You may recall that last month GameDaily Publisher Mark Friedler shared his views on why he thinks the game industry is broken and he followed that up with a possible solution on the retail side. The series of articles generated an enormous amount of reader responses, and the folks from leading independent developer BioWare/Pandemic were particularly intrigued, so GameDaily BIZ decided to have a conference call with Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka (joint CEOs of BioWare) and Andrew Goldman (CEO of Pandemic Studios) to discuss the state of the industry. Below are the highlights of the call.

So is the industry broken? It depends on how you look at it, explained Muzyka. "My take on it is it's all maybe how you describe it. I think from the inside it might look broken, but from the outside what we're seeing is just reflective of a maturing industry. There's demand for more sophisticated products from consumers, there's a more competitive landscape... and I think this is just the sign of an industry that's maturing over time. We're now into 25 years or more in this industry, and it's hard to predict where it's going to go, but this is kind of the normal growth pain that industries go through as they kind of go through that 'S' curve," he said.

He continued, "You see changing relationships between suppliers and direct customers/indirect customers, digital distribution that's shaking up the industry, developers that are getting larger and multinational—BioWare/Pandemic is an example of that. We have 4 locations across the world plus headquarters, so 5 locations I guess, and we're starting to distribute direct to our consumers on our store. These are things that are shaking up the space in a way that nobody anticipated a few years ago. As the industry changes if you want to remain a leader, which is something BioWare and Pandemic are always trying to be—to deliver the highest quality products to our consumers—you have to evolve or die. It just comes down to that; as the industry goes through this maturation phase you have to be willing to change and be willing to go with the times."

Zeschuk had a slightly different view: "The way I took [Mark's] article in a way was a commentary on the companies that weren't evolving. I think there may be some companies out there that want to really hold onto that classic, retail boxed goods model. And the examples [in the article] are great. MySpace, and iPods and digital downloads is really pointing to the fact that you have to think about products differently. It's not just, 'Ok, what happens at retail?' The before and after [is also important]. I know our group of studios now thinks a lot about the whole picture, and what's going on after the release... and now in the console space there are really viable places to sell things after the game [ships] to keep that experience going."

While the BioWare joint CEOs agreed partially with Mark's assessment, Goldman stated flat out, "I don't think that there's anything that says that it is broken right now. There's a lot of good stuff going on in the industry, and there's also a lot of potential for change. And if we don't change with the consumers and pay attention to what's going on, then yes, in a couple years we may be saying that the industry's broken. But right now it just seems like the industry is good and consumers...are energized and excited about games. And what we need to do is to continue to evolve and to make offerings that are going to continue to excite them in a changing landscape."

Muzyka interjected, "I agree. I agree with what Andrew said and what Greg said in that this represents an opportunity for companies that are willing to evolve and really meet the needs of our increasingly sophisticated consumers; I think it's an exciting opportunity."