BioWare

BioWare was a Canadian studio based in Edmonton, Alberta. It was founded by three newly qualified doctors from the University of Alberta, Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk and Augustine Yip, who had programmed a medical simulation together and played games in their spare time. The three put up the starting capital themselves; the company was incorporated on 1 February 1995 and launched that May. Its first game was Shattered Steel (1996), published by Interplay.

Working with Interplay and the Dungeons & Dragons licence, it made Baldur's Gate (1998) on its Infinity Engine, which other studios later used for Planescape: Torment. Next came MDK2, its first console game, Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn (2000), Neverwinter Nights (2002), whose module toolset built a large player community, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (2003), made with LucasArts. In 2005 it released Jade Empire, its first role-playing game based on its own intellectual property.

Electronic Arts bought BioWare on 11 October 2007, a month before Mass Effect came out. Under EA it released Dragon Age: Origins (2009), Mass Effect 2 (2010), game of the year at the Interactive Achievement Awards and the BAFTAs, Star Wars: The Old Republic (2011), its first massively multiplayer online role-playing game, and Mass Effect 3 (2012), whose ending caused such controversy that the studio released an 'Extended Cut'. Muzyka and Zeschuk retired in 2012. Dragon Age: Inquisition (2014) became its best-selling game.

Difficult years followed on EA's Frostbite engine: Mass Effect: Andromeda (2017) split critics and Anthem (2019) fell short of the publisher's hopes. After Mass Effect: Legendary Edition (2021), Dragon Age: The Veilguard (2024) also missed EA's expectations. Once the takeover of EA by a group led by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund had closed, it was announced in October 2026 that BioWare would be shut down and the next Mass Effect cancelled.