{"id":1328514,"date":"2025-09-18T16:03:35","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T16:03:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rySfrKuJFPDjjQksdyT9q5"},"modified":"2025-09-18T16:03:35","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T16:03:35","slug":"now-that-im-done-mourning-bioware-these-are-the-rpg-developers-im-expecting-to-carry-the-torch-for-the-next-decade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/now-that-im-done-mourning-bioware-these-are-the-rpg-developers-im-expecting-to-carry-the-torch-for-the-next-decade\/","title":{"rendered":"Now that I’m done mourning BioWare, these are the RPG developers I’m expecting to carry the torch for the next decade"},"content":{"rendered":"
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BioWare fans can never agree on which era of the studio was its peak\u2014classic Baldur’s Gate 2, the original Mass Effect, or (correctly) Dragon Age: Origins\u2014but there’s no debating that it was the frontrunner in a golden era for RPGs that influenced at least a decade of other games.<\/p>\n

If that sounds like the beginning of a eulogy\u2026yeah. It isn’t technically dead, and there’s a universe where BioWare makes some incredible comeback with Mass Effect 4, but I don’t think it’s this one. After Andromeda, Anthem, and Veilguard, it seems that no matter the talent still left in the studio, EA just isn’t going to give BioWare<\/a> the time or trust to make the kind of RPGs it originally spearheaded anymore. I’m finally ready to let go.<\/p>\n

If you too are mourning the studio’s effective downfall, rest assured that the BioWare-style RPG lives on elsewhere. My colleague Fraser Brown insisted back in 2023 that the BioWare-style RPG was dead<\/a> and just didn’t know it yet. At the time I almost even agreed, but two years later it feels like we’ve finally arrived breathless at a tough summit to look down into a valley of plenty in the big-budget, story-forward party RPG scene.<\/p>\n

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\"Astarion<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>

(Image credit: Larian)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Larian Studios<\/h2>\n