Star Wars: The Old Republic has been around for well over two decades now, and though it did not get off to the best start upon its launch back in 2011, over the years, BioWare’s MMORPG has continued to improve and build a steady and sizeable player base. Now, however, it seems the studio is ready to fully move on from the project.
As per a report published by IGN, BioWare is looking to shift the entirety of its focus to single player development, and more specifically, its two upcoming projects- Dragon Age: Dreadwolf and the next mainline Mass Effect game. To that end, Star Wars: The Old Republic is set to go third party and be taken over by an external studio.
As per the report, EA is on the verge of agreeing a deal with Ultima Online and Dark Age of Camelot developer Broadsword Online. While EA will continue to publish the MMORPG, all future development and support will allegedly be handheld by Broadsword.
IGN’s report also states that of the 70-80 people currently part of the development team at BioWare that handles Star Wars: The Old Republic, more than half will move to Broadsword Online. Of the remaining employees, while some will be allowed to seek vacant roles elsewhere at EA, others will be facing layoffs.
For now, neither EA nor BioWare have provided an official statement on the situation.
As for BioWare’s upcoming titles, the studio confirmed in October last year that Dragon Age: Dreadwolf was continuing to make progress behind the scenes and was in a fully playable state. Leaks emerged not long afterward, offering a look at the game’s revamped action-focused combat system. However, EA recently confirmed that the RPG won’t be launching before April 2024 at the earliest.
Meanwhile, the next Mass Effect, which was officially confirmed to be in development back in 2020, has had little to no concrete updates from BioWare in the time since then, though the developer did share a brief and mysterious teaser late last year.
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