EA merges Mythic and BioWare

By Robert Purchese Published 25 June, 2009

Muzyka boss, Mark Jacobs departs.

EA has merged BioWare and Mythic, naming Dr Ray Muzyka as head of the new RPG/MMO group.

Mark Jacobs, Mythic's guiding hand through Dark Age of Camelot and Warhammer Online, will leave the company on 23rd June.

Rob Denton will fill his shoes and report directly to Dr Ray. The other BioWare doctor-boss, Dr Greg Zeschuk, will be come group creative officer.

Employees at Mythic are "shocked and in disbelief" at the departure of Jacobs, an inside source told Massively - but also excited to work with BioWare, which has an almost unblemished RPG track record.

"I can't even fathom Mark leaving a company he loved so much, it was his life. Personally, I can't see that this is voluntary in any shape or form," the source said.

The rest of Mythic's enormous 300-strong team will remain unchanged, apparently. It's not clear, however, where Paul Barnett - the vocal WAR designer - will go.

It's also unclear how the restructuring will affect not only Warhammer Online, but also Star Wars: The Old Republic.

More to come, we suspect.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (17) Latest comment 3 years ago

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  • lambtron #1 3 years ago

    Wow.

    Didn't see that coming.

  • Gallilee #2 3 years ago

    First Bethesda and ID, now this. What happens tomorrow? Valve and SquareEnix merges?

  • SharpyVII #3 3 years ago

    actually they are not merged according to one of the mythic devs: "We're still Mythic Entertainment, an Electronic Arts Studio, as we have been. I've posted this elsewhere, but we're not "merging". We are still a completely separate entity within EA, just as Bioware is, simply now grouped under the same MMO/RPG grouping and reporting to one person, collectively."

  • ChthonicEcho #4 3 years ago

    Mythic? With BioWare? I usually don't mind acquisitions and mergers at all, but this has me slightly worried. On the one hand, it might mean more resources in creating excellent RPGs, but on the other, Mythic might be a hindrance. Hopefully, not.

    Time will show.

  • DFawkes #5 3 years ago

    If Sony and Microsoft merge, I'll tale it as a sign the apocalypse is coming and live underground.

    Lots of merging happening just now, probably to keep the studios strong, but this one feels a bit strange. I'd have thought WAR has enough subscribers to keep it going, and Old Republic is pretty much a sure thing.

  • MikeP #6 3 years ago

    It'd be interesting to know if Mark Jacobs jumped or was pushed.

    I played WAR for about 9 months, but the game has significant performance and balance issues that Mythic seem unable to resolve. Although it still seems to be pottering along, it's not been the runaway success I'm sure EA had expected. I wonder if they feel a change of leadership will refocus Mythic on fixing the problems.

  • Chufty #7 3 years ago

    I think this has been taken out of context. They are both subsidiaries of the same company and therefore it's just restructuring, rather than a merger. It will have little effect on their respective games output, it's probably a business streamlining measure.

    The big news here is Jacobs leaving.

  • Kremlik Verified Co-Founder, Crash To Desktop #8 3 years ago

    Well TBH I should go 'oh noes!' but this is actally VERY good for all - In the case of WAR Mark was leading the game in the wrong drection with item diriven content, it's still laggy, it's very zerg based and the server balances are way off, DAoC just seemed static and UO... have we actally heard anything after the graphica revamp? Mark is still a good dev but I think Mythic needs a better captian to lead the ship.

    EA have done a very smart move Bioware is still a MASSIVE big name and as we all know a brilliant jack of all trades in gaming, it'll be very good to see what BW can do with Mythic's games - As the article states is this WAR's or even DAoC's rebirth? or was this the plan all along to get EA's foot in the MMO door and use the two games as a cash milking machine for bigger projects to replace them... Kinda hoping for the first one here WAR isn't that bad and killing an old warhorse like DAoC shouldn't be done.

    At least Mark's obession with Vampire Counts for the expantion when the community are screaming for Skaven/Lizardmen battle is kinda over.
    Edited by 1 at 25/06/09 @ 09:19

  • Xerx3s #9 3 years ago

    And so it continues.

  • Dizzy #10 3 years ago

    I have a bad feeling about this.

  • sneetch #11 3 years ago

    Mark Jacobs will leave the company on the 23rd of June?

    /Checks calendar

    I think you mean Mark Jacobs left the company on the 23rd of June.

  • Palmada #12 3 years ago

    Dr. Ray? Dr. Greg? Since when do you need a PhD to work in the games industry?

  • the_mtfr #13 3 years ago

    What the hell is wrong with the EG news these days? All wrong titles, pulled out of some arse.

    @Palmada, if I remember correctly, they are doctors as in hospital staff. Not doctors in RPG design.

  • Palmada #14 3 years ago

    Well, these days you can have a PhD on just about anything, so I actually wouldn't be surprised =P

    Also, calling people Dr. just because they have the degree, is entirely silly.

  • Rubel #15 3 years ago

    Crazy. So, WAR gets to be Bioware's "starter" MMO, eh?

  • TedMoseby #16 3 years ago

    I think the Bioware heads were actual practicing doctors before they founded the company.

  • eizyark #17 3 years ago

    the way i see it, it's a pretty good decision in the sense of the MMO universe. as some people may say that mythic's mmo is fail, atleast they have the experience when it comes to the MMO universe which Bioware doesn't have. so the so-called merge is a + for bioware. the game itself will still be fully developed by bioware, they just need someone to help them implement this in a MMO universe setting which Mythic has experience on. i can't believe that i am going to say this, but, good call EA.