BioWare's Closure Is Just the Tip of the Iceberg

We're in the middle of an outpouring of mourning for the studio, and for the Mass Effect Universe we never got. BioWare's talented developers will hopefully all go on to great things elsewhere, and many already have. (Who's looking forward to Exodus?) Maybe Mass Effect and Dragon Age will return; in this age of zombie IP, it seems a safe bet that they will. What's really lost at a moment like this, though, is institutional knowledge and culture, the malleable but enduring practices and principles that survive the departure of founders and team leads and are nurtured by new hands. It's a terrible loss.