Rockstar, Bioware snub the WGA games writing award

High profile devs steer clear of the WGA this year

The Writers Guild of America has stated that both Bioware and Rockstar refused to submit scripts for this year's WGA Video Games Writing Award.

Micah Wright of the WGA's Videogames Writer's Caucus (VWC) said that neither company would submit a script for consideration for their games writing award this year eve though titles like Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age and Red Dead Redemption would be certain finalists.

Wright told GamesIndustry.biz: "We need to see a script with a list of writers' names on it. For one thing, we need to know who wrote these games: we're not clairvoyant... we can't magically peer into some Developer's internal business structure and divine who wrote what. Because of this requirement, however, some game studios have refused to submit a script, even though we've gone to great lengths to make it easy for them to do."

He added: "Bioware, for example, refused to submit a script for either Mass Effect 2 or Dragon Age this year, and that's too bad, because both games would have likely been finalists. Similarly, Take Two Games refused to submit a script for Red Dead Redemption. Why? We don't know. Maybe they hate unions, or maybe they just hate winning awards, or maybe they have enough statues on their mantle. So another game gets what would likely have been their nomination. Are we happy about it? No... but rules are rules and our rules are clear and very fair."

One of the potential sticking points may be that the WGA requires that the writers of the scripts put forward are members of the VWC which incurs a 60 USD fee to join.

By Ewan Aiton