BioWare recently made a big announce regarding their next game, Shadow Realms. It just so happens this game is being made at BioWare Austin. That would be the same folks who are responsible for SWTOR. So I have to admit I was a little surprised as I figured most of the studio was wrapped up in SWTOR.
In fact, my Twitter feed lit up with BioWare folks saying they were so happy they could finally talk about the project they have been working on, Shadow Realms. I followed most, if not all of them, when they were on the SWTOR team. As far as I knew, they were still on that same team.
So what does it mean that a number of SWTOR developers have actually been working on Shadow Realms? I'm not really sure. By all accounts, SWTOR is doing pretty well. They have a packed schedule for the remainder of the year with Galactic Strongholds and 3.0 all coming out. The latest fiscal report also mentions SWTOR in a positive light.
There are also a lot of unknowns, of course. Did they hire new people to take the places of those who went to work on the new project? Are some of them just splitting time? I could see writers doing that, as there is only so much to do for an already released game.
On the other end of the spectrum, I do have some experiences with this not working out. Warhammer Online and Wrath of Heroes comes to mind. Resources were spent on the new game which probably could have been spent on WAR. In the end, it did not take off and was closed down. Pity though, I enjoyed WoH.
Overall, I'm not too worried about SWTOR's future. How about you? As for Shadow Realms, I'm not really in the market for a co-op game. We'll see how much of it is solo accessible.
Thursday, August 14, 2014
What does Shadow Realms mean for SWTOR?
