If we're being honest, the "real Bioware" died many years ago. Today was just a formality.

The good news is we have two great studios that are carrying the torch: Larian and CD Projekt Red.

Cherish them.

M. Darrah is right. BW is losing strong cards. Companies, such as EA, don't yet realize that following certain statutes causes a decrease in the good performance of a game. Why tie up the imagination of excellent writers and a franchise that still gave more? BioWare should have focused on keeping those intellects and not firing them. It should have negotiated for the permanence of the writers in the company, but the only thing that matters in this great entertainment industry is the money because if you don't sell, you're of no use to me. Capitalism is voracious.

As we say in my language "Apaguen todo y que nos lleve la chingada."

I blame BioWare for most of what’s wrong with modern RPGs. They popularized the cancerous trend of turning role-playing games into heavily scripted, cinematic adventures mixed with dating sims, where you’re essentially following someone else’s story instead of creating your own.

The Elder Scrolls is pretty much the only major RPG franchise that still preserves the spirit of classic RPGs: freedom, exploration, character creation, and the ability to forge your own path rather than play through a glorified visual novel.

TL:DR So....... i just finished Vailguard with my friends in this weekend and at this point, I'm not sad or angry anymore the only thing I feel about this franchise is apathy

A little bit of background DAO was one of my first RPGs and helped me learn english because just by the vibes alone I wanted to know more about the plot and universe as a whole needless to say I love this game and while it is most definitely not perfect it is still an amazing story driven RPG to it's core that made me enter the pen and paper RPGs so yes I'm biased but even if I try to see this as a non DA game it still fails in almost everything

at the beginning it was fine, with beautiful graphics,..... except the sanitization of everything slightly dark in the scenery finally good hair physics and...... the character customization I won't say anything because everything was said already, the combat was fun...... for the first 2 hours, the issue is exacerbated,but the sheer amount of health everything has, this might be my preference but in RPG is better to everyone die quickly or if not have a certain level of complexity for tactical gameplay and the plot was nonsensical at best or a jaw shattering slap in the face of everything it came before at best, and honestly I can pardon all of this if the main NPCs where good, they aren't, they are worst type of caricatures of what a computer think the character archetype should be, the angry barbarian, the whimsical airheaded elf, the shut-in mage, etc, etc, etc, and you know the worst part? the part that put my balls in a hydraulic press at the slowest setting? YOU CANNOT FUCKING EXILE THEM! IN EVERY OTHER GODFORSAKEN BIOWARE GAME YOU COULD TELL THE COMPANIONS THAT YOU DIDN'T LIKE TO FUCK OFF, AT MINIMUM, OR DO HORRIBLE THINGS TO THEM AT WORST. Still, IN THIS CHILDHOOD KICK TO THE BALLS YOU ARE OBLIGATED TO MAKE THEIR FUCKING SIDEQUEST OTHERWISE, YOU GET A "lol do better nerd" AT THE ENDING! "well but Clent didn't ME2 did the same?" no if you selected the right people and had the right equipment you didn't need to do EVERY SINGLE SIDEQUEST THAT YOU CANNOT FAIL, MIND YOU, I remember that the first time i didn't 2 side quest because didn't give a shit about the characters and fucked up Zaeed's and I still got the good ending by sending the right people, and the worst part is that no your choices DON'T matter if you think they do go play a telltale game and your choices will matter just as much there, side note, remember when you could chop the head off of a child but you needed to try to be a good person and complete other side quests to make the best option? not only that even if you lobbed the child's head off you still would get the best ending? good times

for the longest time I thought DA2 was the worst at least I can excuse it due to rushed development and Inquisition was a good game but not a good DA game, but THIS. WELL, THIS MAKES ME COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY...... apathetic I just cannot get angry or sad with this franchise anymore I already got and at DA2 and sad at DAI and I know that in the great scheme of things it won't matter that much but if this franchise isn't worth my money, isn't worth my feeling it also doesn't deserve my time goodbye dragon age hopefully you get better

I know many people now are crushed about Mass Effect 5 getting cancelled but I don't feel that way, and we sort of shouldn't.

