What Happened To BioWare? And How?

Do you know what happened to Bioware? We are going to underline the turning points of BioWare and examine the reasons for the fall of the company. BioWare considered as one of the most reliable and successful gaming companies and one of the best in the business.

What Happened To Bioware?

The company produced ground-breaking RPG games like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect, Dragon Age. They had shown everyone how to create vast and rich worlds full of new stories and tales. However, we can hardly say these things for the latest products of the company.

The Rise and Fall of BioWare

Electronic Arts was the first one to blame for the decline of BioWare. But it was only the tip of the iceberg. BioWare was already going down and decreasing the quality of the products they were making. EA bought BioWare in 2007, just before the release of the first Mass Effect game.

Mass Effect was keeping the legacy of BioWare and presented a fantastic experience for gamers with its exciting universe, memorable characters and a good story. However hardcore RPG features were kind of hard for casual players and BioWare decided to trim this element from the next games, and this policy was going to decide BioWare’s fate and current situation.

BioWare became a recognized and blockbuster studio which were ready to deliver more Triple-A games after this success. Dragon Age, the game they gave after Mass Effect, set the limits high and loved by almost every RPG fan with its Dungeons & Dragons-like story-telling and successful plot.

The following games developed by BioWare, such as Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age 2, started to be more action-based and focused on shooting and slashing features rather than hardcore RPG elements. The ability tree of the first Dragon Age was gone, and the new game was closer to the action genre. Star Wars: The Old Republic did not work out so well, either.

The game tried to get advantage from the trend which World of Warcraft created and add Star Wars story to satisfy MMORPG fans, but it was not good enough to make a breakthrough like WoW and slowly disappeared in the vast gaming market.

Still One Of The Best RPG Developer Companies?

While trying to produce successful and high-selling Triple-A games, BioWare was losing its soul and critical RPG features that fascinated everyone. New games were good, but something was missing in them, and long-term BioWare fans could sense it.

At this point, the company released Dragon Age: Inquisition and drew attention again with a new blockbuster hit. The game was a nice improvement from the previous of the series, and it promised some changes for the future of BioWare.

However, things did not go so well again with Mass Effect: Andromeda and company officially reached the rock bottom with this game. It was dull, full of bugs and hardly a BioWare game in the first hand. So, this slap shook EA declined the developers of the company, even their proposal for a new Knights of the Old Republic game. This flop was the last thing they needed. Plus, the Anthem fiasco just added another problem on the list.

Of course, some departures from the company affected this situation too. Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka, the founders of BioWare, decided to spend less time with game developments. Authors David Gaider and Mike Laidlaw left the crew after Dragon Inquisition.

Casey Hudson, the director of Mass Effect 3, departed and came back after a while. The old BioWare perspective of RPG games were just good memories after the latest failures and developer departures.

What Happened To BioWare?

At this point, what is next for BioWare? Maybe the company needs a refreshing mindset, a mixture of its old legacy and new original ideas, and should reset & refocus. It still has a fantastic and promising series like Mass Effect, KotOR and Dragon Age. And with this potential, it is not impossible to make things right again.

Many RPG fans are still waiting for another RPG classic and believing in BioWare to make it happen. We hope you got the answer to “What happened to Bioware?” question.