Like a lot of you, I'm pretty gutted about BioWare closing and the cancellation of the next Mass Effect. I've been a fan since the original trilogy, and while I've felt for a while that the BioWare we knew and loved was already gone, seeing that leaked Mass Effect Universe trailer really stung.

There was so much promise there. The return of Liara, what looked like a new N7 protagonist, and combat that seemed to build on the fluidity of Andromeda and Anthem. Most importantly, it looked like we were finally moving beyond Shepard while still exploring the universe and the consequences of everything that happened in the original trilogy.

Shepard's story is over. That doesn't mean the universe's story is.

Now, with the petition to save Mass Effect surpassing 200,000 signatures, I've been thinking about what a realistic path forward might actually look like.

Expanse was saved after a fan campaign that gathered roughly 130,000 signatures, with Jeff Bezos reportedly being a fan himself. Obviously, saving a television show and resurrecting a AAA game franchise are two very different propositions, but it's an interesting comparison.

And here's another interesting connection...the live-action Mass Effect series is still reportedly moving forward at Amazon, and that got me thinking.

I've seen plenty of people suggesting Larian or CD Projekt Red should take over Mass Effect, and while I'd love to see what either studio could do with the IP, I'm not convinced they're the most practical options.

CDPR has demonstrated an incredible ability to build immersive worlds with complex narratives and meaningful choices. But they're already committed to major projects of their own. Adding Mass Effect to that workload would be an enormous undertaking.

Larian is another phenomenal studio, but personally, I think they'd be a better fit for Dragon Age. Origins was built around tactical, party-based combat, deep character interactions, and consequential choices. That's much closer to Larian's wheelhouse. They're also busy developing their own projects.

Even if either studio wanted the IP, we'd potentially be looking at another decade before seeing anything substantial.

Which brings me to Archetype Entertainment: For those of you who don't ever open any of these discussions and just happened to click this one, Archetype is the studio developing EXODUS, an upcoming science-fiction RPG with some serious OG BioWare talent behind it, including James Ohlen and Drew Karpyshyn. Of all the studios I can think of, Archetype seems like one of the most natural creative fits for Mass Effect. But there are two pretty significant caveats.

1. Would they even want to return to Mass Effect?

These developers have moved on. They're building their own universe with EXODUS, and I imagine there's something incredibly appealing about creating something new without the expectations and baggage of an established franchise.

As much as I'd love to see them return, I wouldn't blame them for wanting to leave Mass Effect in their past.

1. Could they realistically afford the IP?

Archetype is part of Wizards of the Coast, which is owned by Hasbro. So they do have corporate backing, but that doesn't necessarily mean Hasbro would be interested in purchasing or licensing Mass Effect from EA.

And why invest heavily in someone else's IP when you're already funding a potentially successful new franchise of your own?

That said, I think licensing is a much more realistic possibility than an outright purchase.

Which brings me back to Amazon. They already has a vested interest in Mass Effect through its upcoming television adaptation. If that series succeeds, there's potentially a business case for expanding the franchise across multiple forms of media. This is the window and what we all need to be hoping for. The Mass Effect show needs success similar to that of Fallout.

This opens up some combination of EA retaining the IP, Amazon providing financial backing, and a studio like Archetype handling development actually work?

I have no idea. There are undoubtedly contractual, financial, and logistical hurdles I'm not accounting for. I'm also not suggesting that any of these companies are currently discussing such an arrangement, but it seems like a more realistic conversation than simply hoping EA hands the franchise to whichever developer we like most.

And honestly, if EXODUS turns out to be everything we're hoping for, maybe Archetype would be better off continuing to build its own universe.

I'm torn on that one.

I just hate the thought of Mass Effect ending here, especially after seeing the potential in that leaked trailer. There's still so much of this universe left to explore, and I don't think we need Shepard back to tell compelling stories in it.

So I'm curious what everyone thinks.

