Arcanaut StudiosArguably, the biggest announcement at last week’s Game Awards was Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic. The brief CG-trailer suggests it will be a spiritual successor to one of the best games ever made, and one that will acknowledge established lore. It was a surprise that most didn’t see coming, punctuated by the fact that Casey Hudson — the director of the original Knights of the Old Republic and the Mass Effect trilogy — would be leading its development.But while I was excited as both a Star Wars fan and an RPG fan, I couldn’t help but mourn the developer that was once the genre’s industry leader. Fate of the Old Republic doesn’t just mark the beginning of a new chapter for Star Wars video games; it feels like the definitive closing of the book on the old BioWare.Like most developers fortunate enough to keep its doors open for over three decades, BioWare is very different than it was 15 years ago. Many of the founding members and senior staff have left the developer for greener pastures. A newer generation has stepped up to steer the ship, and so far, it’s delivered a decent vision for how BioWare’s legacy franchises will continue.If Dragon Age: The Veilguard is a starting point for this new era of BioWare, then it gave me hope that they’re on the right path. For all its shortcomings, Veilguard showed that it still understands the core tenets of what made BioWare games so memorable: strong characters, impactful stories, and fun combat. If given the chance to make a game without the well-documented publisher meddling that hamstrung most of The Veilguard’s lengthy development, I don’t doubt that the current BioWare could make another classic.That said, it’s clear that BioWare is rebuilding in the hopes of reaching the heights it once conquered. And in the decade between 2014’s Dragon Age: Inquisition and The Veilguard, other teams have stepped up to fill the void, some of which are led by the very talent that pushed BioWare to the top.Considering EA’s partnership with Lucasfilm Games, it always seemed well within the realm of possibility that BioWare would get another stab at a Star Wars game. It would be a perfect opportunity to put the new BioWare back on the map in a way The Veilguard and live-service flop Anthem couldn’t. But clearly, the powers that be at Disney don’t feel the same way, instead opting to hand the follow-up to a new studio led by the guy behind gaming’s greatest sci-fi trilogy.Archetype Entertainment’s Exodus is giving me all the Mass Effect vibes I’ve sorely missed. | Archetype Entertainment’s Speaking of Mass Effect, it’s been an inexplicable eight years since the series had a new game. BioWare confirmed that a new one is on the way, but EA entering a multi-billion dollar buyout deal leveraged by Saudi Arabia suggests its parent company will become more profit-focused than ever. Even at their most popular, BioWare’s critically acclaimed RPGs never reached the same level of popularity as EA’s more mainstream hits like Madden and FIFA, and I would be shocked if the effort to minimize EA’s losses doesn’t impact Mass Effect’s future.Meanwhile, several veteran developers who worked on BioWare’s sci-fi series have spun out to create the upcoming Exodus, which looks like the Mass Effect successor that EA and BioWare have failed to deliver for years now. While we’re still months away from its release, I’m more confident that Exodus will fill the Mass Effect-shaped hole in my heart than BioWare can under EA’s purview.BioWare’s legacy being continued elsewhere has become an ongoing trend. Earlier this year, Corinne Busche, the BioWare vet who miraculously got The Veilguard across the finish line, announced that she was leaving the developer to head up a new game for Wizards of the Coast.Dragon Age: The Veilguard felt like the start of a new era for BioWare, not a continuation of what it once was. | BioWareThe last few years have repeatedly reminded us that the RPG landscape has shifted. It was Larian Studios that finally gave players the Baldur’s Gate game of their dreams, not BioWare. CD Projekt Red, with Cyberpunk 2077, has taken up the mantle of creating immersive worlds players want to get lost in. Looking beyond BioWare, it’s studios like Warhorse that have pushed Bethesda’s beloved formula to the next level with games like Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, all while the Maryland-based Elder Scrolls developer struggles to keep fans happy. In 2025, it feels like yesterday’s major players in the RPG space are no longer leading the charge.For years, I’ve held out hope that BioWare could return to its glory days without having to start from square one. Even misses like Anthem and divisive games like The Veilguard were the result of external factors, rather than BioWare losing its way. But games like Fate of the Old Republic and Exodus drive home that even with talented people still at the studio, they’re up against the studio’s legacy continuing elsewhere. I’m optimistic that BioWare can continue to be a great contributor to the RPG genre, but whatever comes next will be radically different from what once was.