GDC Online officially kicked of yesterday in Austin but today was the first day at the industry conference where Bioware developers were scheduled for sessions. One session that was especially interesting was “Taking Your Game Everywhere”. This panel featured BioWare’s Erik Olsen, Curse’s Donovan Duncan, ZAM’s Cody Bye and Red 5′s Mark Kern and was led by former BioWare Austin Co-Studio Manager and current Playdom exec Gordon Walton. This session addressed the idea that gamers want to be able to take their online games with them, outside of the game itself. Make sense, right? I mean it’s like a handheld but where you can still check in to your online game. It combines the appeal of games and apps for our smartphones, iPads and other mobile devices. This popular trend is something that game studios will want to get in on. Gamasutra has a summary of the panel which gives…
Gordon Walton
Gordon Walton’s Farewell Address
As we reported a few days ago, Gordon Walton is departing Bioware, to take on an executive producer role at Disney-owned social game studio Playdom. Yesterday Walton provided the community with a few words of his own outlining his reasons for departing BioWare and Star Wars: The Old Republic. Below you can read Mr. Waltons farewell post from the official forums “Thanks to all the well-wishers and even the haters. A few things I thought I’d mention. 1) SWTOR will be an awesome game! 2) Working at BioWare was my best experience in my 33 years in the games industry so far! It’s not a good company, it’s a GREAT company. 3) I wasn’t working at SOE when the NGE came out, and frankly I was adamantly against doing it. 4) I don’t hate the SWTOR space game or JtL, really! (Read the transcript of the talk or listen…
BioWare’s Gordon Walton Leaves To Join Playdom Austin
Yesterday EA lost three heads from major studios Playfish and Bioware. BioWare Austin vice president Gordon Walton has left to take on an executive producer role at Disney-owned social game studio Playdom, while two founding members of Playfish, the social game developer EA bought in 2009, are also set to leave the company. EA said in a statement that it’s “business as usual”: “”It is business as usual at all BioWare studios, where we remain committed to creating, delivering and evolving the most emotionally engaging games in the world,” concluded the statement. Electronic Arts is the parent company of BioWare, which also develops the Mass Effect and Dragon Age role-playing franchises. Mobsters and Sorority Life creator Playdom, recently acquired by Disney for a handsome $763 million, is among the top developers of social games on Facebook. A 33-year industry veteran, Walton joins the ranks of many respected stalwarts, like Playdom’s…