Is Archetype a realistic candidate, or would its connection to Hasbro and commitment to EXODUS make that unlikely? Could Amazon's involvement with the television series open a door for the games? Is there another studio or arrangement that makes more sense?

Or is the best thing we can hope for that EXODUS captures the spirit of what made BioWare special in the first place?

I'd genuinely love to hear everyone's thoughts.

When I saw that Bioware was being closed, I thought little of it. A titan of industry which inspired my love of games, especially RPGs where I felt I could have a real impact on the world which I had escaped to from reality in a way I never realized before. One of the first games I ever beat by myself was Knights of the Old Republic when I was like ten. I had the luck of being in a very nerdy family so I kind of understood the d20 system but ultimately it took a lot of perseverance for my ADHD addled brain to focus and beat a game. KOTOR had me hooked though.

Years before that, my parents banned my brother and I from playing M rated games because my brother acted up after playing Assassins Creed and Mass Effect. Mass Effect was such a weird and interesting game to me because I had never encountered a shooter RPG, but I wouldn't get the chance to play it for awhile longer. When I finally did, it captured me just like KOTOR did.

Years later I finally pushed through Dragon Age: Origins and saw their ability to create fantasy, and I was addicted to making new characters to see all the special interactions based on Origin throughout the game. Bioware caught me addicted three different times with completely different IPs. I didn't think about any of that when I saw they closed.

I thought about it when I was logging into Star Wars: The Old Republic to continue my Imperial Agent story, not thinking too much about it, when I went to go speak to one of my companions and that old dialogue wheel came up.

That is when I realized I would only be replaying games like this for the rest of my life.

I know its a few days late but, thanks for everything Bioware. We wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for you, as gamers. You taught us how gamers ought to be treated with your original projects, and I hope one day I can make a game that someone mentions in the same breath as one of your classics.

I thought this was a great essay, a more positive legacy I mean the amount of people who have mourned the closure, another twist of the private equity knife, which the studio developers have suffered under since 2007.

If you enjoy CD Projekt RED games, they might not have existed as we know them today, had CDPR not starting localizing their CRPG line. Lending them a game engine for The Witcher 1, BioWare staff also shared their booth space during E3 2004!

Baldur's Gate 3 is a Larian made sequel to duology BioWare made back in 1998 to 2001

Watch the video, he explains it in more detail and better worded than I can!

It's been an incredibly long time since BioWare made a solid game and it's more likely that if bioware was given a second wind, Mass Effect Universe wouldve also been a massive flop.

Say what you want about Dragon age Veil guard when it comes to combat or the transition from live service to single player, but the writing SHOULDVE been decent at least. The fact that the writing was THAT bad, meant that BioWare was long since dead.

This is part of why I have been saying that you can’t really neatly place the blame on EA or bio aware because it’s just a colloidal suspension, if you will:

>On the subject of BioWare, EA said it didn't take the decision to shutter the studio "lightly" in last week's email. Yet, those we spoke with felt the RPG specialist slowly suffocated in the unrelenting grip of corporate mismanagement, with the studio being repeatedly told to redirect its focus away from choice, consequence, and companions to better incorporate live service and multiplayer elements. "A lot of money got wasted going down these roads that didn't lead anywhere," said one person.

>Those we spoke with weren't necessarily surprised that BioWare was eventually marched to the guillotine. One source said the team had been struggling for years and claims leadership at the studio level "slowly degraded" over time as they became shackled by fear. "There was never a desire to take risks. Never a desire to do anything interesting. It was just 'here is what these 14 UXR [User Experience Research] studies are saying, so we've got to do it this way." They note, however, that talented people still remained at the studio.

If Fate of the Republic is a success maybe Casey Hudson or any consortium of former Bioware execs could scrounge up the funds to buy Mass Effect and maybe Jade Empire as a bonus back from EA.