Mass Effect had a definitive ending to its first trilogy, Andromeda is self contained enough.
The game has two Spiritual Successors with Osiris Reborn and Exodus

But Dragon Age.... It ended with Inquisition, I'll never get closure for my boy Solas.
I know we have so many CRPG ARPG JRPGs there to fill the void, but Inquisition ended with a cliffhanger... Mass Effect gave us closure

Why are some people so cynical? What do you gain from constantly bringing others down? Seriously, help me understand.

I know BioWare has had three failed games. Some of that was their fault, but we also have to consider EA forcing them to develop live-service games and switch to a different engine.

Yes, Veilguard has worst writing, and I'm in the camp that believes it wasn't the Dragon Age game we wanted. But why are people already tearing down Mass Effect 4/5 before we even know what to expect?

The new Mass Effect team has new writers, and EA fired the writers behind Veilguard after the backlash over its writing. I understand being skeptical, especially when all we have is a CGI trailer and very little information about the actual game. But can you express your criticism without being so hostile toward people who still have hope?

I'm not someone who encourages false hope, and I'm not going to pretend BioWare was doing great. But if there's even a tiny chance that Mass Effect can make a comeback, why not let people believe in it? Having hope doesn't make you naive, and it doesn't make you any less of a person.

I've accepted that the BioWare is now gone and that Mass Effect might end up on the shelf for a very long time. But people cope with disappointment differently. Just because you've given up doesn't mean everyone else has to. Let people grieve in their own way, and let those who still have hope hold on to it.

Absolute vultures.

I'm def seeing such a strange pattern here. Recently, Mark Darrah did a really good, interesting interview with some youtuber. ("Bioware insider explains what went wrong" on youtube)

Darrah ended up discussing how difficult it was to figure out how to make story rich npcs for a multiplayer game. He spoke of how when making Anthem, BW had never tried this before. How notion of story rich cömpanions in multiplzyer game was some unknown ground and as such, was some major hurdle in development of Anthem. C'mon, SWTOR had just released back then! Maybe the most expensive game ever made by sister branch of his own studio escaped his notice or something?

SWTOR being a multiplayer game by BW. With much more story rich npc companions than in any Bioware game ever released before or after. Him not mentioning it at all in this context, despite name dropping most anything includlng Witcher and BG3 is just weird.

If you set out to list the biggest bands to originate from Manchester but don't mention Oasis at all, it kinda comes off as pretty passive aggressive really!

Lastly, imo there is time and place for everything, and not getting a mention when pile of people mourn for their freshly lost jobs and studios is prolly not a perfect time for spilling beans like this. She is def right though.

I wonder why they do this. I mesn, obv the BW Edmonton was far removed fröm BE Austin. Even so, through dev push if SWTOR, latter was helmed by some of the most senior devs BW had. Like Ohlen, Kapryshyn.

In case you needed a reminder who to blame today!

EDIT: It's not who you think

Why was BioWare acquired?

So real. I love this game so much. It's up there with Mass Effect as my favorite of all time.

This game is less than a year old. I feel the only way this game could sell worse is if the disk was radioactive.

As someone late to the party due to my first BioWare game being MEA, I didn't see BioWare in its prime. I hopped on the boat when it began sinking. In the nearly 10 years I've been following this studio, it's had its share of ups and downs. Now let's get this out of the way: MEA is a solid game that lays the groundwork for a different ME story. I will die on this hill. I also understand where a lot of the criticism comes from after playing ME Legendary Edition. At the end of 2024, we saw a return to DA with Veilguard. A very different game than what was expected. With everything that happened behind the scenes, they did the best they could, considering. But now we must look to the future.

ME5 has to be a commercial and critical success to save the studio. Not only that, it must also rebuild their reputation and trust with its community. I believe that the only way forward is with transparent engagement with the fans. Learn the critical lessons from DA Veilguard's rollout and make the adjustments. This community is open and willing to wait for a complete project. I have hope that this will be the turning point in which BioWare returns to its roots, with a strong refocus on character development and meaningful dialogue. They have the team to do it.

