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BioWare admits studio problems in internal memo to staff

Anthem developer BioWare has admitted studio problems in an internal email sent to staff, a direct contradiction of a public-facing statement recently made in response to a damning Kotaku report.

Last week, Kotaku’s report summarised poor working conditions at BioWare’s two studios, painting a portrait of anxiety-riddled employees fighting a broken game engine and creating a game without a real idea of what the title was actually supposed to be.

While BioWare chose not to directly to respond to Kotaku’s request for comment on the report, the studio released a statement that not only asserted that “the health and well-being of our team members is something we take very seriously,” but added a cheeky shot at the news outlet as well.

“We don’t see the value in tearing down one another, or one another’s work,” BioWare’s statement read. “We don’t believe articles that do that are making our industry and craft better.”

Internally, however, BioWare’s tuns was a little different.

“The article mentions many of the problems in the development of Anthem and some of our previous projects,” BioWare’s Casey Hudson wrote in a memo to staff. “And it draws a link between those issues and the quality of our workplace and the well-being of our staff. These problems are real and it’s our top priority to continue working to solve them.

“What we found out-of-bounds was the naming of specific developers as targets for public criticism. It’s unfair and extremely traumatizing to single out people in this way, and we can’t accept that treatment towards any of our staff. That’s why we did not participate in the article and made a statement to that effect.”

You can read Hudson’s full memo here.

What do you make of BioWare’s responses?

Anthem is available now on Windows PC, Xbox One and PS4.


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Steve Wright

Steve's the owner of this very site and an active games journalist nearing twenty (TWENTY!?!) years. He's a Canadian-Australian gay gaming geek, ice hockey player and fan. Husband to Matt and cat dad to Wally and Quinn.