26 Facts About BioWare

BioWare is a Canadian video game developer based in Edmonton, Alberta.

BioWare specializes in role-playing video games, and achieved recognition for developing highly praised and successful licensed franchises: Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

In 2011, BioWare launched their first massively multiplayer online role-playing game, Star Wars: The Old Republic.

BioWare was incorporated on 1 February 1995, though formally launched on 22 May 1995.

When Interplay financed "exploratory development", BioWare presented the publishers with a demo called Battleground: Infinity.

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MDK2 drew the same level of praise as its predecessor but, despite the success, BioWare returned to the Baldur's Gate series for their next project.

Subsequently, BioWare began to work with Infogrames, which was later renamed to Atari.

BioWare therefore became a unit of EA, but retained its own branding.

In 2007, BioWare released the science fiction role-playing game Mass Effect.

The following year, BioWare released Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood on the Nintendo DS, its first title for a handheld game console.

Later, EA announced that BioWare would be merged with Mythic Entertainment, another division of EA, so that they could have all of their role-playing game development in one business unit.

On 2 March 2009, BioWare announced it had opened a new studio in Montreal, Quebec, to assist with existing projects as necessary.

Ray Muzyka, co-founder and general manager of BioWare, was appointed the Group general manager of this newly formed "BioWare Group".

BioWare's studios remained unchanged and continued to report to Muzyka.

In January 2010, BioWare released the sequel to Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2, which would go on to receive critical acclaim and many awards.

BioWare announced that it would be opening up a new customer service office in Galway, Ireland, in 2011.

On 18 September 2012, the next day after the official announcement of the third Dragon Age title, both Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk, two of the remaining co-founders of BioWare, simultaneously announced they would be retiring from the gaming industry.

At E3 2014, BioWare Edmonton announced working on a new original intellectual property in addition to continuing their established series.

On 24 September 2019, it was announced that BioWare had moved from their old location on Calgary Trail into 3 stories of the Epcor Tower in downtown Edmonton.

Between 1998 and 2011, BioWare developed a number of in-house video game engines to serve as technical basis for their games.

When Beamdog sought out a license from BioWare and started engineering enhanced versions of these games in 2012, they created an updated version Infinity Engine, referred to as the "Infinity Enhanced Engine".

BioWare used the Aurora Engine to produce their 2002 Neverwinter Nights, as well as two expansion packs.

Obsidian Entertainment used an updated version of BioWare's Aurora, titled "Electron Engine", to produce Neverwinter Nights 2 and its three expansion packs.

BioWare used an updated version of the Aurora, titled the Odyssey Engine, to produce Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic in 2003 and their first original intellectual property role-playing game Jade Empire in 2005.

BioWare maintained limited oversight on Obsidian's development of The Sith Lords, as well as Neverwinter Nights 2.

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In September 2004, BioWare acquired a license to use Unreal Engine 3 from developer Epic Games.