It's a sad day over here in this house, as news breaks that Electronic Arts is shutting down Bioware. Yes, us Bioware fangirls and boys have been worried about the future of Mass Effect and of Bioware for a while now, so I can't say it's a surprise, as such. But it's a tragedy all the same.
Had Bioware become a shadow of the studio it once was? Unfortunately. But we all hoped they'd find their way back to their former greatness. KOTOR, NWN, DA:O and DA:I were all revolutionary games that transformed their genres. But more importantly, they crafted stories and characters that have remained with us many years after we met them.
And Mass Effect? Well, Mass Effect changed my life. Its mind-blowing world showed me the possibilities of science fiction storytelling; its characters leapt off the screen and straight into my heart. It provided me thousands (yes) of hours of immersive, exciting and heartfelt gameplay. It gave me a protagonist in Shepard like none I'd ever met before, or since.
But most of all, it made me a writer. The story, characters and world were so damn compelling, I had to extend their adventures beyond what the games gave me. And we all know what that led to....
So I owe Bioware a great deal indeed. Yes, in recent years CDPR and Larian have stepped up to follow in their enormous footsteps, and do it well, and I'm very grateful we have them to continue telling the kinds of meaningful stories I love.
But there will never be another Bioware.
P.S.: The day after the announcement, a (bitter?) Bioware dev linked an internal trailer for the in-progress next Mass Effect game, so we can all know what we’ll never have :( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dkyS6XhlJs
