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Commander Shepard actors Jennifer Hale & Mark Meer mourn BioWare: 'It was in the hands of ownership that may not have understood what BioWare fully is''
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As reported by IGN, veteran actors Jennifer Hale and Mark Meer, who voiced the female and male Commanders Shepard in Mass Effect, respectively, directly addressed fans of the series in an October 21 Instagram Live. The two reflected on BioWare, and commiserated over its tragic fate. Here are some highlights from each I pulled from the stream:
"I feel weirdly hopeful, and I can’t explain why. I feel for the employees who are suddenly unemployed. That is the number one thing on my mind. Those beautiful team members who are looking for a new home.
"One of the things that has my heart kind of hopeful is that, when I heard about the sale of [EA] some time ago to [The Saudi Public Investment Fund and Jared Kushner], I don't know that they are fans of these IPs, and if they get the gold that they have in their hands.
"It’s really hard to think about BioWare being shut down, but it was in the hands of ownership that may not have understood what BioWare fully is. And I’m hopeful that maybe, there might be some crazy thing where they decide that. in order to increase their profit margins—which is often their priority—they will release these IPs into the market to sell them, and use that to do what they do, which is increase their profit margins. But maybe, someone could grab hold of these IPs and do something with them.
"I don't know if that's possible, but that's where my heart sits. You never know. Heck, let's do a community-based Kickstarter—raise the money, take it over, and do it ourselves. Anything's possible.
"It's wild to watch the consolidation of the industry. Companies are consuming companies are consuming companies. Now they're just these big blobs, and the blobs are beginning to implode. It's not necessarily driven by a creative motive. They're driven by a profit motive. That's their motive, they get to have that.
"But when that cell implodes on itself, all those parts of the cell go out into the world, and they get to reseed somewhere. I just don't feel like it's done. That version of it is done, but the original version of it was done some time ago."
"It is very sad news … It is a massive loss for Edmonton, for Canada, and for the video game industry in general. It’s very unfortunate to see. And of course, I feel very bad as well for all of the fans.
"BioWare was an Edmonton company. It meant a lot to the acting community in Edmonton. There was this major videogame company that was producing games right there in the prairies, in our city.