When it comes to grand space opera games, few can match the ambition of BioWare’s revered RPG series, Mass Effect. Ever since the announcement of a new installment back in 2020, the Canadian studio has been tight-lipped about the game’s development – until now.
In a recent blog post addressing the future of Star Wars: The Old Republic, BioWare’s general manager, Gary McKay, provided fans with a brief update on the highly anticipated untitled Mass Effect game, stating:
For Mass Effect, we continue pre-production with a core team of veteran storytellers who are bringing the deep franchise history forward in a spectacular new way.
After the underwhelming storyline of Mass Effect: Andromeda, it’s certainly a relief to know that the developers are taking the franchise in a fresh direction. The inclusion of seasoned storytellers for the next installment is a promising sign. The previous title, which hit the gaming scene in 2017, faced a barrage of negative reviews, leading Bioware to scrap its planned DLC.
In a rather bittersweet chain of events, Star Wars: The Old Republic, which has been showing signs of age, didn’t receive the same uplifting news. The 2011 MMORPG PC game will be handed off to a third-party studio called Broadsword Online Games. Led by BioWare VP Rob Denton, who has previous experience with SWTOR, the studio is known for its work on Ultima Online and Dark Age of Camelot.
Sadly, as is often the case with transitions like these, there will be an unfortunate downsizing of the game’s core development team, with an undisclosed number of individuals facing layoffs from the existing team of over 70 dedicated professionals.
No big change comes without challenges. Among them is the fact that most of the current team will be invited to accompany the game on its move to Broadsword, though unfortunately not every role will make the move. This is the hardest part of this transition, and these decisions were not made lightly. We are of course doing everything we can to support the affected team members, who have an opportunity to find new roles within EA. In addition, we’re aware that the team members who are being asked to move to a new studio will also be adapting to change, and we will be working with Broadsword to make the transition as comfortable as possible.
The silver lining in all these changes is that BioWare can now channel its resources toward finally wrapping up development on Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, the highly anticipated sequel to Inquisition that has been stuck in development hell for some time.
For Dragon Age, we continue to build, polish, and tune an exceptional experience we know our fans will love. We can’t wait to share more on this soon.
Just like the excruciatingly long wait for Diablo III, Dragon Age: Dreadwolf has been stuck in development hell since 2015, plagued by endless delays. The latest update suggests that fans will have to exercise even more patience, as the game is now projected to hit shelves in the summer of 2024.
