Ex-BioWare boss announces new studio working on fresh IP
"This is the first tiny step in our journey."
Casey Hudson, former boss of BioWare and director of the Mass Effect trilogy, has detailed what he's up to next.
Writing on Twitter last night, Hudson announced he had formed a new development outfit named Humanoid Studios, and begun recruitment for a number of roles.
"I've been working with some colleagues on something awesome, and I wish I could tell you all about it!" Hudson wrote. "Today we are announcing a new independent video game company built to unleash the creative freedom of developers - bringing innovation and artistry to players through an all-new IP."
Hudson left BioWare in December 2020 following two stints at the storied RPG factory. His initial employment, between 1998 and 2014, saw him become project director of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and shepherd the original Mass Effect trilogy.
After a three year break at Microsoft working on HoloLens projects, Hudson returned as general manager of BioWare in July 2017 until his departure at the end of last year, a post he held through the release of Anthem and the beginning of new work on the Mass Effect franchise.
Earlier this year I spoke with Mass Effect Legendary Edition project director Mac Walters, who credited Hudson for finally getting the Mass Effect trilogy remaster project out the door.
"I was probably in half a dozen meetings over probably almost as many years asking 'are we going to do it?', 'how about now?'," Walters recalled. "If anything, I would say having Casey Hudson back in the studio at the time, he was obviously very passionate about the trilogy for obvious reasons and he was very supportive of it. I think that really helped get it over that initial inertia, [where you just] need to kind of get something moving and then you're doing it. And it just seemed to click this time and away we went."
BioWare is now deep into development on its next big Dragon Age, and has confirmed it is working on a new Mass Effect to follow.