BioWare on Ports, Pron and Piracy

Bit: Has the game been improved in terms of graphics and DirectX 10 content for PC and so on?

Matt: Yep. There are texture upgrades and hi-res visuals which you’ll be able to see. We’ve upscaled all the visuals because of the power of the latest PC hardware.

Bit: Any idea of system requirements?

Matt: We can’t talk about that just yet. It’s something that gets finalised right near the end and depends on all sorts of optimisations and so on.

Bit: Not even a ballpark figure?

Matt: Well, the goal is that we want it to play really well on a system which was high-end two years ago. So, in other words, a large percentage of PCs will be able to play it.

Bit: On the topic of hardware, do you see it as being something of a problem for PC gamers? Tim Sweeney from Epic Games recently came out and said he thought that hardware was a barrier for many gamers that stopped the market being accessible because people think hardware will work when it won’t and they know it’ll inevitably go out of date.


Matt: Gee, he forgot to ask the World of Warcraft players what they think about that.

So, no, I don’t think people are afraid. I think it’s a challenging market, sure. Piracy is a big concern and there is something to be said for having a controller and playing in a living room, y’know? In that way, consoles are phenomenal. You boil it down though and the fact is that if you make the right application or game for the PC then it’ll do well. That’s it.

PC is a challenging market, but the same is true of consoles. Each has problems and benefits, but you’ve got to look at them like…Well, OK, I look at it like a mood ring.

Bit: You mean those things that change colour?

Matt: Yeah. Like, if I want to be alone and really focused—and I’m just talking about my personal setup here because I don’t have my PC in the living room or anything like some people—but if I want to be isolated and really get in the game world, then I play on my PC.

If on the other hand, if I want to play with other people or just put my feet up or whatever then there’s a console. I have an eleven month year old and a seven year old and if I want to play on the Wii with them, which is a blast, then I play in my living room with a social environment. If I want to go to bed and watch the TV in the background then I have a DS and a PSP.

So, part of it is mood, not hardware. In fact, it is mood and depending on what people want there’s a platform and environment for them. Hardware isn’t a problem.


Bit: Let’s talk about the sex scene to finish then. Obviously the sex scene in Mass Effect was a controversy for some people – though personally I thought it was fine. Why do you think it is that sex is such a hard sell in computer games?

Matt: I think first of all it depends on what territory you’re in for starters. In America we’re a lot more conservative about sex. With Mass Effect the controversy arose because they didn’t play the game. The content in Mass Effect is very tame and you’d see more risqué things on any daytime TV show anywhere in the world.

In fact, later on, the critics from Fox News came out and admitted that they hadn’t played the game at all and that they’d just asked someone. That’s just the nature of the media – a right-wing conservative heard something dramatic and it snowballed from that.

Bit: And it was strange that the voice of reason in it all was Jack Thompson of all people.

Matt: Yeah, totally. People are thankfully starting to accept it now, but computer games are an artform. There’s nothing about them which isn’t artistic from the writing and design down to the music and choreography. It’s a very natural artform and at BioWare we pride ourselves on our integrity. This was just a problem with the media, not the game. We’re proud of what we’ve done and we know we should be.

Our thanks go out to Matt for taking time out of his busy schedule to answer our questions!