BioWare News, Tips, Tricks & Ideas

Yellow Bricks Games has just revealed the first trailer for the upcoming Eternal Strands, and the game has strong Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom vibes. Created by former BioWare and Ubisoft employees, the game is an action adventure with influences from the latest Zelda, Monster Hunter, and Shadow of the Colossus.

BioWare has had a rough few years. Following the critical and commercial success of Dragon Age: Inquisition, the studio moved on to Mass Effect: Andromeda and Anthem, two games that abandoned the tenets of previous BioWare titles under mounting publisher pressure.

10 years after the release of Dragon Age: Inquisition, its long-awaited sequel,Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, will be released this financial year, following a beleaguered development process. This news follows a decade of fan speculation, teasers, and development woes faced by BioWare, the originators of the smash-hit fantasy RPG series. Dragon Age: Dreadwolf was first announced at the 2018 Game Awards, and has been in a long and troubled development since 2015, beset by delays, staff layoffs, and high-profile resignations.

Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, the next entry in the series of beloved dating sims with rpgs crudely affixed with Blu Tack to their walls, is set to arrive by the end of March next year. That’s according to an updated product slate released as part of a recent quarterly earnings report, as spotted by VGC and given the Jeff Grubb seal of approval.

Dragon Age: Dreadwolf is reporting releasing before March 31, 2025.

While fans eagerly await some kind of news on Bioware's upcoming , the game's release window may have finally been confirmed. The highly-anticipated RPG, which was announced all the way back in 2018, has largely been missing from action over the last six years as the developer has yet to offer any substantial updates on the title and its production. Bioware may still be keeping quiet when it comes to sharing details on the project, but publisher EA may have suggested that an official reveal could be coming very soon.

Dragon Age: Dreadwolf appears to be the next big title from developer BioWare and publisher EA, though we've heard very little official information about the title ever since its name was revealed. Things have been heating up in recent months though, with BioWare promising more news about the title this summer, and now EA seems to have all but confirmed the title will be launching within the next 12 months.

Electronic Arts has confirmed plans to release two unannounced titles during its current fiscal year ending on March 31, 2025.

Star Wars: The Old Republic's ongoing development switched last year from creators BioWare to Broadsword, with promise that the 13-year-old MMO would continue to receive new story content and improvements.

I don't tend to do a lot of videogame discount posts because I have a mortal fear of enriching my backlog, but when I see the entire Mass Effect trilogy and all of its expansions for around the price of a slightly more aristocratic sandwich, I am compelled to share. The Legendary Edition of BioWare's ravishing sci-fi RPG series is 90% off on Steam until 13th May. That translates to 6€, $6 or £5 for all three main games and 40 DLC packs, plus bells and whistles such as 4K Ultra HD and beefed-up character models. If you haven't played a Mass Effect game before, this is a pretty good place to start.

Unity has appointed former Electronic Arts and Zynga executive Matthew Bromberg as its new CEO.

An eagle-eyed gamer has noticed an unsettling detail about the ending of Mass Effect 3 that would be easily missed by most players. The Mass Effect trilogy is packed full of interesting details, but this is one that BioWare perhaps wishes most players wouldn't discover.

Exodus, the new time-bending space RPG from former Mass Effect devs, will have a wide array of companions to meet and alien species to encounter - but it'll also have this adorable, hyper-intelligent pig called Charlotte.

Jennifer Hale, one of the talented voice actors behind Mass Effect’s legendary hero Commander Shepard, hasn’t heard from BioWare about possibly appearing in the upcoming Mass Effect 4. In classic RPG fashion, the original three Mass Effect games gave players the ability to fully customize their protagonist, down to selecting their gender. This choice resulted in Shepard being voiced by two different actors, with Mark Meer playing the male version and Jennifer Hale stepping into the role of the female Shepard.

Commander Shepard has been the face of Mass Effect since its inception in 2007, but their story came to a close in ME3 over ten years ago. Still, some fans hoped to see them return in the new game, canonising the one ending where they survive, but that doesn't look likely.

