BioWare is a Canadian video game company located in Edmonton, Alberta. It was started in 1995 by three doctors who recently finished medical school: Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk, and Augustine Yip. Since 2007, the company has been owned by an American company called Electronic Arts.

BioWare focuses on creating role-playing video games. It became well-known for making popular games based on existing properties, such as Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Later, the company developed other successful games with original ideas, including Jade Empire, the Mass Effect series, and the Dragon Age series. In 2011, BioWare released its first massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), called Star Wars: The Old Republic.

History

BioWare was started by Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk, and Augustine Yip. At the time, Muzyka, Zeschuk, and Yip had recently finished medical school at the University of Alberta and had experience with programming for school projects. Together with Yip, they created a medical simulation program. They also enjoyed playing video games, which led them to decide to develop their own. Their success in the medical field gave them the money needed to start a video game company. To fund their first game, each of the three founders contributed $100,000 Canadian dollars, totaling $300,000. The company was officially started on February 1, 1995, and officially launched on May 22, 1995.

Their first game, Shattered Steel, began as a sample to show the game's potential, similar to the MechWarrior games. This sample was sent to ten publishers, and seven offered to work with BioWare. A publishing deal for Shattered Steel was signed with Interplay Entertainment. Brent Oster and Trent Oster formed Pyrotek Studios to continue developing Shattered Steel, but the studio ended after one year. Trent joined BioWare as an early employee to complete the game. Shattered Steel was released the following year. IGN described the game as a "modest success" with "decent sales." Two notable features were deformable terrain (player weapon damage caused craters in the environment) and zone damage (well-aimed gunfire could remove mounted weapons from enemies). A sequel to Shattered Steel was planned for 1998 but was not completed.

BioWare's founders and staff were interested in both computer and pen-and-paper role-playing games. Their next project was therefore a role-playing game. When Interplay provided funding for "exploratory development," BioWare created a demo called Battleground: Infinity. Interplay suggested that the gameplay engine would work well with the Dungeons & Dragons license it had acquired. Infinity was then redesigned to match the Dungeons & Dragons rules.

The result was Baldur's Gate, which took three years to develop. During this time, the three doctors continued their medical practice. Later, Muzyka and Zeschuk left medicine to focus fully on game development, while Augustine Yip continued his medical career. Baldur's Gate sold more than two million copies after its release, nearly matching the sales of Diablo. The success of Baldur's Gate led to the use of the Infinity Engine for Planescape: Torment and the Icewind Dale series. An expansion pack for Baldur's Gate, called Tales of the Sword Coast, was also released.

At this point, BioWare decided to return to the action genre. Initially, they considered making a sequel to Shattered Steel, but instead chose to develop a sequel to MDK from Shiny Entertainment. MDK2 was released on PC, Dreamcast, and PlayStation 2, giving BioWare their first experience developing games for consoles. MDK2 received praise similar to its predecessor, but BioWare returned to the Baldur's Gate series for their next project.

Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn was released in 2000, two years after Baldur's Gate. Baldur's Gate II sold two million copies, matching the sales of the first game in the series. However, the success of Baldur's Gate II and MDK2 was not enough to help Interplay financially. BioWare then began working with Infogrames, later renamed Atari. Neverwinter Nights was originally planned for publication by Interplay, but the company lost the license to Atari and gave part of its Dungeons & Dragons license to BioWare. After selling the Dungeons & Dragons license to Atari, BioWare developed Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Jade Empire. BioWare had publishing relationships with Interplay Entertainment, Infogrames (later Atari), LucasArts, and Microsoft.

In the following years, BioWare experienced several changes in its corporate structure. In November 2005, it was announced that BioWare and Pandemic Studios (founded by former Activision employees) would join forces, with each keeping their own branding. A private equity fund called Elevation Partners invested in the newly formed VG Holding Corp. partnership. On October 11, 2007, it was announced that VG Holding Corp. was bought by Electronic Arts for $775 million (equivalent to $1.2 billion in 2025). BioWare became part of EA but kept its own branding.

In 2007, BioWare released the science fiction role-playing game Mass Effect. The following year, it released Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood for the Nintendo DS, its first title for a handheld console. Later, EA announced that BioWare would merge with Mythic Entertainment, another EA division, which would be renamed BioWare Mythic after the deal.

The growth of the MMORPG group within Electronic Arts in 2008 led to the addition of three new studios to the BioWare group outside of its original base in Edmonton. The first, in Austin, Texas, led by Gordon Walton and Richard Vogel, was created to work on Star Wars: The Old Republic. The studio and project were announced on March 13, 2006. On March 2, 2009, BioWare opened a new studio in Montreal, Quebec, to assist with existing projects.

During the mid-2000s, BioWare staff worked on several video game projects that were eventually canceled. A handheld spin-off for the Mass Effect franchise titled Mass Effect: Corsair, inspired by the gameplay of Star Control and played from a first-person perspective, was briefly considered for the Nintendo DS in 2008. A sequel to Jade Empire was once in development but transitioned into a spiritual successor called Revolver, which was canceled by 2008. Trent Oster led a team working on a spy-themed role-playing game called Agent before leaving BioWare in 2009. Unused concept art for Agent and Revolver appears in the art book BioWare: Stories and Secrets from 25 Years of Game Development, published in January 2021.

