One of the original co-founders of BioWare, Dr. Greg Zeschuck, has revealed that classic RPG Jade Empire had the potential to be a full-fledged franchise. In an interview with the My Perfect Console podcast (via GamesRadar), Zeschuck revealed that Microsoft’s advice about the game’s release is what led to Jade Empire being left behind.
For context, Jade Empire was released on the original Xbox and PC all the way back in April 2005. This would be just a few months before the launch of the Xbox 360 (November 2005), which would go on to become an incredibly popular console.
“And Microsoft’s like, ‘no no, you should release it now, right at the end of the cycle, because it’s a great time,'” Zeschuk said about Jade Empire‘s release. “It was like, the worst advice. Like, absolute moronic advice from them. It was the stupidest thing ever.”
This would indicate that Jade Empire was originally going to be released on Xbox 360 rather than being left behind on the original Xbox thanks to Microsoft’s advice. Zeschuck spoke about BioWare potentially using the extra time leading up to the Xbox 360’s release to improve the visuals of Jade Empire.
“Give us six months, give us the chance to make it a launch title for the 360 and we’d have another franchise,” Zeschuk said. “And I mean, who knows where… like, I just think it would have been a way more successful product at the beginnning of a cycle, versus the end.”
For some additional context, BioWare had worked quite closely with Microsoft at the time, having developed RPGs like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic for the original Xbox. Their partnership would continue on the Xbox 360, which was the first platform to get the original Mass Effect.
In the same interview, Zeschuck also spoke about how he, alongside co-founder Ray Muzyka, could have potentially taken over EA from within the company if BioWare’s in-development MMORPG at the time, Star Wars: The Old Republic, would have been successful. According to Zeschuck, if The Old Republic had been successful enough to have made an incredible amount of money – around $2 billion a year – the duo had a shot of taking over EA.
“I lived in Austin for two-and-a-half years making Star Wars the Old Republic [and] I knew that was kind of a one-way trip,” said Zeschuk. “If it was super successful, super duper successful, Ray and I would have probably launched a bid to try and take over EA from the inside, being the corporate pirates that we are. But it needed to be like $2 billion a year successful. But it didn’t work out so I was like, ‘Ah, I’m fine.’”
Zeschuck also spoke how working at EA made him realise how much he disliked working within a big coporate machine. Despite the success BioWare saw at the time with Mass Effect and Dragon Age, Zeschuck realised that he was going to leave at some point.
“Big companies exist to exploit properties,” he said. “They exist to exploit games. Most of the big North American guys, they’re just good at ‘Hey, let’s just squeeze the most money out of this franchise.’ They don’t kind of create a lot of them, and I kind of realized early on that I like making games. I don’t like just operating.”
