Though it was just announced on Wednesday that the legendary Canadian game studio BioWare was shutting down, it did not come as a shock.
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it → announce → shock
Many of us already mourned it years ago when it was clear that the company had become a Ship-of-Theseus simulacrum of the original.
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company → mourn → original
Back in its era of peak performance, BioWare delivered a steady stream of hits.
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BioWare → deliver → hits
The company’s 1998 Baldur’s Gate packed the rules and lore of Dungeons and Dragons into a game similar in calibre to Blizzard’s Diablo and Warcraft.
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Gate → pack → Diablo
The sequel, Baldur’s Gate 2, still tops best games of all time lists.
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sequel → top → lists
Later, BioWare proved it could bring its formula for rich characters, story and combat to its own original worlds.
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it → prove → worlds
In 2009, Dragon Age: Origins updated fantasy adventuring for modern tech and grew into a trilogy by 2014 Game of the Year winnerDragon Age: Inquisition.
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Age → update → Age
But it was the Mass Effect science fiction trilogy, with releases in 2007, 2010 and 2012, that catapulted the studio from maker of niche role-playing games into a AAA developer.
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that → catapult → developer
The great pull of a flagship BioWare game in those days came down to the writing: the epic story arc at the centre of a given franchise would play out differently depending on the player’s choices in the game.
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arc → come → game
Some choices could mean the death of an entire people; some could kill off a beloved character — and there were many of those, because they had their own flaws, motivations and unique relationships to the protagonist which would grow and change for better or worse as the story progressed.
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story → mean → protagonist
Player agency truly mattered.
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agency → matter → ?
For the Canadian fans, there was extra pride in BioWare’s success because the beating heart of the machine was in Edmonton.
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heart → be → Edmonton
The studio’s three founders, Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuck and Augustine Yip, met at the University of Alberta while studying medicine and taking on related programming projects.
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founders → meet → projects
They drew much of their staff from local sources.
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They → draw → sources
The lead writer of the first two Mass Effect games, Drew Karpyshyn, grew up in an Edmonton suburb and was working on a Master’s degree in English at the University of Alberta when a writing position at BioWare was advertised in the faculty newsletter.
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position → grow → newsletter
He got the job, and minus a three-year break that he took to work on a book series, he remained with BioWare until 2018.
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he → get → 2018
Preston Watamaniuk, lead designer of the entire Mass Effect trilogy, studied political science and history, and then worked a garbage route in Edmonton for several years before getting his start at BioWare.
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Watamaniuk → study → BioWare
The lead writer of the Dragon Age trilogy, David Gaider, was running a hotel in Edmonton when he actually turned BioWare down for a writing job — he noted to an interviewer in 2023 that the pay was low and the office was sketchy, as it was in its early days — but changed his mind when the hotel was sold shortly thereafter.
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hotel → run → mind
He left in 2016.
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He → leave → 2016
James Ohlen, the lead designer and co-lead writer of Baldur’s Gate, co-lead designer and lead writer of Baldur’s Gate II, and co-lead designer of Dragon Age: Origins, ran a comic-book and gaming store in Grande Prairie, Alta., five hours north of Edmonton, prior to being drafted by BioWare.
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Ohlen → run → BioWare
Eventually, he’d go on to found BioWare’s Texas studio.
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he → go → studio
He left the company in 2018.
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He → leave → 2018
That’s not the full cast, but you get the picture.
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you → ’ → picture
A bunch of hometowners with a passion for games somehow converged at the right moment to create something for the whole world to enjoy.
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world → converge → something
Then began the decline.
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decline → begin → ?
In 2017, BioWare returned to the Mass Effect franchise with a fourth title, Mass Effect: Andromeda, a separate story from the original trilogy set in an entirely different galaxy.
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BioWare → return → galaxy
It was far from the polished product that fans were used to: the game was packed with glitches on release and its uncanny-valley facial animations distracted from the story.
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animations → use → story
Andromeda also lacked one of the great sources of humour in the previous installments: the morality system and corresponding dialogue choices that allowed one to play as an absolute jerk.
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one → lack → jerk
Players and reviewers alike noted the flat, unreactive dialogue.
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Players → note → dialogue
The gossip that followed pointed to a litany of problems throughout development: understaffing; burnout; technical problems; outsourcing to Russia, China and India; choices made too late; wasted time; complications from working across three studios (BioWare by that time had Montreal and Austin locations in addition to Edmonton); personnel and leadership coming and going.
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personnel → follow → Edmonton
While there are no official sales figures for the fourth Mass Effect installment, the estimate from gaming data website VGChartz is three million copies.
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estimate → be → VGChartz
This became a chronic condition at BioWare.
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This → become → BioWare
In 2019, it released Anthem, an unremarkable multiplayer sci-fi shooter that struggled to attract a playerbase and had been crippled in the womb by many of the same forces that afflicted Andromeda.
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that → release → Andromeda
The game’s servers were shut down in early 2026, rendering it impossible for anyone who bought it to play it.
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who → shut → it
A final push for survival was made with Dragon Age: The Veilguard in 2024.
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push → make → 2024
It was highly anticipated by BioWare fans, who were by now starving for a story-rich adventure on par with the hits of the 2000s and early 2010s.
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who → anticipate → 2000s
It had been a decade since the last good BioWare game was released.
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game → release → ?
Oh, how they yearned.
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they → yearn → ?
Veilguard quickly became known for nauseating social preaching that grated violently on its weary audience.
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that → know → audience
Instead of transporting its players to another world and giving them a break from real life, it beat them over the head with COVID-era gender politics.
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it → transport → politics
…and 24 more, not listed.
The Aporia
