En person som påstår sig ha varit "VFX Artist" hos Bioware Montreal under fem års tid har postat ett inlägg med flera intressanta detaljer gällande utvecklingen av Mass Effect: Andromeda. Om de är korrekta, skulle det åtminstone delvis kunna förklara varför spelet fått lägre betyg än föregångarna. (Läs inlägget här.)
Bland annat påstås att Bioware Edmonton samt Montreal (de två huvudutvecklarna av spelet) hade problem med samarbetet och att det funnits massor av konflikter. I synnerhet Bioware Montreal tycks ha dragit med problem och personen skriver att de tappade över 13 nyckelpersoner i utvecklingsteamet på grund av bråk och stök. Det finns även en hel del klagomål på hur personalen behandlats, i synnerhet under senare delar av utvecklingen.
Ta allt detta med säck salt tills vidare eftersom källan är anonym och inget är bekräftat. Helt osannolikt låter det dock inte. Vad tror du om uppgifterna?
I worked at BioWare full-time (More than 5 years)
Pros
- Used to be a great environment filled with great amount of world class creative talents.
- Work on a great AAA IP.
- Great location downtown Montreal.
Cons
- Bioware Edmonton and Montreal symbiosis is broken. Lots of conflicts and bro culture.
- Lost over 13 leads (game design, art, audio, prog, senior core leads, etc) in 5 years at Bioware Montreal on Mass Effect. Edmonton lost only 3. It is clear that Edmonton has the bigger part of the stick when it comes to purge Leads and Producers who are not aligned with their leadership style.
- Putting people on performance improvement program (PIP Program) is the new tactics to get rid of people. Once again more than 10 people in Montreal got slammed with this bureaucratic uppercut to let go people that are not bending to Edmonton leadership styles in the last revision cycle. This approach is used by the Montreal Leadership to purge the mess from the lack of vision cause by upper management in the last 4 years (throwing people under the bus to protect bad core management).
- Renaming crunch to Finaling mode. Which means company pays for your lunch but you have only 30 minutes to eat and then getting back on the keyboard. Was lasting for over 2 months and was a real catastrophy.
- Retaliation and harassment is sadly a reality. If you talk and ask questions you will be tag as a trouble maker and end up in a bad position.
- HR won't help you out. They will deny the current harassment from Monreal management by ignoring and not documenting the facts. In other words if you leave don't talk. Just let it go...
- Many benifits got cut due to too much time extension to get the game done.
