The Mass Effect developer BioWare has had various developers depart the studio over the years. BioWare's former general manager Casey Hudson departed the developer this past December in 2020 along with Mark Darrah, the former executive producer of Dragon Age 4.
However, BioWare recently announced who the new General Manager for the game developer will be. According to the original post, Gary McKay will be taking over the position at BioWare. McKay was previously the interim general manager and will now be the official general manager for the game developer.
According to the post, McKay had joined BioWare in January of 2020 as the head of development operations before transitioning to the interim general manager in December. He has twenty years of experience in the gaming industry and worked with Electronic Arts back in 1998. Between then and now, McKay spent seven years working in EA as franchise development director and later worked as the general manager for several other video game studios.
McKay worked as general manager at Propaganda Games for a combined eleven months then at Navigator Games for two years. He also shared some details about his position as general manager. According to McKay, the general manager's role was relatively the same in each studio he worked in. He helped establish a vision for the business and enabled the developers to do their best while keeping them cohesive.
According to McKay, “it’s a blend of operational decisions and creativity, working together to build the best possible experience for our players." To him, he had to balance out these things during game development, but he said that's what makes the job so appealing to him. He also voiced his gratitude for having the opportunity to not only be a general manager, but have the chance to do so working with the Mass Effect developer.
McKay said, “When you spend over 20 years in the industry, there are a small handful of studios on your bucket list in terms of teams you’d want to work with — and BioWare is at the top of my list." He voiced great admiration and respect for the game studio and its incredible talent for creating great video games with worlds and characters players enjoyed for years.
McKay states that one of his goals is to rebuild the developer's reputation by continuing to deliver the promise of quality video games to players. BioWare already released the remastered Mass Effect Legendary Edition last month, and according to the post, the developer plans to make more quality games. The post quotes McKay saying that BioWare is "laser-focused" on releasing the kind of games that the developer is well-known for making.
He describes the type of games that BioWare strives to make to be high-quality console, PC, and RPG games that contain memorable stories, characters, and worlds. McKay said BioWare will continue to work on the next Dragon Age and Mass Effect games, and that there will be more to come from the online game Star Wars: The Old Republic as well.
Source: BioWare