BioWare

Overview

BioWare is a Canadian development studio owned by Electronic Arts. It is most famous for its highly praised role-playing games including Baldur's Gate and the Mass Effect series. There are currently five studios under the BioWare banner including BioWare Edmonton, BioWare Austin, BioWare Montreal, BioWare Ireland, and BioWare Mythic. The developer has received multiple awards including Spike TV's 2010 Video Game Awards: Studio of the Year.

History

Bioware is one of the most acclaimed RPG developers in the western world. It was founded in February 1995 by Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk, and Augustine Yip. Zeschuk and Muzyka previously completed medical degrees at the University of Alberta. Zeschuk has recently finished his MBA at Queen's School of Business. Yip left the company in 1997 to return to medicine, but Zeschuk and Muzyka remained and still acted as heads of the studio untill they left the company in 2012.

Bioware is famous for such Dungeon and Dragons inspired games as Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights. The company originally developed games exclusively for the PC platform, but In 2003 the company released Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic for the Xbox in collaboration with LucasArts. This game was the first of several games that Bioware would develop for Microsoft's consoles. It was followed in 2004 by Jade Empire and in 2007 by Mass Effect for the Xbox 360. In 2005 Bioware merged with fellow developer Pandemic Studios.

Acquisition by EA

Soon after releasing Mass Effect, Bioware and Pandemic were purchased by publishing giant Electronic Arts. Ray Muzyka became a general manager and senior vice president at Electronic Arts after he and Zeschuk sold the company. Under EA, BioWare has been releasing games on both the Xbox 360 and the PS3. Their first multi-platform release together was Dragon Age: Origins in Nov. 2009, dubbed a spiritual successor to the Baldur's Gate series. Less than three months later, they released the award winning Mass Effect 2.

On Mar. 2, 2009 BioWare announced that they were opening a new studio under EA Montreal. The studio is composed of about 30 people and it is unknown what game they are currently working on. Rumors suggest it is in the Mass Effect universe which was later confirmed. The studio worked on parts of Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3.

In December 2011 Bioware launched their most ambitious game called Star Wars: The Old Republic; a MMORPG with a payed subscription model at launch.

Bioware is currently working on the third installment of the Dragon Age series.

Engines

Bioware along with developing games, has created several Engines, including the Infinity Engine, Aurora Engine, and the Odyssey Engine. Their latest is the Eclipse Engine that powers the Dragon Age series.

For Mass Effect they used the Unreal 3 engine.

Awards

• In 2010, co-founders Ray Muzyka & Greg Zeschuk were inducted into the AIAS Hall of Fame.
• BioWare were awarded in the "Best Studio" category at Spike VGA 2010.

Games

Game	Platform(s)	Release Date	Genre(s)
Shattered Steel	DOS, Mac OS	September 30, 1996	Sci-fi mech simulator
Baldur’s Gate	Microsoft Windows, Mac OS	November 30. 1998	RPG
Baldur’s Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast	Microsoft Windows, Mac OS	April 30, 1999	RPG
MDK2	Dreamcast, Microsoft Windows, Playstation 2, Wii	Dreamcast - March 21, 2000 Microsoft Windows - May 21, 2000 PlayStation 2 - March 26, 2001 Wii - May 9, 2011	Third-person shooter
Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn	Microsoft Windows, Mac OS	September 24, 2000	RPG
Baldur’s Gate II: Throne	Microsoft Windows, Mac OS	June 21, 2001	RPG
Neverwinter Nights	Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux	Microsoft Windows - June 18, 2002 Mac OS - August 2003 Linux - June 20, 2003	RPG
Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide	Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux	Microsoft Windows - June 21, 2003 Mac OS X - August 2003 Linux - June 30, 2003	RPG
Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark	Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux	Microsoft Windows - December 2, 2003 Mac OS X - August 2004 Linux - December 17, 2003	RPG
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic	Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Xbox	Microsoft Windows - November 19, 2003 Mac OS X - September 7, 2004 Xbox - July 15, 2003 Steam - September 5, 2009 App Store - February 18, 2011	Sci-fi, Fantasy, RPG
Jade Empire	Microsoft Windows XP, Mac OS X, Xbox, Xbox 360	Microsoft Windows XP - February 26, 2007 Mac OS X - August 18, 2008 Xbox - April 12, 2005 Xbox Originals - July 21, 2008	Action, RPG
Mass Effect	Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360	Microsoft Windows - May 28, 2008 Xbox 360 - November 16, 2007	RPG
Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood	Nintendo DS	September 30, 2008	RPG
Mass Effect Galaxy	IOS	June 22, 2009	Action, RPG
Dragon Age: Origins	Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Mac OS X	Xbox 360 & Microsoft Windows - November 3, 2009 PlayStation 3 - November 3, 2009 Mac OS X - December 21, 2009	RPG
Mass Effect 2	Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3	Xbox 360 & Microsoft Windows - January 26, 2010 PlayStation 3 - January 18, 2011	Action, RPG
Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening	Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Mac OS X	March 16, 2010	RPG
Dragon Age II	Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Mac OS X	March 8, 2011	RPG
Star Wars: The Old Republic	Microsoft Windows	December 20, 2011	MMORPG
Mass Effect 3	Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3	March 6, 2012	Action, RPG
Dragon Age 3	Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3	TBA	RPG