On June 24, 2009, Electronic Arts announced a restructuring of its role-playing and MMORPG development into a new group that included Mythic Entertainment and BioWare. Ray Muzyka, co-founder and general manager of BioWare, was named general manager of the new "BioWare Group." Greg Zeschuk, another co-founder, became the Group Creative Officer for the new MMORPG studio group. BioWare's studios remained unchanged and continued to report to Muzyka. Near the end of 2009, BioWare released the critically acclaimed fantasy role

Technology

Between 1998 and 2011, BioWare created several game engines to help develop their games. Some of these engines were used by other companies to make their own games. Others included tools that allowed fans to create their own adventures using BioWare’s technology.

BioWare developed the Infinity Engine to build the Baldur’s Gate series (1998–2001), which were 2D role-playing games based on Dungeons & Dragons. The same engine was used by Black Isle Studios to make Planescape: Torment (1999) and the Icewind Dale series (2000–2002). In 2012, Beamdog got permission from BioWare to improve these games. They created an updated version of the Infinity Engine called the "Infinity Enhanced Engine" (also known as Infinity Plus Engine or Infinity Bless Engine).

The Aurora Engine replaced the Infinity Engine. It had 3D environments, real-time lighting and shadows, and surround sound. BioWare used it to make Neverwinter Nights (2002) and its expansions. The game included the Aurora toolset, which let players create their own adventure modules for single-player or online multiplayer. The toolset became very popular, with over 1,000 fan-made modules created within six months of its release. Obsidian Entertainment (which took over from Black Isle Studios) used an updated version of the Aurora Engine, called the "Electron Engine," to make Neverwinter Nights 2 (2006) and its expansions (2007–2009). The Electron toolset was also included with the game. CD Projekt Red, a Polish studio, used the Aurora Engine to make The Witcher (2007), a game based on a Polish fantasy novel series. However, they completely rewrote the part of the engine that handled graphics.

BioWare used an updated version of the Aurora Engine, called the Odyssey Engine, to make Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (2003) and Jade Empire (2005), which was BioWare’s first original intellectual property role-playing game. The Odyssey Engine was the first BioWare engine that could be used for video game consoles. Both Knights of the Old Republic and Jade Empire were originally released for the Xbox before being made available on PC. Obsidian Entertainment used the Odyssey Engine to create Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords (2004), a follow-up to the original game. BioWare had limited control over how Obsidian developed The Sith Lords and Neverwinter Nights 2.

The Eclipse Engine replaced the Odyssey Engine and supported PhysX hardware for physics effects. It was used to make Dragon Age: Origins (2009) and its expansion Awakening (2010). Like Neverwinter Nights, Origins came with a toolset that let players create and run their own adventure modules on the Eclipse Engine. An improved version of the Eclipse Engine, called the Lycium Engine, was used to make Dragon Age II (2011).

In September 2004, BioWare got a license to use Unreal Engine 3 from Epic Games. This engine was later used to make the original Mass Effect trilogy (2007–2012) and the remastered Mass Effect: Legendary Edition (2021).

In 2013, Electronic Arts (EA) announced that all future BioWare games would use DICE’s Frostbite engine. Since then, BioWare’s games, including Dragon Age: Inquisition, Mass Effect: Andromeda, Anthem, and Dragon Age: The Veilguard, were made using Frostbite 3 as part of EA’s effort to use the same technology across all its studios.

Subsidiaries

• BioWare Austin in Austin, Texas was formed in March 2006 to create Star Wars: The Old Republic with help from BioWare Edmonton. Later, BioWare Austin started working on a new game called Shadow Realms, but production was put on hold in February 2015 to focus on Dragon Age: Inquisition and The Old Republic. On June 27, 2023, BioWare announced that its Austin branch handed over SWTOR to Broadsword Online Games so the team could work on the next Dragon Age and Mass Effect games with the Edmonton studio.

• BioWare Montreal in Montreal, Quebec was formed in March 2009 to support the Edmonton studio when needed. The studio led the development of downloadable content for the Mass Effect series and also created Mass Effect: Andromeda. In August 2017, BioWare Montreal was merged with EA's Motive Studio.

• BioWare San Francisco in San Francisco, California was founded as EA2D and developed Mirror's Edge 2D and Dragon Age: Legends. It became part of BioWare but was closed in February 2013.

• BioWare Mythic in Fairfax, Virginia was formerly called Mythic Entertainment until June 2009. It was renamed Mythic Entertainment again in November 2012 and closed completely in 2014.

• Victory Games in Los Angeles, California was founded in February 2011 as BioWare Victory to develop the 2013 Command & Conquer game. It stopped using the BioWare name in November 2012 but remained part of the BioWare group. The studio closed in October 2013.

• Waystone Games in Los Angeles, California created Dawngate, which was canceled in November 2014.

• BioWare Sacramento in Sacramento, California was founded as KlickNation in 2008. It was acquired and renamed BioWare Sacramento in 2011, then renamed EA Capital Games in 2014.

Awards and recognition

The complete list of awards is available on its website.

• Won Studio of the Year at Spike TV's 2010 Video Game Awards
• Inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2010

In addition to many game-related awards, in October 2008, the company was named one of Alberta's Top Employers by Mediacorp Canada Inc., as reported by the Calgary Herald and the Edmonton Journal.

BioWare's co-founders, Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk, were named members of the Order of Canada in December 2018 "for [their] groundbreaking work in the video game industry as developers and co-founders of a globally recognized studio."