BioWare discusses "competition" with The Witcher

Despite what some might think, video game companies aren't out for each other's throat, according to BioWare writer Patrick Weekes. Asked during a recent PAX Australia panel how he views competition with CD Projekt Red's Witcher series, Weekes said he hopes gamers buy games from both companies.

"I think 'compete' is the wrong word. I think there's a story that people want to tell, where the video game companies hate each other and 'our game is going to crush theirs.' And that's really not true," Weekes said. "I came to BioWare because I love games. And I hope that the next Witcher game is fantastic and I hope that ours is fantastic, and I hope that people buy both and play both."

"Every time another great game comes out, and raises the bar, that's not threatening; it's only threatening if we don't think we can ever do anything better," he added. "So we look at something and go, 'That's a fantastic game. How am I going to incorporate that awesome thing and do it in a BioWare fashion?'"

Weekes explained that with every new BioWare title, the company tries to advance further and further, so much so that past games look "antiquated and quaint."

"So, no, I think our biggest competition, and the only thing we absolutely want to crush, is what we've done in our past games," he said. "That's one of the reasons I'm so proud to be on the Dragon Age team. It's one of the reasons I was proud to be on the Mass Effect team. Every new project we said, 'Let's look at the best things we did on our previous game and let's see how we beat that. Let's see how we make that look antiquated and quaint as we go into our next game.'"

BioWare is currently working on Dragon Age: Inquisition, a new Mass Effect game, and an untitled new IP.