All articles tagged with #bioware
James Ohlen revealed that in 2015 BioWare planned to reboot Star Wars: The Old Republic as a Knights of the Old Republic–style online game called The New Republic, pitching to Kathleen Kennedy and Dave Filoni with a mock trailer; EA's board blocked the project after recalling SWTOR's $300 million launch, effectively ending the plan and contributing to Ohlen's departure from BioWare years later.
BioWare legend James Ohlen, longtime designer behind Baldur’s Gate 2, says leading ArchetypeEntertainment’s ambitious sci‑fi RPG Exodus—funded by Wizards of the Coast and due in 2027—took a toll on his health, describing it as having to cut the vision in half under constant pushback and lacking a protective executive to shield the creative process. He left Archetype before Exodus shipped last year and is now working on RPG adventure books with Jesse Sky, with no plans to return to running a video‑game startup. Exodus is notable for time‑dilation mechanics and a Mass Effect‑style vibe, with Matthew McConaughey involved in some capacity.
Arcanaut Studios’ Fate of the Old Republic is led by Casey Hudson and features a BioWare-era reunion of Mass Effect, Dragon Age, and KOTOR veterans (Ryan Hoyle, Caroline Livingstone, Melanie Faulknor, Dan Fessenden, Pascal Blanché). The project is described as a new Star Wars action RPG, not a direct Knights of the Old Republic sequel, with a release target before 2030 (likely on PS6 and Project Helix).
Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic, a spiritual successor to Knights of the Old Republic, is being directed by Casey Hudson who has assembled Arcanaut Studios’ team—ex-BioWare veterans Dan Fessenden, Melanie Faulknor, Caroline Livingstone, Ryan Hoyle, and Pascal Blanché—along with executives Chris Bain and Cordy Rierson; the PC/console game features a light vs. dark path, but no release date has been announced yet (not expected to be as late as 2030).
Mass Effect: Andromeda voice actor Tom Taylorson says the game was 'done dirty' by EA, rushed out with a Frostbite engine unsuited for the storytelling, and released into a toxic online environment; the controversy helped sink expectations, leading to scrapped plans for Andromeda-related spin-offs and a next Mass Effect now returning to Unreal Engine.
EA is shutting down Dragon Age: Inquisition's PS3 servers on April 28, ending its multiplayer after 12 years; the game’s single-player legacy remains strong, but Bioware’s live-service efforts stumbled thereafter, and EA hasn’t clarified the reasons or the impact on the Dragon Age Keep portal.
A fan has reportedly gotten Anthem running on a private peer-to-peer server days after its official shutdown, with YouTuber And799 showing two players in a shared matchmaking space; online features like viewing profiles are limited and BioWare/EA have not revived the game. The setup is described as a research experiment, not a revival, highlighting fan efforts to preserve the title and potentially salvage playable content in the future.
BioWare veteran Mark Darrah defends Anthem’s development, arguing BioWare has always evolved beyond its RPG roots and that the game’s mixed reception isn’t entirely EA’s fault; Anthem, launched in 2019 to mixed reviews, is set to go offline in January 2026 as part of ongoing studio changes.
Former Dragon Age producer Mark Darrah floated reviving Anthem as a single-player BioWare RPG with a conservative $10 million budget, proposing updated current-gen visuals at 60fps, locally hosted servers to cut online costs, and AI-controlled companions to drive a story-driven experience. The plan would shift away from the original four-player loot shooter, aiming for a BioWare-style narrative rather than a live-service reboot, but it remains speculative and unlikely to meet full AAA pricing or fan demand; EA has not announced any revival and Anthem Next has been canceled. The discussion also touches on game preservation and whether publishers should keep games playable beyond their servers’ lifespans.
Mark Darrah’s postmortem argues Anthem could be revived as a single-player game if EA funded a roughly $10 million rework with local servers, porting to current-gen consoles, and AI companions; a break-even target of about 400,000 copies is possible, but he doubts EA would pursue it, leaving Anthem’s online-only fate largely sealed.
Former BioWare executive Mark Darrah reveals Anthem actually had local-server code near launch that could be salvaged to host home servers. His plan would re-release Anthem as a standalone, current-gen BioWare title focused on single-player storytelling with AI companions, moving away from online servers, and would require roughly $10 million to update and rewrite. While it would re-engineer Anthem into a BioWare game, Darrah cautions EA is unlikely to pursue it.
Anthem, BioWare's ambitious live-service shooter, shut down its servers after seven years with no offline option. Despite early promise and a hoped-for 2.0 reboot, the game struggled with repetitive missions, uneven writing, and monetization concerns, leading EA to end support. Fans remember the era and document its final hours, turning Anthem into a cautionary tale for live-service projects while preserving memories of what could have been.
Anthem’s servers have been turned off, rendering the online shooter unplayable and prompting a reflection on how to handle end-of-life for live-service games. The piece follows a reader who bought physical copies to witness the final moments, criticizes the lack of a meaningful farewell from EA/BioWare, and uses the shutdown to question whether publishers should preserve access or let communities carry on their memories, highlighting the broader challenges of ending long-running live-service titles.
BioWare confirms that the next Mass Effect game is still in development, with the team focused solely on it, and details about an upcoming Amazon TV series set after the original trilogy are also revealed. The studio remains committed to expanding the franchise despite recent restructuring and layoffs, and the TV show will explore a new story within the universe.
BioWare confirmed that the next Mass Effect game is in development, with a teaser artwork hinting at a Krogan civil war, indicating a major theme of faction division within the Krogan race. The game is still years away, but fans can look forward to art teasers and an upcoming Amazon TV series set after the original trilogy.