BioWare Lives On: Here Are All The Post-BioWare Projects Currently In Production
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Summary
Almost two decades after its controversial acquisition by Electronic Arts, beloved RPG studio BioWare is no more . Though the news hit longtime fans hard, all hope for BioWare’s signature style of narrative-forward RPG is not lost. The studio may be gone, but the creative minds behind Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Knights of the Old Republic, Baldur’s Gate, and more continue to work in the industry--and we’re tracking down the projects where that BioWare DNA lives on. Tracking BioWare’s legacy is a tricky task, as every fan will pinpoint a different period in the studio’s 31-year history as its undisputed golden age. Some may look all the way back to the genre-defining release of Baldur’s Gate 2, even though the studio’s best-selling games were yet to come. The Mass Effect trilogy is undeniably among BioWare’s most iconic releases, but EA’s influence shows itself in Mass Effect 2’s reduced scope and Mass Effect 3’s awkward multiplayer integration. Dragon Age: Inquisition, which was celebrated as BioWare’s most successful launch in history, was developed after a major changing of the guard following the departure of studio founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk. Even then, 14 years before the studio’s eventual closure, anxiety about EA’s stewardship of the company was high. In a 2016 interview, BioWare General Manager Aaryn Flynn told Game Informer that, following the departure of the studio’s founders, the team felt the need to prove “we weren’t going to follow the apocryphal stories of EA crushing every other studio it buys under its thumb.” The studio itself was an ever-changing Ship of Theseus of creative talent, facing EA-mandated layoffs, subsidiary studio closures, staff departures, and the occasional return. The good news for fans of BioWare--no matter which era they hold dear--is that many of those creatives are still out there developing games with distinctly BioWare flair. Arcanaut Studios If you’re looking for the project with the most direct BioWare lineage, look no further than Arcanaut Studios’ Star Wars: Fate of the Republic . As well as being an explicit spiritual successor to BioWare’s iconic Star Wars RPG, Fate of the Republic is helmed by Mass Effect director Casey Hudson, with a team full of BioWare vets--including people who worked on the original KOTOR. Alongside Hudson, Arcanaut’s ex-BioWare talent includes: Senior technical designer Dan Fessenden, who worked on both KOTOR and The Old Republic as a programmer Chief technical officer Ryan Hoyle, who was a programmer on KOTOR and most of BioWare’s games from Neverwinter Nights all the way through to Dragon Age: Veilguard Director of external development Melanie Faulknor, who was a project manager on The Old Republic, as well as multiple Mass Effect and Dragon Age titles Director of production Caroline Livingstone, who worked as a voice director at BioWare on the Mass Effect and Dragon Age games, as well as others as early as Jade Empire We’re still facing a long wait for Fate of the Old Republic, though Hudson has promised that it will definitely be out before 2030 . Of course, Old Republic fans can still enjoy the BioWare-developed MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic , which was saved from BioWare’s fate when EA handed management of the online game over to Broadsword Online Games in 2023. The MMO even has a new expansion, Masters of the Force, releasing soon. Archetype Entertainment The other AAA studio carrying BioWare’s banner is Archetype Entertainment, the Wizards of the Coast subsidiary that tapped a number of notable BioWare alumni. Archetype’s BioWare veterans include: Former studio head James Ohlen, who was the lead designer on BioWare’s Baldur’s Gate games, as well as KOTOR, Neverwinter Nights, and Dragon Age: Origins Creative director Jesse Sky, who worked as the lead designer on The Old Republic post-launch VP and general manager Chad Robertson, who worked at BioWare as a head of technology and studio director Lead writer Drew Karpyshyn, who was the lead writer on KOTOR and Mass Effect 1 and 2 Archetype is currently working on Exodus, an epic sci-fi project that’s showing more than a little Mass Effect influence in its design and worldbuilding. Though the timing may just be coincidence, Exodus released a new tease just after the BioWare shutdown was announced. Though Exodus is rarely mentioned without some comparison to Mass Effect, early previews suggest the game has what it takes to move out of the shadow of BioWare’s sci-fi behemoth to stand on its own two feet. Set to release on April 7, 2027, Exodus feels well-timed to take some of the sting out of Mass Effect’s cancellation . Ohlen stepped back from Archetype after a major Exodus reveal at The Game Awards, with the former studio head saying he felt his work on the game was complete. Ohlen has shifted his focus back toward tabletop gaming, and his TTRPG company Arcanum Worlds also boasts a number of ex-BioWare employees, including Karpyshyn, Sky, and writer Brent Knowles. Beamdog One of the earliest BioWare spin-off studios, Beamdog was founded in 2009 by BioWare co-founder Trent Oster and former BioWare lead programmer Cameron Tofer. The studio has employed a number of ex-BioWare talent over the years, including Knowles and writer David Gaider. The studio has stayed close to its roots through much of its history, publishing remasters of BioWare’s