Hasbro, the IP holder of Dungeons & Dragons, says there are early conversations being held about another Baldur's Gate sequel.

David Gaider, the former leader writer of the incredibly popular Dragon Age franchise has revealed that he doesn’t think creating a TV adaptation based on the series would be a great idea. The success of the recently released Fallout live-action series on Amazon Prime has gotten a lot of fans speculating about other popular games, like Dragon Age, that might result in a solid screen adaptation.

The lead writer of BioWare's Dragon Age series has shared what games he thinks will make a great TV adaptation, and the BioWare RPG isn't one of them.

A tweet from film critic Darren Lucas, asking what people would like to see adapted after the enormous success of Fallout, has been making the rounds, and former Dragon Age lead writer David Gaider himself responded.

In 2022, Loric Games was founded by Brian Johnson, Ray Soto, and Rob Denton–all former pros at Mythic Entertainment. The team formerly worked on hit titles like Ultima Online, Warhammer Online, and Star Wars: The Old Republic, and fans have been waiting to see what could be coming from the fledgling company. We now have our answer: Echoes of Elysium.

Loric Games has announced its debut title, Echoes of Elysium, an airship survival RPG “set in the heavens of mythical ancient Greece”.

Presumably, the remake of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic can’t hold up a newspaper with today’s date to prove that it is actually doing okay and hasn’t been quietly disposed of in a tax report somewhere, Warner Bros-style. As such, it falls to the head of current developers Saber Interactive to promise that the long-in-the-works Star Wars game is still “alive and well”.

Last year, a group of BioWare veterans unveiled Exodus, a new space RPG made by former developers from Halo, The Last of Us, and, of course, those classic BioWare RPGs. While hopping around the galaxy in BioWare is a pretty speedy affair, though, Exodus takes a substantially more scientifically accurate approach.

The wait for a new Mass Effect game has been a long one, especially if you don't consider Andronmeda a true Mass Effect game and you didn't re-experience a polished version of the original trilogy via its Legendary Edition. That wait won't be coming to an end any time soon as even though a new Mass Effect game is coming, it's still a long way off. Thankfully, Blasto is here to dry your tears and give you big hug via his new body pillowcase.

BioWare might have more than Dragon Age: Dreadwolf and the next Mass Effect game in the works, as a job listing refers to "2-3 project teams". Right now, the studio only has two ongoing projects that we know about, with the third perhaps being another unannounced game.

Fans of Dragon Age and Mass Effect have been waiting for more news from BioWare. More information about Dragon Age: Dreadwolf is expected to come at this year’s Summer Game Fest according to some rumors, with unsubstantiated sources still promising a release sometime in 2024. Mass Effect 4 has also been in the works for some time, but according to a new job post, the studio might have something else in the works beyond these two huge titles.

BioWare fans are already looking forward to Mass Effect 4 and Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, but the famed developer could have even more projects already in the works. BioWare is responsible for some of the most beloved Western RPGs of all time, from licensed hits like Neverwinter Nights and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic to original IPs like Mass Effect and Dragon Age.

Having had a few days to sit with the news that Larian Studios, creators of 2023's breakout RPG, Baldur's Gate 3, has scrapped plans for DLC and will not be developing the inevitable next game in the series, we can't help but feel the move was a deeply-baller one. Going out on the highest possible note, outdoing even BioWare's iconic earlier entries, it's time to move on for Larian, and we'll gladly follow. Parent company Hasbro, however, wasted no time, threatening still-in-shock audiences that more D&D games are on the way: «Watch this space.»

Yellow Brick Games, the studio founded by former Dragon Age creative director Mike Laidlaw, has released a teaser trailer for its «ambitious new action RPG», ahead of a full reveal in April.

BioWare opened its own digital storefront back in the early 2000s, and the legendary RPG studio had even briefly considered selling third-party games on that store - including The Witcher.

In February 2020, Mike Laidlaw, the former creative director of the Dragon Age franchise, co-founded the independent studio Yellow Brick Games in Quebec City, Canada. Today, a teaser trailer for the company’s debut title was revealed, with more information set to be released next month.

