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New Mass Effect 2 Group at EA Montreal

Kris Graft's picture

By Kris Graft

March 2, 2009

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BioWare has formed a new team based at EA Montreal that will support the development of the upcoming RPG Mass Effect 2, which is slated to release early next year.

BioWare general manager Ray Muzyka told consumer site GameSpot that the new 30-person team would "work in partnership with the existing EA Montreal team" while still reporting to Muzyka and BioWare president Greg Zeschuk.

BioWare's headquarters are Edmonton, Alberta, where development of Mass Effect 2 is already underway.

EA purchased BioWare in 2007.

According to the report, Muzyka said the BioWare team at EA Montreal may also assist in future development of the upcoming RPG Dragon Age: Origins and the MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic.

The first Mass Effect debuted on Xbox 360 in 2007, and on PC in 2008. EA CEO John Riccitiello recently said that Mass Effect 2 is a "multiplatform" release, stopping short of confirming whether or not the franchise is coming to PS3 for the first time.

VivaLaJam's picture
On March 3rd VivaLaJam said:

oh joy, EA is now making it :-(

The chance of this staying exclusive to 360 And PC is dying

DAMN EA, if you ruin this game, there will be tears

NickgamertagO1's picture
On March 3rd NickgamertagO1 said:

Viva, Akira

2nd chances are good. I can give them that. As far as EA doing ME2, I think they're just helping. And maybe Bioware is stretching themselves too thin with all the projects they have going on?

DubsTF's picture
On March 3rd DubsTF said:

Word has it this new 30-person team will be dedicated solely to reducing texture pop in Mass Effect 2. If they can get that down to less than half the nuisance it was in the first game, they might spend a few years working on Mako driving mechanics. I wish them the best.

NickgamertagO1's picture
On March 3rd NickgamertagO1 said:

Mako...what a pain. I never really got used to that darn thing. The texture pop-in wasn't THAT bad. Blame MS and their lame dont-include-a-hard-drive-with-every-console blunder for the caching limitations (stream from DVD=lame). Correct me if I'm wrong.

DubsTF's picture
On March 3rd DubsTF said:

I'm not saying I'm right and you're wrong, but to me the texture pop was inexcusable, the kind of defect that should have sent their engine team back to the drawing board in the early stages of development. It's one of those things that becomes really difficult to ignore once you're attuned to it and more generally the kind of thing that "takes you out of the game" on a near-constant basis.

NickgamertagO1's picture
On March 3rd NickgamertagO1 said:

Oh, I meant correct me if I'm wrong about DVD-streaming being the problem. I agree with you the texture pop in, whether we agree how bad or not it is, was inexcusable. Halo 2 actually had some weird texture pop-in problems and it seems as if developers see it as a hardware limitation they can't do anything about. The texture pop in and long elevator rides better be addressed in ME2.

NickgamertagO1's picture
On March 3rd NickgamertagO1 said:

So their B-team who nerfed Orange Box for the PS3 is potentially "helping" with the PS3 port of Mass Effect 2 (if there even is a PS3 port)? That's good news. ^^

AkIRA_22's picture
On March 3rd AkIRA_22 said:

I give people 2nd chances... BUT! Only ONE extra chance.

ArronC07's picture
On March 3rd ArronC07 said:

and for those that don't know EA Montreal did the port of Orange Box for PS3 and that's what makes this story interesting.