classic RPGs including Baldur’s Gate 1 and 2, and Neverwinter Nights. Beamdog published an original roguelite based on '80s fantasy cartoons called Mythforce in 2023, though the game received mixed reviews. Summerfall Studios On the indie side of the industry, Dragon Age lead writer Gaider co-founded Summerfall Studios in Melbourne, Australia in 2017, following his departure from Beamdog. Summerfall released Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical in 2023, with a DLC, Stray Gods: Orpheus, following in 2024. The Greek mythology-themed game featured a BioWare-esque dialogue wheel, allowing players to influence the direction of musical numbers in real time. In 2025, Summerfall released a roguelite deckbuilder called Malys. Yellow Brick Games Mike Laidlaw, who served as creative director on the Dragon Age series, founded indie studio Yellow Brick Games in 2020, which released its debut game Eternal Strands in 2024. Citing games like Shadow of the Colossus, Breath of the Wild, and Tears of the Kingdom as inspirations, Eternal Strands features an intricate physics-based combat system. Inflexion Games Inflexion Games is another studio with BioWare heritage, having been founded by former BioWare GM Aaryn Flynn. The studio’s debut game is Nightingale , a survival game set in a unique Victorian-inspired gaslamp fantasy setting, which tasks players with adventuring out into the inhospitable Faewilds. Nightingale released into early access in 2024 and has been generally well received by critics and players in its beta form, though it has struggled with player retention. Earlier this year, Inflexion revealed it has been working as development partner on Conan Exiles Enhanced, which resulted in Nightingale being sidelined for the foreseeable future. North Mist Studios Other post-BioWare projects are still in their early days, with a few indie studios setting up to release their first games. One of these is North Mist Studios, a collaboration between former BioWare writers Mary Kirby and Sylvia Feketekuty, and cinematic director Sarah Hayward. Far from following a traditional game development pipeline, North Mist Studios has been developing the world for its first game project, The Concierge--a spy-thriller office drama about Canadian assassins--through a series of narrative podcasts. While development on the game is coming along slowly, North Mist recently announced that it had secured funding to prototype a smaller game in the same universe called Alone With The Deep, based on its horror audio drama Kinbasket. North Mist has asked for patience from fans waiting for The Concierge while it takes on the side project. “By taking on a much smaller game like Alone With The Deep, we can use it to grow our team, our fan community, and get more funding opportunities to make The Concierge into the best version of itself it can be,” an update on the studio’s Patreon reads . Studio Reset https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_BV5YG1Ozk Earlier this year, the latest coalition of former BioWare devs announced Studio Reset , founded by a trio of BioWare veterans who worked across the Mass Effect and Dragon Age series. The studio’s founders are: Creative director Kaelin Lavallée, a lead narrative designer on Dragon Age Inquisition and Mass Effect Andromeda with credits stretching back to Dragon Age Origins Design director Kris Choneberg, a level designer who worked on Mass Effect 2 and 3 after starting as an intern on the first Mass Effect Art director Francis Lacuna, who worked on the Mass Effect and Dragon Age games as an artist for 14 years Studio Reset is currently working on its debut game The Eventide, describing it as a narrative-forward “neon-noir supernatural mystery.” The Reset team is small by design, with the aim to keep its development intentional and player-focused. Worlds Untold Mac Walters, the writer who brought Garrus Vakarian to life in Mass Effect 1 and 2, founded the studio Worlds Untold in 2023, with financial backing from NetEase. Worlds Untold had started teasing a new sci-fi intellectual property when NetEase pulled funding in 2024--in the same week as Hudson’s former studio Humanoid Origin faced the same fate. Worlds Untold has been quiet since 2024. However, it still has a website and social media pages. “While we're pausing for now, this isn't goodbye--there's more to come, and we look forward to sharing the next chapter with you when the time is right,” Walters wrote on the studio’s LinkedIn page at the time. BioWare’s Legacy While this is just a selection of studios and projects that can be traced directly back to BioWare, the studio’s impact on the games industry as a whole can be seen across the RPG space--even on games with no ex-BioWare staff. The industry is full of creatives who grew up on games like Baldur’s Gate, Knights of the Old Republic, Dragon Age, and Mass Effect, and brought that influence into their own work . If you want concrete evidence of BioWare’s legacy outliving its own messy history, look no further than the incredible success of Larian Studios’ Baldur’s Gate 3. BioWare’s influence is plainly visible throughout BG3, in the way it combines its epic fantasy story with the more personal narratives of relationship building. “BioWare led the way in making RPGs big,” Larian boss Swen Vinke said in a recent post, reacting to BioWare’s closure. “It's almost unimaginable that we're now entering an era where the name BioWare won't show up anymore when discussing upcoming RPGs.”
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