Who is BioWare?
BioWare is a gaming studio established in 1995, initially focused on role-playing games for the PC. Their first major success was released in 1998, and it was an RPG known as Baldur’s Gate. Once Baldur’s Gate took off, BioWare was suddenly on all of the role-playing game fans’ radars. Things only went up from there in 2003 when they released the epic Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, a game that won several Game of the Year awards.
The Rise
Now, I was not a day one BioWare fan, mostly because when these first few games were released, I was a young child watching my older sister play Frogger. But around 2007, I was old enough to try my first RPG on the Xbox 360, and it was enough to turn me into a full-on video game nerd, and that game was known as Mass Effect. For those who haven’t had the opportunity to experience one of the most spectacular games of all time, it is a game that is set in the year 2183, when humans are now integrated into the alien space society. To explain that better, humans progressed technologically and found a space portal known as a Mass Relay inside of what we thought was Pluto, and bam, they used the portal and found out we are not alone in the universe. But that’s just the amazing world the main character, a human soldier named Shepard, exists in.
The great thing about playing Shepard is that, for one, you can customize your character’s looks, background, and abilities–which was pretty unique and out of the ordinary for its time. In a world full of male-only character games, it was a huge breath of fresh air to get to play a game as a girl. In addition to the customizations, the other unique part of playing Shepard was that you could actually make decisions that alter the path of the story. On a smaller scale, you could choose responses in conversations; on a larger scale, you could decide which of your party members lived or died in a scenario. These moral decisions provided such an immersive twist on gaming and really raised the bar for RPG expectations.
The Peak
Mass Effect was the beginning of BioWare’s peak, and the years that followed were filled with nothing but masterpieces. In addition to the Mass Effect sequel, which won Game of the Year, there was the birth of an equally great franchise known as Dragon Age. Although Dragon Age was set in a fantasy world filled with elves, dragons, and evil creatures known as darkspawn, it still included their now signature decision-making abilities and customizations. But what truly made this franchise shine was the story and the characters. It is hard to find a game with storytelling done as well as it is in a book–but Dragon Age certainly does it. Even more, it created characters with personalities that were so lovable that I named my cat after one of them (hint: it’s Alistair).
Following the peak, in the early 2010s, they were still going strong. They released the third installment of Mass Effect, which faced a lot of backlash for the ending, but people still loved it for the most part. And then, in 2014, they followed with the third installment of Dragon Age, known as Inquisition. This was also an exceptional game, and it was a Game of the Year. Many are still exploring the vast open world they designed to this day.
The Fall
As with most things, what goes up must come down–eventually. And unfortunately, BioWare has. Around the time that they released Inquisition, two of BioWare’s founders jumped ship, and it seemed like this caused a dramatic shift in the studio as a whole. I believe that this is when the decline began. It started to become apparent that something was off when Mass Effect: Andromeda made its debut in 2017. As an OG Mass Effect fan, I was, of course, ecstatic about another game in the franchise. The problem was…it just wasn’t the same… at all. It had good qualities, just as most games do, but it was lacking the story depth, the personable characters, and the epic decision-making consequences and choices–which was what made BioWare games great to begin with. In a review by Ali Sciarabba, she agreed, stating, “on the whole, I was disappointed by Andromeda.” As were many of the fans of the franchise.
One bad game can’t destroy a studio with such a spectacular legacy, can it?
Not exactly–but it certainly put a large dent in their reputation. And unfortunately, a few other disappointments followed. In 2019, they released their first multiplayer, online RPG titled Anthem. It had so much hype going into it, and it showed a lot of promise, with many comparing it to the successful Destiny game that held a similar concept. But then–just like Andromeda, it just kind of fell flat. It was lacking the quality story that everyone expected from BioWare, and it became just another multiplayer shooter–a subpar one at that. Over the years, the traffic in the game has slowed so much that it is actually shutting down altogether in 2026.
Despite the back-to-back letdowns, many fans were still hanging on to their love for BioWare, especially those who were desperately waiting for the release of the fourth installment of Dragon Age after a decade-long hiatus. Then, in 2024, the October release finally arrived, and some of us even bought an entirely new console for the game, as it could only initially be played on the newest generation consoles. But instead of the game being a life raft for BioWare, it was more of a nail in the coffin. Similar to BioWare’s other recent releases, Dragon Age: Veilguard was not a ‘bad’ game. The graphics were great, and the fighting logistics were okay, but yet, it just didn’t measure up to the original games. It was like a very beautiful Dragon Age shell that had all of the quality parts scooped out.
So now what?
After the release of Veilguard and the underwhelming sales, it is said that BioWare, which is now under the EA umbrella, has moved a lot of its staff to other projects. And honestly, I think that when the initial two founders left the studio, many of the original staff probably left as well, and that could be why things have felt so off with their recent games. So now what’s left is just a small team that is apparently only working on one project, and that is Mass Effect 5. The game has no expected release date, and it is in the very early stages of development.
So in the end, despite BioWare’s many letdowns—and despite how it feels like the studio has evaporated with no path to a comeback—I still have hope.
If the original team is out there somewhere, please, please come back together and give us another life-changing RPG.
Signed,
OG BioWare Fans Everywhere
