Boss Moves: If I were the head of Halo Studios (and BioWare) –

If I were the head of Halo Studios

Halo Studios may have already had a new boss in Pierre Hintze when he took over from Bonnie Ross, but if I were the one taking over, I would have taken the opportunity to hire several Bungie veterans who are currently unemployed, such as Joseph Staten, Paul Bertone, Jamie Griesemer and Martin O’Donnell. The first two were with 343 Industries for a brief period at the end of Halo Infinite development, but I would have just lured them back, drawn a line under some of the discord that had existed and just started over. Especially with composer Marty O’Donnell. Additionally, I would have made sure the next Halo continued where Halo Infinite left off, then released all the games in the series for PlayStation and Nintendo to broaden the player base, and split future games by releasing single player and multiplayer separately to maximize the potential of both.

If I were the head of BioWare

It’s hard not to say that the next Mass Effect is BioWare’s last chance as a studio before EA shuts them down. After failure after failure with Mass Effect: Andromeda, Anthem and Dragon Age: The Veilguard, everything is really on the line, which is why, as the new head of BioWare, I would have made sure to bring back the last vault card the studio has for Mass Effect as a series, which is Commander Shepard. However, it would not have been in the next game in the series, but in a prequel going back to the beginning. I would have made sure that Casey Hudson would have been lured back to lead this prequel now that he is on the market with the closure of his new studio Humanoid Origin. I would have scrapped the currently planned next installment in the series while it is still early in development. If a prequel to Mass Effect worked and was successful, I would have done the same with Dragon Age.

If I were head of Naughty Dog

Neil Druckmann may have climbed the studio’s career ladder and rightfully took on the role of president after starting as a designer in the late yearsJak and Daxter. He had the same role during Uncharted, but of course he will forever be best remembered for co-creating The Last of Us with Bruce Straley. We will no doubt see at least one more game in the series, but Naughty Dog’s next game is Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet. That game, however, I would have shut down as director and instead focused directly on the next The Last of Us to finish it as a trilogy. In the background, I had also started building a remake of the first Uncharted and an Uncharted reboot, but instead of finishing the development of those games, I would have turned them and the entire series over to Bluepoint to get it over with. Bluepoint are masters at this and were responsible for Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection, among other things, so they have previous experience with the series.

If I were head of The Coalition

The studio may have had a new boss fairly recently in Mike Crump when Rod Ferguson left in 2020, but if it were me taking over, I would have made sure to lure back Cliff Bleszinski, who has been open to the possibility for many years. So far he hasn’t heard anything, and even though he is a raving lunatic these days, with occasional weird outbursts, he alone laid the groundwork for Gears of War as a series and no one knows it better than he does. Gears of War 4 and Gears 5 may be good, but Bleszinski is needed to at least give the series a chance to find its magic again. Also, I would have scrapped Gears of War 6 and brought back Steve Jablonsky as the game’s composer for Gears of War: E-Day to continue development and be the springboard for the series.

If I were the head of EA Sports

The current top dog at EA, Andrew Wilson, was formerly head of EA Sports but has since been replaced by Cam Weber. In Weber’s position, as the new boss, I would have made quite a few changes to the way the studio executes its annual game releases by simply scrapping that plan. Instead, I would have separated the online and offline modes, where something like Ultimate Team would have been slightly more entitled to microtransactions by simply being free to play. Then I would have built out the game modes over many years instead of hitting the reset button on annual releases, where your microtransactions don’t carry over, forcing players to start all over again. When it comes to offline game modes like Career Mode, I would have treated them more like traditional releases, but instead of doing it every year, I would have let three years pass between each game, which can then be launched with many new elements. I also would have only charged about half the price for a full-price game because, as I said, online and offline are separate. The games with only offline modes would have been released without microtransactions. As for Need for Speed, I would have enlisted Criterion’s help to develop a remake of Need for Speed: Most Wanted, and I would have made sure NBA Live was also raised from the dead.