I first got acquainted with Bioware around 1996 when the first original copy of Shattered Steel (published by Interplay) hit the local shelves. I used to kid around how that title mimicked the Mechwarrior series, but by the time I was able to play Baldur’s Gate, me and my league of RPG buddies have been spending money on them ever since! Recently, they’ve been getting a lot of attention at E3 with their previews of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, their first bid into the MMOG realm. Not to mention, right before SWOTOR news started coming, we were happily going at their latest RPG releases Dragon Age Origins and Mass Effect. I have to admit that from the time I saw the Shattered Steel title I was already impressed by how they wrapped their process around telling a great story.
The company was formed in Canada in 1995 by its founders Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeshuk, and Augustine Yip. Through the period of 1998 up to 2004, they were able to consistently produce strong franchise titles such as Baldur’s Gate, MDK, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, and what I think is their strongest franchise, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Through those releases they had also developed publishing relationships with Interplay (via Black Isle Studios), Atari, LucasArts, and Microsoft. Most of which were really good decisions on their part since its been able to keep the main development company alive and kicking for over a decade now when such other big names from the 90’s has disappeared such as Sierra and Macroprose.
Their biggest break was how the market reacted to Star Wars: Knights of the Old republic when it was released in 2003. It sold like hotcakes, it had a great story, and it seemed only secondary that the gameplay was amazing for its time.
In 2005 there were some big changes that came to Bioware. First of these was a big change in corporate status. It was previously announced then that Bioware shall be merging with Pandemic Studios. It was later announced in October of 2007 that this new partnership had been bought out by Electronic Arts. To today though, Bioware has maintained its own strong branding as not to be overshadowed by one of the largest corporation shareholders (EA).
Now, we at the Tukko Labs can’t wait to see what they’ll have in store for us come the release date of Star Wars: The Old Republic. We honestly hope it blows Star Wars Galaxies out of the water.
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