Look up to the skyline, and tell me what you see. It is me, standing on a hill, uttering firmly with my dying breath: Mass Effect: Andromeda was pretty good. For anyone currently gathered around the hill, searching the pockets of their N7 hoodies for more heavy objects to fling at me, however, here’s some good news: the as-yet unnamed Mass Effect 5 is in the capable hands of “trilogy vets”, according to project director Michael Gamble, via Le Epic Musk Zone (OP didn’t steal), formerly Twitter. The team heading up the space game franchise’s next entry comprises of veterans of the first three games in various leading roles, namely: Art Director, Game Director, Creative Director, and Executive Producer.

The next Mass Effect game will be led by trilogy veterans across several key positions on the development team. While the game is still a long way off, BioWare has slowly teased a new Mass Effect title since its initial announcement in December 2020. A beloved sci-fi franchise, Mass Effect set the stage for BioWare's modern era by introducing the dialogue wheel, a voice-acted protagonist, and leaning even further towards BioWare pillars such as memorable companions and romance.

It’s been a long time since the glory days of the original Mass Effect trilogy, and though the series’ fanbase remains as strong and loud as it has ever been, there’s little doubt that the sci-fi franchise’s stock has fallen notably over the years, thanks in large part to the misstep that was Mass Effect: Andromeda. Series fans will, however, take solace in the fact that its next mainline instalment’s development is being led by veterans who’ve been working on the franchise for a long, long time.

Mass Effect 5 is in good hands, as the director of the upcoming sequel confirms how many people in the leadership team worked on the original trilogy. 

Riot Games has rebooted its League of Legends MMO.

Riot Games has provided an update on its League of Legends MMO, which is still being worked on but remains years from release.

Former PlayStation head of internal production, Connie Booth, has joined Electronic Arts.

Former PlayStation executive Connie Booth, one of the chief architects of PlayStation's first-party strategy before her unexpected departure in 2023, is joining EA to help lead its studios amid its ongoing restructure.

In a series of announcements, Embracer Group has hinted that gamers shouldn't expect to get their hands on the upcoming Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic remake this year. BioWare's classic action RPG released back in 2003, but it's still remembered fondly by fans. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic was part of what many gamers refer to as the developer's «golden age,» and more than a few players have been eager to see it updated for modern consoles.

This week's announcement that Embracer are selling off Saber Interactive to new company Beacon Interactive has cast further doubt over the future of one of Embracer's bigger projects, the much-delayed Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic remake. While Embracer have yet to actually state this out loud, it sounds like the KOTOR remake will be a "joint project" between Saber and Embracer. It also probably won't be out in the next 12 months. Given the project's repeated disruptions and delays, I suspect many of us will settle for the game coming out at all.

Development on free-to-play MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic is still going strong after 13 years, with its latest patch adding a new storyline surrounding House Inrokini and highly requested date nights with romanced companions.

Veterans from the likes of Id Software and Naughty Dog have announced a new triple-A development studio called Emptyvessel.

Having officially announced the sequel was in production last year, developer Spiders has revealed the first proper look at GreedFall II: The Dying World. The follow-up is now confirmed to be a prequel that at least starts three years before the events of the first title, and has you play as a Teer Fradee native who's been snatched away from your homeland by colonists. Check out the trailer above.

So, Dragon Age: Dreadwolf — the BioWare game that's been developed, scrapped, developed again, maybe scrapped again, and then teased for about half a decade, could finally release before the year is out. That's according to in-the-know Game Mess host Jeff Grubb (via Eurogamer), who says "[Dreadwolf] will be released this year, last I heard". He continues: «They're pretty confident about that. Doesn't mean it's a guarantee – could slip – but right now, internally, they expect to release it later this year.»

EA and Bioware are reportedly confident that Dragon Age: Dreadwolf will be released this year.

As part of its mass layoffs, Electronic Arts is shuttering studios and cancelling projects, though blessedly, there have been parts of the company that have managed to escape the chopping block. BioWare, for instance, is continuing its work on Dragon Age: Dreadwolf and the next Mass Effect game– and the former is allegedly set to release sometime this year itself.

