer management. Publishers need to stop buying into the excuses and authorizing these crazy timelines. Labor is like a gas, it expands to fill whatever container you have it in. AA companies are cranking games out on the old timeline just fine.
 
I liked Bioware when it was the Doctors and him (and that era of the team, pre EA or not long after). The last thing I remember about him, was that he left EA / Bioware and was brought back, I think to try and save it, but it was for..... Anthem.

Obviously it's a long time ago now, but I remember he usually came across like a genuinely nice guy who obviously, as part of that team, made some unbelievable games. So, no hate or mockery here.
 
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nowhat

Gold Member
I liked Bioware when it was the Doctors and him (and that era of the team, pre EA or not long after). The last thing I remember about him, was that he left EA / Bioware and was brought back, I think to try and save it, but it was for..... Anthem.
He did come back for Anthem, yes.

He was also responsible for the ending of ME3, so there's that.

 

EDMIX

Writes a lot, says very little
Some of you hyped up those original creators to a massive degree lol

Listen, Bioware today is where its at based on a lot of those original creators input, lets not act as if this person going out on their own was going to make all theses GOTY or some shit as if EA was the one killing them or some fucking shit.

EA is the publisher that saved them when that parent company was going under, if they were doing soooooo great, they wouldn't even need that to happen then in the first place

So hear me out folks, maybe Bioware always had these fucking issues and that isn't merely just an "EA" thing as many seem to want to believe...

They were in financial trouble in the first place when the publisher purchased their parent company

So why is anyone surprised that the studio closed after leaving? they weren't even fucking successful when they were somewhere else to even own their own properties prior....

Visceral gets closed down and then they form a new company only to then have that protocol game flop...

Let's stop trying to normalize this fucking shit of a owner of a company leaving and going elsewhere and trying to act as if they're going to make gold and that's the only thing holding them back was the previous publisher lol

If they were doing so fucking amazing clearly they would not have had their past studio close down, I understand it's easy to jump on the hate bandwagon regarding Electronic Arts but like any fucking company it's pretty feasible they might have a legitimate reason for closing down those studios....

Its not to say we don't have some success stories of a team leaving and being successful, merely lets try to have some perspective on this and consider a legit reason may have existed for the past publisher to part ways with them or close down their studio or some shit.
 

simpatico

Member
Ofc it was a money laundering scam, called it back then. Its always these dumb fuck, "former x from famous company opens y studio" and 90% of the time they release a dud or just close.
At best I think they open them hoping to get bought out by a Bungie, Epic, Ubi etc and just absorbed into a bigger studio. Hope Casey didn't burn too many small investors on this one. Always sucks to petition for a piece of the office furniture auction proceeds.
 

Rush2112

Member
Good. That’s what you get for lying about anthem. Karma is a bitch, casey. Also, what kind of dude gets a name “Casey”? One with shitty parents, that’s who.
 

Calico345

Gold Member
Ah well. Wait for ME4 continues.

kBM62ru.jpeg
 

Mayar

Member
The studio did not make Bioware's mistakes and did not release games.

But seriously, I understand that they opened right during the Covid boom, when the bubble was very inflated and everyone was sitting at home. And the flow of investment into the gaming industry was incredibly high. Now it is very difficult to find funding, especially for difficult complex games - investors no longer want to take risks.
 

HJuggernaut

Neo Member
reminds me of that CoD Community manager that opened a studio stayed afloat for about 4 years and didn't ship a single game.
 
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Some of you hyped up those original creators to a massive degree lol

Listen, Bioware today is where its at based on a lot of those original creators input, lets not act as if this person going out on their own was going to make all theses GOTY or some shit as if EA was the one killing them or some fucking shit.

EA is the publisher that saved them when that parent company was going under, if they were doing soooooo great, they wouldn't even need that to happen then in the first place

So hear me out folks, maybe Bioware always had these fucking issues and that isn't merely just an "EA" thing as many seem to want to believe...

They were in financial trouble in the first place when the publisher purchased their parent company

So why is anyone surprised that the studio closed after leaving? they weren't even fucking successful when they were somewhere else to even own their own properties prior....

Visceral gets closed down and then they form a new company only to then have that protocol game flop...

Let's stop trying to normalize this fucking shit of a owner of a company leaving and going elsewhere and trying to act as if they're going to make gold and that's the only thing holding them back was the previous publisher lol

If they were doing so fucking amazing clearly they would not have had their past studio close down, I understand it's easy to jump on the hate bandwagon regarding Electronic Arts but like any fucking company it's pretty feasible they might have a legitimate reason for closing down those studios....

Its not to say we don't have some success stories of a team leaving and being successful, merely lets try to have some perspective on this and consider a legit reason may have existed for the past publisher to part ways with them or close down their studio or some shit.
tl;dr but from the first sentence yes most notable names in BioWare at the time were just in the right place at the right time. None of them are talented, especially Hack Walters.
 
Hudson always seemed to be a voice pushing the dumbing down of mass effect. It appeared as though as he gained more power within the company as others left, things went further downhill. Im not sure he deserves the reputation he holds among some gaming circles.
 

tmlDan

Member
i find it strange that all these veterans devs either fail to make a game or make some garbage cartoon trash like the SC devs (Stormgate).

Is it a funding issue? Talent issue? or are they just not as great as we presumed.
 
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