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

If I were 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 out of work, such as Joseph Staten, Paul Bertone, Jamie Griesemer, and Martin O'Donnell. The former two were with 343 Industries for a brief period at the end of Halo Infinite's development but I would have simply lured them back, drawing a line under some of the discord that had existed and simply starting over. Especially with composer Marty O'Donnell. In addition, I would have ensured that the next Halo picks up where Halo Infinite leaves 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 maximise the potential of both.

If I were 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 at stake and therefore, as the new head of BioWare, I would have made sure to bring back the last safe card the studio has for Mass Effect as a series, which is Commander Shepard. However, it wouldn't have been in the next game in the series, but in a prequel that goes back to the beginning. I would have made sure to lure Casey Hudson back to lead this prequel now that he is on the market with the closure of his new studio Humanoid Origin. The currently planned next instalment in the series I would have scrapped while it is still early in development. Then, should a prequel to Mass Effect work and be successful, I would have done the same with Dragon Age as well.

If I were head of Naughty Dog

Neil Druckmann may have climbed the career ladder at the studio, deservedly taking on the role of its president after starting as a designer back in the late Jak and Daxter days. 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, as its director I would have shut down and instead directly focused 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 development on those games, I would have handed them and the entire series over to Bluepoint to get it over the line. Bluepoint are masters at this and were responsible for Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection, among other things, so they have experience with the series before.

If I were head of The Coalition

The studio may have had a new boss in Mike Crump fairly recently when Rod Ferguson left in 2020, but if it was me taking over I would have made sure to lure back Cliff Bleszinski, who has been open to the possibility for many years now. So far, he hasn't heard anything, and even though he's a raving lunatic nowadays, with weird outbursts every now and then, he alone laid the foundations of Gears of War as a series and nobody knows it better than him. Gears of War 4 and Gears 5 may be okay, but Bleszinski is needed to at least give the series a chance to find the 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 forward for the series.

If I were head of EA Sports

The current top dog at EA, Andrew Wilson, was previously 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 in terms of how the studio goes about its annual game releases by simply scrapping that plan. Instead, I would have separated the online and offline modes from each other where something like Ultimate Team would have had a little more right to have 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 with annual releases, where your microtransactions don't carry over, forcing players to start from scratch. 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 lots of new elements. I would also have only asked for around half the price for a full-price game because, as I said, online and offline have been separated. The games with only offline modes would have been released without any microtransactions at all. As for Need for Speed, I would have enlisted the help of Criterion to develop a remake of Need for Speed: Most Wanted, and I would have seen to it that NBA Live was resurrected from the dead too.