EA and BioWare are «pretty confident» that Dragon Age: Dreadwolf will be released later this year.

2024 is set to be a pretty big year for RPGs, with the likes of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Dragon’s Dogma 2, and Avowed all queued up to launch, but what about Dragon Age: Dreadwolf? There have been a number of hints that BioWare’s latest may be nearing completion, but when might we actually get our hands on it?

Dragon Age: Dreadwolf has been a long time coming, and we haven't even seen much of it yet. Trailers have mostly been limited to cinematics and story teases, and our best look at the game in action has come in the form of leaked gameplay footage. However, it's now being claimed that this could all change very soon.

Dragon Age: Dreadwolf may have suffered another internal delay but is still on course for release in 2024, according to a new report from a well-known industry insider. BioWare previously promised that the long-awaited full reveal of Dragon Age: Dreadwolf would be coming in summer 2024, but without committing to a specific release window.

Today, during the NACON Connect 2024 event, French developer Spiders announced that GreedFall II: The Dying World will be released in early access this Summer on Steam.

The recent layoffs at Electronic Arts may have put the future of some upcoming projects in question, but fans can rest assured that Mass Effect 5 is still being worked on at BioWare. There has been a growing number of layoffs in the gaming industry over the past year or so, with Mass Effect 5 developer BioWare cutting part of the Star Wars: The Old Republic team back in June. This hasn’t slowed down in 2024, with a reported total of over 8,000 job losses in just the past couple of months alone.

Yesterday, shortly after EA laid off 670 employees and canceled a new Respawn game, a report has revealed Mass Effect 5 is still alive, and in pre-production.

From Battlefield studio Ridgeline Games being shut down to Respawn Entertainment’s single player Star Wars FPS being cancelled, a number of EA studios have been affected by the company’s recently-announced mass layoffs. It seems, however, that the two major projects that BioWare has in production haven’t been affected.

Nightingale studio Inflexion Games has said it’s prioritising the development of an offline mode for the recently released game.

Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition is a D&D style RPG by Bioware's Beamdog. For a game now 22 years old, an update announcement may seem a little far fetched, but that's why we're here. Courtesy of the bustling modding community still surrounding the game today, Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition has just seen a massive patch.

Having spoken to Mass Effect veteran Aaryn Flynn, CEO of Inflexion Games - the developers working on upcoming survival crafting game Nightingale - it's clear he's aware of the stiff competition vying for our attention in the genre. When our game libraries are saturated with well-rounded titles like Valheim, Palworld, and Sons of the Forest, pulling in an extensive player base for Nightingale isn't going to be an easy task. But is all that competition so bad? 

Bungie has kicked off its collaboration with EA and BioWare to bring Mass Effect-themed cosmetics to Destiny 2. As part of the collaboration, players can get their hands on the Alliance Requisitions Bundle, which includes the Enhanced Defense Ghost Shell, the Alliance Scout Frigate ship, and the Alliance Drop Ship Sparrow. Check out the trailer for the collaboration below.

Bungie has confirmed in its Feb. 1 “This Week in Destiny” newsletter that it’s finally ending its four-year partnership with Prime Gaming. Since January 2020, Bungie has released a monthly package containing free shaders, sparrows, emotes, and other cosmetics that Amazon Prime members can redeem for free. The 49th and final Prime Gaming exotic package will include a timed-exclusive shader and will be available through Mar. 7, so make sure to log in and claim your rewards before they leave for good.

Exodus, the upcoming action-adventure RPG from former BioWare veterans, is now also being worked on by a Halo and Call of Duty support studio.

Former Mass Effect and Dragon Age director and BioWare general manager Aaryn Flynn says he "wouldn't go back" to the RPG studio.

With only eight days left before the early access launch of Nightingale, their debut survival crafting game, Inflexion Games invited media to a remote presentation that served to recap what the game will be all about while also sharing some new details.

