Microsoft ‘destroyed development culture’

Microsoft ruined fun, which is something we all know. However, according to FASA Interactive founder Jordan Weisman, Microsoft ruined far more than that. It in fact destroyed an entire studio after acquiring it, and very nearly did the same with Bungie.

“When Microsoft bought FASA Interactive and incorporated it into Microsoft … the two reasons they bought us was, one, they wanted the catalogue of intellectual properties and, two, they felt that we had developed a really good development culture,” explains Weisman. “And the reality is that, pretty much from the day we moved to Redmond, that development culture was destroyed.

“I don’t think the studio ever really had a chance. It was destroyed right in the beginning.”

Weisman goes on to explain how he reacted to the Bungie acquisition: “When we were acquiring Bungie, they wanted me to sit down with the owners of Bungie and tell them how well the transition went. And it was like — ‘what planet are you guys on?’ This transition did not go well. And actually I became the lead vocal pain in the ass to get things done very different for Bungie.

“I tried to convince them to leave Bungie in Chicago, but not winning that I did succeed in getting them to put them in a walled off room, which didn’t follow any of the other Microsoft stuff. We were much better able to defend Bungie’s culture than we were FASA’s culture.”

Ouch. Incredibly damning words from Weisman, and really, it’s probably very true. There’s no denying that Rare has suffered since Microsoft dug its claws in, and then there are the infamous fates of studios like Bullfrog after Electronic Arts kidnapped them. Luckily, it seems things are changing, with BioWare flourishing as part of EA, and Activision managing not to be too evil to Infinity Ward, but for a fair few good developers, it’s far too late.