《博德之门3》的Swen Vincke回应BioWare关停：未来RPG讨论中不再有其名

EA has confirmed that it is shuttering BioWare, the developer behind fantasy greats like Dragon Age, Neverwinter Nights, and Baldur's Gate, sci-fi legends like Mass Effect, and the long-running MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic. In a public statement, the company notes that "BioWare is closing and early development on the next Mass Effect project is ending." This is accompanied by around 400 layoffs, according to Bloomberg.

An internal email, obtained by Vertical Slice sees EA's Chief Studios Officer Cam Weber and COO David Tinson call BioWare a "legendary studio that helped define the role-playing genre," going on to state that it "[does] not take this decision lightly." It's unclear whether or not the company attempted to sell BioWare or any of its IPs.

My reaction was utter shock. I was chatting away on the phone to my mom when I spotted BioWare's black-and-white post on X, and quite honestly, it breaks my heart. That sentiment is echoed across the videogame industry, with outpourings of support from the likes of Remedy (Control), Owlcat (Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous), and Telltale (The Walking Dead).

Larian CEO and Baldur's Gate 3 icon, Swen Vincke, has also reposted the image with some thoughts of his own. "This is not something I ever expected to see," he writes. "Larian and BioWare started their trajectories in the games industry at the same time and BioWare led the way in making RPGs big. It's almost unimaginable that we're now entering an era were the name BioWare won't show up anymore when discussing upcoming RPGs. What a loss for all of us."

"Thank you for all the games. Thank you for the many hours of gameplay. Thank you for all the stories. You can be damned proud of what you achieved. I hope you all land well."

I'm not sure why, but the "BioWare won't show up anymore" just got me. As someone who considers Dragon Age: Origins as one of her formative videogame experiences, I don't think I ever believed it would come to this. While the commercial failure of Dragon Age: The Veilguard is likely the reason behind this decision, I expected to at least get a new Mass Effect before EA threw in the towel. IGN has reported that Amazon's ME TV show is still going ahead as planned, which is somewhat of a plus, but generally, I just feel like I'm somewhat in mourning. It's a really horrible feeling.

This isn't unexpected, however. Former Dragon Age Lead Writer David Gaider told me that the series "was not a good match" for EA, with Mass Effect being EA's preference of the two franchises. It's also worth noting that, following the leveraged $55 billion EA buyout (with stakeholders that include Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, as well as Jared Kusher's Affinity Partners) the company has been saddled with, as reported by the BBC, $20 million of debt. BiowWre's closure, in many ways, felt like it was on the cards.

That doesn't make it any easier, though. I was hoping BioWare would get picked up by someone new, or simply go independent. But here we are, on a Thursday morning, lamenting the death of another industry titan. One day, I hope that stops.