Hello guys, does anyone play this game before? I used to play it as a kid on Ipad and really like it, so when I pick up the game on sales and bought it on GOG, and here is the issue, I open the game, it launch then freeze and I cannot do anything else, it just freeze there. I search for solutions but the game is not that well-known so there are not many post on how to resolve this. So I post it on here hope someone know what to do, thanks for anyone helping me, here are my laptop spec for more information:

• Device: Apple Inc. MacBookPro16,3
• OS: Windows 10 Home 64-bit (Build 19045)
• CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-8257U CPU @ 1.40GHz (8 CPUs)
• RAM: 8192MB
• GPU: Intel(R) Iris(R) Plus Graphics 645 (Integrated, 128 MB Dedicated Memory)
• GPU Driver: 31.0.101.2145
• Resolution: 2560 x 1600 (60Hz)

As the title says...is that the situation?

If the show is successful you would have to imagine EA takes a look at that. But the show could be just ok or even bad. I personally would hope that the future of the franchise in game form doesn't depend on the show's success, but what do you guys think?;

Written by Kenneth Shepard (no relation).

He’s a super fan and cohosts the NormandyFM podcast.

UPDATE from Kala Elizabeth (on BlueSky):

“This has gotten to a point where I am stressed out because I have been a big advocate of this and the devs have always been a part of the conversation FOR ME. I did TRY to get the wording changed. The person who created the petition told me no.”

Going through some boxes of old stuff from my time as a game dev today and I found a blast from the past I thought this community might enjoy, especially given the news about Bioware last week.

This was the employee holiday card around 2006-2007 near the launch of ME1, complete with ME poetry and custom art.

Back of card credits the art to Mike Sass and Mike Hong, poem to Stanley Woo.

(I was Austin dev team at the time so didn't work on ME1, but I kept the card nonetheless! Fun relic!)

(Flaired as "Fan Content" because none of the other tags fit)

Hi folks!

Hope nobody minds me sharing this here.

I host a wee podcast called The Whisky Sour Hour, and on the latest episode I was joined by my pal Calum to have a look back through the history of BioWare.

We started right at the beginning and worked our way through the years, chatting about everything from Baldur's Gate and Knights of the Old Republic to Mass Effect and Dragon Age.

What started as a fun trip down memory lane actually became quite a sombre conversation for both of us. These games have been a big part of our lives, and looking back at the studio's history brought up a lot of memories.

I'm not claiming we're experts or anything, just two guys who have a lot of love for these games and wanted to talk about what they meant to us.

If anyone fancies giving it a listen, I'd really appreciate it. Equally, I'd love to hear what BioWare game means the most to everyone here.

Cheers! 🥃

Was always hoping for a sequel to this . Maybe larian will do something like it .

I'm an ex-BioWarian (there's a whole bunch of us) and I've been doing a series of interviews with people I used to work with from back in the hey day (BG through DA:O/ME1-2). This week, I had recorded an episode with Tobyn Manthorpe about his new independent game Dogs Playing Dead. I had scheduled it to go, and of course, BioWare got shut down. So I re-recorded some of it to include a short tribute.

If you ever played the original BG and read the tombstones, Tobyn's tombstone read "Here lies Tobyn, Who believed in the good of all, Died at the hands of Zombies while asking for directions"

Tobyn's had a pretty neat career since leaving during the Eclipse Engine (DA:O) development, we talk about BioWare, independent games, the state of the industry and the importance of failure in creative attempts.

Tobyn's episode is available at https://tales.dups.ca/p/ep74-dogs-playing-dead-and-bioware-closes

I've got a few more interviews there (this one is the sixth I think) and I'll continue to do them, some maybe people you've heard of but many maybe not. The reason for me, regardless of whether anyone listens, BioWare produced amazing people, none of us had any business doing what we did, but we did them anyway. Most of those people are now all over the world in any number of studios, creative endeavours, tech businesses, whatever. I'm biased of course :)

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it, there's links on that page to the other episodes to get to know others, and I intend to do a bunch more next year as well.

Hope you enjoy!

Until we all go, BioWare will live, it was way more than a logo on the side of a building for us who lived through the early days.