Bioware co-founders to give BAFTA annual video games lecture

London, 3 November 2011:  BAFTA today announces Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk, co-founders of BioWare™, as the speakers at this year’s Annual Video Games Lecture, in association with GAME on Tuesday 15 November 2011. BioWare is a label within parent company, Electronic Arts. BioWare now has seven locations worldwide, and specialises in role-playing, strategy and massively multiplayer online (MMO) games, including the story-driven MMO game, Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ and the award-winning science fiction action-RPG franchise, Mass Effect™.
BAFTA’s Annual Lectures showcase the most renowned creative talent in film, television and video games, providing a platform on which individuals share their personal visions for the future of their industry. Muzyka and Zeschuk founded BioWare in 1995 after graduating from medical school; their first game, Shattered Steel, was released the following year. Since then, the studio has created some of the most popular and critically-acclaimed games in the role-playing genre, including the Baldur’s Gate series, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire™, the Dragon Age™ franchise and the Mass Effect series, which last year earned the studio a BAFTA for Best Game for Mass Effect 2. BioWare also runs active MMOs with Ultima Online™, Dark Age of Camelot™, and Warhammer® Online through its BioWare Mythic studio.
The lecture will start at 8.30pm, preceded by a Champagne Taittinger reception from 7.30pm, at BAFTA headquarters, 195 Piccadilly, London, W1J 9LN. Public tickets are available from for £6.
BAFTA’s year-round schedule of events and its online resources are developed to bring both the public and the BAFTA membership closer to the creative talent behind games, films, and TV shows.  Find out more at www.bafta.org/newsletter, www.facebook.com/bafta or www.twitter.com/baftagames.
The 2012 GAME British Academy Video Games Awards will take place on Friday 16 March at the London Hilton on Park Lane and, for the fourth year running, will be hosted by comedian and gamer, Dara O’Briain. The nominations will be announced on Thursday 16 February.