Ex-BioWare bigwig and Mass Effect director Casey Hudson has founded a brand-new developer. Humanoid Studios – led by the aforementioned veteran – will maintain offices in Alberta and British Columbia, where it will work on an “all-new intellectual property”. Development will be conducted using the Unreal Engine, although there aren’t any details outside of that – presumably because it’s early days and they’re yet to be decided.
“Humanoid Studios is a new videogame company founded on the axiom that creative freedom and independence lead to better, more innovative games,” a mission statement at the top of each open job position reads. “We believe in the power of small, agile teams, and a flat organisational structure, where everyone is empowered to make decisions and help drive the project vision.”
Hudson previously worked at BioWare from 2000 through 2014, but he returned in 2017 as the project lead on ANTHEM before departing again in December 2020.
It’ll be interesting to see whether Sony makes contact with this team. The platform holder has made a point of partnering with a variety of different start-ups recently, effectively giving them the resources they need to establish themselves in exchange for console exclusivity. Humanoid Studios certainly hits the same notes as, say, Jade Raymond’s Haven – but we suppose it depends on whether PlayStation Studios believes in the vision of the group, and whether it wants to put another new developer under its wing.
[source humanoidstudios.com]
Comments 21
Wouldn't surprise me at all to see in a few months' time one of those banners announcing PlayStation x Humanoid Studios.
Well Sony, there's your chance for a new IP to moneyhat lol
The track record has to be corrected with this guy. I’d stay away from the last minute “magic” until it’s worth is proven.
I’d love to know who’s funding him if there’s going to be two separate offices.
Good, I hope he and his teams can make great games like bioware of old. What ea have is a carcass of bioware, I don't have any hope for ea bioware project.
@nessisonett he's a multi-millionnaire, so can probably afford to fund it himself for a while until there's enough to show publishers and secure more funding.
Hopefully his new studio's first game isn't a big flop.
Did you say project lead on Anthem? That gives me bad vibes lol
This opens up an interesting question about all the acquisitions lately.. does it make sense to aquire a studio if leads and higher-ups can leave at anytime and start from scratch somewhere else?
He's one of the minds behind Mass Effect. Of course I'm very interested in what he has to offer!
Anthem wasn't for me , more john Shepard and crew please!
Free from the shackles of EA, free to rise once more from the ashes, free to begin anew, free to create a better tomorrow... and other philosophical jargon about Casey Hudson being free from the gobshites that is EA.
Hi there fellow gamers.
As a Huge Mass Effect fan, and Cassey being the "father" of said franchise, I´m vquite happy and somewhat excited for Hudsons new videogame company.
May their team dream big like they did with ME and make another ambitious story driven rpg.
All the best for Humanoid Studios.
Cheers, stay safe everyone and happy gaming to us all
The question for me is whether this is something brand new, or a continuation of what he was working on in between stints at Bioware? He had formed his own studio a few years back, and then we never really heard anything about it again. Is this the same crew, are they continuing projects that they were working on for most of the PS4 era? Or are they starting from the ground up?
Either way, fingers crossed. We desperately need more people working on quality, massive, offline RPGs.
interesting that specifically states will be on unreal engine maybe having to use frostbite was just too much of a pain at bioware thats why he left
@Milktastrophe just because you are a a multi millionaire doesn't mean you need to fund your own game with your own capital.
@NomNom but it means you can until you have enough to secure funding. Believe it or not, some publishers may want to actually see something before throwing money at it. Another possibility is that he could have gotten a business loan elsewhere (in which case his assets would have allowed him to get a much larger loan than your average small business).
There's probably a lot of other places the money could come from too (like maybe he has partners paying for stuff too), and it's kinda pointless to guess, it must be enough for two offices like he announced.
@Cikajovazmaj I know, why not bring back slavery?
People can and should do what they want within the law. The IP will stay with whoever acquires the company and it's not just higher ups who make the games but whole teams.
Investor: We'd like to fund you a lot of money to found a new game studio and produce some new IP with small teams.
Thanks, we'll put this to good use.
No thank you, we'd prefer to work for major publishers.
> That's cool, we have some fantastic ideas we'd like to create
Casey: Awesome! Now we can buy all the hookers and blow we want!
Casey Hudson is definitely one to watch!
@themcnoisy sorry, but this was not my point.. idea I wanted to get over, companies acquiring studios might not be best of strategies, because it is just acquiring assets which have the least amount of value in a game studio.
As you said yourself, what actually makes it "tick" is something you can't buy.
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