EXODUS was one of the most interesting game reveals at The Game Awards 2023. It is the debut project of Archetype Entertainment, an Austin-based studio helmed by former BioWare legend James Ohlen (who worked on classics like the first Baldur's Gate games, Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and Dragon Age: Origins) and owned by Wizards of the Coast. Shortly after its foundation, the studio was joined by another ex BioWare veteran: writer Drew Karpyshyn, known mostly as the lead writer of the acclaimed first two Mass Effect games.

These days games suffering last-minute delays has become routine, but don’t worry – while the release date for Nightingale is changing, it’s not a delay. Today the Inflexion Games, the new Edmonton-based studio founded by former BioWare general manager Aaryn Flynn, announced that Nightingale will actually be coming out two days earlier than expected. Wisely, this change has been made to ensure the co-op survival game will be running smoothly by the weekend, which is likely when most people will be jumping in.

When it comes to sequels, especially sequels of “groundbreaking titles” that have the potential for great expansion, the expectation is that the second title will always be better than the first. Whether it’s video games, movies, or certain other properties, people look forward to the sequels because they want to see what people do next. When it came to Bioware and their spacefaring franchise, they set the table pretty well with their original game, but when Mass Effect 2 was released fourteen years ago, gamers feasted. Fourteen years later, we still look back at that title with awe and reverence for all the right reasons.

People Can Fly, the developer behind 2021's surprise shooter hit Outriders, has laid off more than 30 employees. This news comes by way of Kotaku, which reports that its source with knowledge of the situation said the job cuts affected only staff working on an unannounced game at the studio, codenamed Project Gemini, that is to be published by Square Enix. 

Months after Baldur’s Gate 3’s release, I continue to be haunted by one man. His face shows up on all of my feeds, he’s been the center of a few fan furors, and he feels like the natural evolution of some of my most beloved BioWare companions. I remain fascinated by Astarion, who has more than earned his place in the hall of fame of RPG allies, and I am not alone.

It turns out open-world survival game Nightingale has some truly horrible monsters to throw at you.

Last year was one of the best years for game releases but easily one of the worst for the people who made them, with more than 10,000 workers laid off by various companies, including Microsoft, Epic Games, BioWare, Bungie, Naughty Dog, and many more. Unfortunately, it seems this heartbreaking trend is continuing into this new year as yesterday, Bloomberg reported that Amazon-owned streaming company Twitch is set to lay off 500 employees, or about 35 percent of its staff. 

Video game engine creator Unity is laying off 1800 employees, or 25% of its workforce, according to a report from Yahoo! Finance. The company announced these layoffs in an internal memo sent out on Monday, January 8. These job cuts follow a turbulent 2023 for the company after it attempted to introduce per-install fees to developers using its game engine before later walking it back. 

Streaming giant Twitch is set to lay off around 500 members of staff this week according to a new report.

Game developer veterans from RPG companies like Obsidian and Bioware say that the temporary death of the CRPG in the early 2000s was down to retailer meddling, as outlined in a series of tweets made just before the holidays.

Genre veterans have explained how retail companies (Best Buy, Walmart, GameStop, and more) contributed to the death of isometric role-playing games. 

Exodus, an upcoming space RPG from genre veterans, will have multiple endings depending on your choices.

The original Baldur's Gate games appear to have leaked for Xbox Game Pass, causing players to reminisce about the bizarre rulesets of the D&D editions they were based on.

The Mass Effect Trilogy’s former lead writer reveals his next sci-fi game is more action-oriented, rather than the RPG you might expect from such a BioWare veteran.

Something we’re seeing more and more of in recent years is once-established game developers changing on the inside and becoming something that gamers don’t recognize. That might sound very “doom and gloom” but it’s the truth, and Bioware is an excellent example of this concept. They were once an “underdog” developer that made some of the best RPG titles around, with Mass Effect being one of its “crown jewels.” But, over time, they started to lose the people who made the place special. EA bought them, and now they’re a shell of their former selves.

Anthem remains one of the biggest and most high-profile failures in gaming in recent years, but while that’s been abundantly clear where its critical reception is concerned, details on its commercial performance have been less clear, owing to the fact that EA has never shared sales numbers for the looter shooter. Now, however, some information may have emerged on that front.