Burnout in Bioware – Anthem boss admits his mistakes and praises his improvement

New developments in the Anthem case: a note from Casey Hudson has been made public.

These are turbulent days for Bioware, developers of Anthem, Mbad Effect: Andromeda and Dragon Age: Inquisition. A revelation report written by Kotaku gave a gloomy picture: in the past, Bioware's games went bad, employees suffered from burnout, had to let go on sick leave – they lacked creative vision for years colleagues. You will find more information about this in our in-depth review of the subject. Now, Biowares CEO, Casey Hudson, responds.

After apparently asking employees to stop contacting the press, he wrote a memo to all staff. This note was sent to Kotaku on hand and quickly shared with the public, which is a bit ironic.

In this note, Hudson addresses the criticism by Jason Schreier, editor of Kotaku, after the first step was to write only a very general statement on Bioware's blog (and caused a sensation). You know the mistakes of the past and Hudson has not done the best job possible in mental health. For the future, the boss of Bioware hailed the improvement. Here is the complete translation:

"Hey BioWare,

I would like to share my thoughts on Kotaku's article and the resulting online discussion. The report addresses many of the issues raised in the development of Anthem and some of our previous projects. And it combines these challenges with the quality of our work environment and the well-being of our employees. These problems are real. And our priority is to eliminate them.

What we do [im Kotaku-Artikel] In addition, some colleagues have been named to target public criticism. It is unfair and traumatic to be so exposed. We can not accept such treatment from one of our employees. This is why we refused to participate in the article and have written a corresponding official statement.

When I was offered to come back to Bioware as General Manager, I accepted this position, knowing that our studio presents some very big challenges in terms of employee health, creative vision and organizational concentration. . I am always completely behind on my attempt to improve this situation because I love our studio and want to create a job where you are all happy and prosperous.

I do not mean for the moment that I have done this job well. Days like this, it does not really feel like that. But at least a few steps have helped me find a solution, including a mission and a canon of values ​​more clearly defined. I hope this will clarify what we want to accomplish here and how we will set the high standards of our studio culture. We have reworked the structure of our company so that department heads can focus on individualized careers support and the well-being of their employees. We have more clearly defined the tasks of individuals so that they can once again meet understandable expectations. And we will change our production processes so that a clearer vision of the project and improved post-production will keep the pressure and fears of our staff.

But I know that there is still a lot to do. And next week, at our staff meeting, we will discuss in more detail the other steps we have planned in response to internal feedback and subsequent badysis. As always, let us have more feedback on how we can make bioware the best place to work.

It is very important to me that we meet the highest expectations of the Bioware Games – through one of the best work environments in the world. With your help, we will do it.

Please let me know if you want to talk to me personally and I will be happy to schedule an appointment to hear your thoughts.

Casey "

You can read the original English version in the corresponding article of Kotaku. It remains to be seen whether Hudson and the rest of Bioware's management will turn to the public beyond the previous official statement with these remarks.

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