The two guys that formed one of the most influential game development companies, a company that gave gamers Mass Effect, Jade Empire, Baldur’s Gate and many more, have announced their retirements from the gaming industry! The Doctors, Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk, both announced their departures on their respective blogs, here and here. The mutual feeling among both founders is that it’s time for them to move on to do other things, Zeschuk especially wants more time to spend with his family. Both express a love for not only gaming but the fans of their work and somewhat of a sorrow that they must move on.

Fans worried about the future of BioWare need only pop over to the blog of Aaryn Flynn, GM of BioWare Montreal and Edmonton, to have their fears assuaged. After all, they are working on Dragon Age 3 and it might be better than 2! Let’s all take a moment to say goodbye to the Doctors and Thanks for all the fish!

Hit the break to peep a couple excerpts from the farewells by Muzyka and Zeschuk. Go ahead and cry if you need to, just don’t fry your PC.

From Dr Ray’s goodbye:

I feel the need now to move on to a new chapter in my career. With the growth of BioWare to multiple locations as part of a public company, following two decades of multiple successful product launches across many platforms and business models, I’ve largely personally achieved what I wanted in videogames; I now desire to take on a brand new entrepreneurial challenge. I believe strongly in the power of free enterprise to enable sustainable change, so my next ‘chapter’ will likely focus on an entirely new industry, something exciting, different and frankly downright scary – investing in and mentoring new entrepreneurs, and more specifically, the field of social/impact investing. There’s a good description of the goals of this form of entrepreneurship here. Impact investment, or social entrepreneurship, can range from simply thinking about social goals along with the usual business profit goals, all the way to a dedicated focus on a social entrepreneurship portfolio with the social impact defined as the primary goal. For me, getting involved in social impact investment stems from the simple hope of helping the world to be a better place. To that end, I’ll also be spending time getting involved with more charities in education, health care, and animal rights, areas where my wife and I’ve typically focused our charitable donations in the past. I am also spending more time learning about the work being done to defend human rights and civil liberty across the world. Net, I am passionate about both entrepreneurship and social liberty, and I want to find a way to pursue both of them.

 

From Dr. Greg:

After nearly twenty years working at BioWare I’ve decided it’s time to move on and pursue something new. This decision isn’t without significant pain and regret, but it’s also something I know I need to do, for myself and my family. I’ve reached an unexpected point in my life where I no longer have the passion that I once did for the company, for the games, and for the challenge of creation. For the people I have had the privilege of working with, however, my passion burns as brightly as it did the day we started. The people I work with now, and that I have worked with in the past, have inspired me and really made all of the challenges we’ve collectively faced over the years worthwhile. We have been blessed with tremendous success over the years at BioWare, and the reason is simply down to a large number of great people doing great work. Successful people or companies have to admit luck also plays a part in their success, and it certainly did for us; a few times over the years we made the right game at the right time and success flowed as a result. When we got it right, it was like a hole in one or a home run; it was a magical feeling and incomparable in positive impact for everyone involved.

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