BioWare may soon be giving way to another developer to take over development of Star Wars: The Old Republic.
As reported by IGN, Star Wars: The Old Republic’s publisher and Bioware’s parent company, Electronic Arts, is finalizing talks with Broadsword Online Games Inc, to become the game’s developer moving forward.
Broadsword Online is composed of former employees from BioWare and also Mythic Entertainment, another EA owned game studio that specialized in online PC games in the 1990s, as an innovator in that genre.
Mythic’s history would be tied up to BioWare after EA acquired the. EA merged the companies in 2009, and brought on BioWare heads like Ray Muzka to take higher positions in the company.
In 2014, after Mythic shut down, two of its longest lasting games, Ultima Online and Dark Age of Camelot, would be taken over by Broadsword Online Games Inc. So, the name may not be familiar to older gamers, but Broadsword is comprised of people who have a lot of experience in online games, for decades.
IGN says that talks have gone far enough that EA and Broadsword Online have signed a letter of intent. That means this could all be over before the month ends.
Bioware had intimated that they still had solid plans for Star Wars: The Old Republic last year, and revealed them last month, as The Old Wounds storyline. However, EA seems to no longer want Bioware to dedicate resources to it as they have for the past decade.
As IGN stated, EA wants Bioware to put all their focus on future Mass Effect and Dragon Age games, and that is the reason for all this shakeup.
EA’s concerns for their studio do seem to be well-founded. Mass Effect has been in limbo for a few years after the poor reception to Mass Effect Andromeda.
We do know Bioware is now actively working on Dragon Age: Dreadwolf. However, that game isn’t ready to release this year yet. Given that Dragon Age: Dreadwolf has been in the works since 2017, it is running a bit late on development. So, this change in the studio could immediately speed up that work.
As for Star Wars: The Old Republic, EA remains its publisher as per the terms of its contract for Star Wars games. But that situation has already changed drastically, as EA is no longer the exclusive producer of Star Wars games.
So if EA felt obliged to keep Star Wars: The Old Republic in house because of that contract, that obligation no longer exists.
Broadsword Online must be doing something right if they were able to keep these other older games going, so Star Wars: The Old Republic will likely be in good hands. If you’re reading this, you likely aren’t even playing it anymore.
Maybe it is best for Bioware to move on, as its fans are looking forward to Dragon Age: Dreadwolf and more games in their future.
