Where Oh Where Art Thou, BioWare?

 

RIP BioWare

 

 Where oh where art though BioWare? Shutting down apparently. RIP to a real one.

 BioWare announced they are closing the studio and ending early development on the next Mass Effect game.

 Looking back at the official update, it is hard not to feel a heavy hit of nostalgia and exhaustion. For literally as long as I have played games (30 years!), BioWare has made games that defined an entire era; from the golden days of Baldur's Gate and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic to the highs and lows of Mass Effect and Dragon Age. But let us be honest with ourselves: the BioWare we all knew and loved in our hearts (pun intended!) had already been gone. Gone for a long, long time.

 Years of EA meddling and a string of games lacking any of their old magic meant that the studio had long been adrift. While it still stings to see the final nail driven into the coffin and the next Mass Effect officially canned, it is hard to be surprised. EA kills game studios.

 At the end of the day, it is a massive bummer for the remaining developers who poured their talent into a losing battle, and it leaves a permanent void where some of gaming's greatest space operas used to live. Pour one out for the studio that gave us Commander Shepard and the Grey Wardens. The badge is retired for good.

Note: this post was edited with the help of AI (Google Gemini). The thoughts are my own.  The grammatical correctness and em dashes (—) are the AI.