Now for what comes after. If they deliver on ME5, Bioware must be aggressive in DLCs and post-launch support. A great example is CD Projekt RED with Cyberpunk 2077. This would be a great time to release the Mass Effect TV series and ride that wave into possibly a new IP or a return to DA. What type of engagement would you guys like to see? Or your dream storyline for ME5?

I'm going to play the legendary edition tonight in honor of Bioware shutdown. Rest in peace Shepard!

I’m curious as to which other companies have shown mastery in the team-based, well-written ensembles we used to see in Dragon Age and Mass Effect.

Owlcat comes to mind! I’d welcome other suggestions. Thank you!

I see a lot of people bring up EA's $18 billion debt following their leveraged buyout as evidence they are in a tight financial spot and therefore need to sell their IPs to pay off their debt and this will likely lead to a new studio picking up Dragon Age and Mass Effect.

Sadly, no and I'll try and explain what the actual financial situation is.

Firstly, EA are not cash short or in financial dire straits. According to their 2025 SEC filing, (details on page 20), EA made a profit of $3 billion, with revenue of of $7.4 billion. Of that, more than half, $4.4 billion came from microtransactions: packs in Ultimate team, Apex Legends, Battlefield.

But EA is in $18 billion debt and they only make $3 billion profit a year!

Yes but this is like saying your mortgage is $180,000 and you only save $30,000 a year.

EA is in debt because the Saudi Public Investment Fund, who bought out EA, borrowed $18 billion to do so. That's precisely like taking a mortgage to buy a house.

But the Saudi PIF has a valuation of $1 trillion. They could have easily found another $18 billion to outright buy EA without borrowing from banks and saddling EA with any debt.

They chose not to precisely to maintain financial control over EA. The debt is an almost irrelevant amount to PIF. It's a financial instrument to prevent the EA board from diverting away from their immediate revenue streams.

Here's how it works. The details of the deal were that EA would pay back 10% of the debt, $1.8 billion every year. That means EA has to maintain annual income of at least $1.8 billion. This prevents EA from going "well now we've been bought out and have no shareholders or debts, we can reinvest all our income back into risky projects". The debt is to make it clear to EA this not venture capital, we do not want you like other tech bro firms running at a massive loss for some potential long term payoff.

The amount of debt is irrelevant compared to the amount EA have to pay off each year which in reality is the floor that the Saudis expect for EA's income. As I said, with pockets as deep as $1 trillion, PIF could wipe away the debt at any point they so wish.

So with the clear direction being steady streams of income, EA will prioritise games with heavy microtransactions (their sports titles, Apex Legends, Battlefield), games with a steady rhythm of releases and income or games the Saudis / MBS care about in terms their wider geopolitical strategy (the F1 game to tie in with MBS' desire to dominate F1).

BioWare had nothing imminent, were likely going to be a net expense for years to come and EA looked at that and thought: might as well cut those costs since we're not expecting anything great for that. Bear in mind especially they U-turned this summer on paid progression microtransactions in their college football game which meant they'd need to trim costs elsewhere.

So why not sell the IP then? Well, the point here is the debt creates a revenue stream challenge for EA: they need steady sources of income not one off large injections. Moreover, selling IP lowers the value of the asset that the Saudis purchases in EA. Much better to hold on to the IP, keep the valuation and look to make licence deals, which will generate money, or do even more fan hated things like sell DA or ME skins in Apex Legends or Battlefield for easy microtransaction profit.

Either way, I think EA selling these IPs is a long shot. The only hope is that MBS, who is the real power behind all of this, happened to be a BioWare fan and tells PIF and EA to sell it off but given he didn't prevent the studio being shuttered, my guess is he's really a FIFA / EA FC fan and wants to control the soccer franchise ahead of his country's World Cup hosting in 2034.