Xbox plans

FiringSquad: The Microsoft/Xbox deal is still huge news, especially since most people believed you were leaning towards Sony, during PlayStation 2 development. Why did you choose to switch console platforms?

Ray Muzyka: Microsoft has been a great partner both for Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (published by LucasArts for Xbox as well as PC in 2003) and for our upcoming action-RPG Jade Empire (also for Xbox, to be published by Microsoft in Q4 2004; in Jade Empire you get to roleplay as a martial arts master in a BioWare-created world based on the myths and legends of ancient China). Microsoft has been very supportive and helpful to us on both projects, and they seem to really value BioWare as a key partner in the role-playing genre. The Xbox as a system has been great as well – it’s a fantastic system to develop on in terms of its technology and it’s great to see it emerging as a solid #2 behind Sony’s PS2. We’re certainly interested in working again with Microsoft and possibly other great publishers as well in the future on our upcoming titles.



FiringSquad: BioWare has always made PC games, or PC and console games. Now this will change with Jade Empire. Do you have concerns of a community backlash?

Greg Zeschuk: We definitely plan to support both PC and console in our future titles. While Jade Empire (a BioWare-owned IP) is currently slated as an Xbox-exclusive title, we might consider porting it to PC some time after it launches on Xbox, after discussing this further with our publisher Microsoft. We definitely plan to support our PC community with some awesome future titles, details on which are not yet announced – we can say, however, that some of these titles are currently planned as PC-exclusive, others are console-exclusive, while others will be co-developed for both console and PC, similar to how Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic was developed for PC and Xbox.



FiringSquad: Do you think the PC can survive as a viable gaming platform? The fight against warez was very public in the late 90s, with the release of CD burners and incoming propagation of broadband. Yet now, with apps like Kazaa and Bearshare, a free game is a click and a few hours at work or napping away. How serious is the problem, in your mind, and what do you think we can do to stop it?

Ray Muzyka: Piracy is definitely a problem, not only on PC but also on console (e.g. through the rentals market). We have some ideas in mind to help keep piracy in check, such as the CD-key-check system and online community registration for extra features which we put into Neverwinter Nights. Ultimately, we depend on our fans to support us as a developer – hopefully the quality of our titles will continue to persuade them to buy our games rather than pirate them. We really value the support of our fans, and it allows us to stay in business and build new games.