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BioWare Won’t Return To Star Wars Games Any Time Soon
The Force may be strong with BioWare games, but don't expect the studio to start work on any new Star Wars titles in the near future. Once known for fan-favorite games like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, it sounds like the acclaimed development team is putting another trip to that galaxy far, far away on hold for now.
As BioWare throws everything it has into next year's release of Anthem, questions have obviously circled about what the company will work on next. With some impressive IPs under the BioWare umbrella, the team is being forced to pick what becomes a priority for development.
In a candid interview with GameInformer, BioWare boss Casey Hudson revealed some good news for two of its biggest franchises:
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“For Dragon Age and Mass Effect, we want to get back to them as soon as we can. Mass Effect is certainly a game I want to get back to. […] It’s my baby. I helped start Mass Effect, so of course we intend to get back to it at some point.”
Whether a fan of Dragon Age, Mass Effect, or Knights of the Old Republic, each series has its own merits for why it should get another chapter to continue the legacy. Sadly, Hudson's words mean that a highly anticipated Knights of the Old Republic 3 is a long way down the pecking order:
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“There are so many games that […] we as a studio want to get to. So, one challenge is, to make a really great game on this scale really, at this point, takes the majority of the studio the size of BioWare, and we’re a pretty big studio. There’s so many more games that we want to make than we can’t get to, so we kind of have to pick and choose and move through them. But, I’ve always loved Star Wars, I loved making Knights of the Old Republic. So…we’re always trying to figure out what’s next.”
Simply put, the studio's current staff would be stretched too thinly if they were to tackle everything at once. As well as continuing to support Star Wars: The Old Republic, BioWare has its plate full with Anthem alongside promises of more Dragon Age and Mass Effect games. While Anthem has been a major priority for a number of years, Hudson admitted that smaller teams have been focussing on another Dragon Age. It may be only a small consolation, but at least BioWare's Star Wars-inspired gameplay can be found in Mass Effect.
Knights of the Old Republic may not have been BioWare's first console game back in 2003, but it helped elevate the studio to the position where it could tackle the games that it is known for today. EA is now in charge of all Star Wars games after the Dinsey merger and it should've been relatively easy to put BioWare to work on another game if developers were interested. With Knight of the Old Republic still held in high regard as one of the best Star Wars games ever, it is a shame that players won't get to see BioWare's ambitious plans for a sequel.
Although Star Wars: Battlefront II is still licking its wounds after that loot box scandal, there is a glimmer of hope on the horizon thanks to rumors of EA developing an open-world game based on Star Wars. Along with Star Wars 1313, another round with Darth Revan continuously tops the wishlist of Star Wars gamers everywhere. While BioWare isn't saying it will never return to Star Wars, it could be a long wait before fans see developers pick up their lightsabers once again.
