BioWare is a Canadian video game company located in Edmonton, Alberta. It was started in 1995 by three doctors who had just 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 licenses, such as Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Later, the company developed successful games based on its own 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), Star Wars: The Old Republic.

History

BioWare was founded 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 make their own games. Their success in the medical field helped them raise money to start a video game company. Each person contributed $100,000 Canadian dollars, giving the company a total of $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 idea, similar to the MechWarrior games. This sample was sent to ten publishers, and seven offered to work with the company. A publishing deal for Shattered Steel was made with Interplay Entertainment. Brent Oster and Trent Oster started Pyrotek Studios to continue developing Shattered Steel, but the studio ended after one year. Trent joined BioWare as an early employee to finish the game. Shattered Steel was released the following year. IGN described the game as a "modest success" with "decent sales." Two important features were deformable terrain (player weapons made craters in the environment) and zone damage (well-aimed gunfire could remove weapons from enemies). A sequel to Shattered Steel was planned for 1998 but was never made.

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

The result was Baldur’s Gate, which took three years to develop. During this time, the three doctors continued working in medicine. Later, Muzyka and Zeschuk left medicine to focus fully on game development, while Yip continued his medical practice. Baldur’s Gate sold more than two million copies after its release, nearly matching the sales of Diablo. The Infinity Engine used for Baldur’s Gate was later used 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 action games. They first 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 making 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. However, the success of Baldur’s Gate II and MDK2 was not enough to help Interplay financially. BioWare then worked with Infogrames, which later became Atari. Neverwinter Nights was originally planned for Interplay, but the company lost the rights to the game to Atari and gave BioWare part of its Dungeons & Dragons license. 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 years that followed, BioWare changed its corporate structure. In November 2005, BioWare and Pandemic Studios (founded by former Activision employees) joined forces, with private equity fund Elevation Partners investing in the new company, VG Holding Corp. On October 11, 2007, 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 next year, Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood was released for the Nintendo DS, marking BioWare’s first handheld game. Later, EA announced that BioWare would merge with Mythic Entertainment, another EA division, which would be renamed BioWare Mythic.

In 2008, the growth of the MMORPG group under EA led to three new BioWare studios being added outside Edmonton. The first, in Austin, Texas, was led by Gordon Walton and Richard Vogel and worked 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 help with existing projects.

During the mid-2000s, BioWare worked on several video game projects that were eventually canceled. A handheld game called Mass Effect: Corsair, inspired by Star Control and played from a first-person perspective, was briefly considered for the Nintendo DS in 2008. A sequel to Jade Empire was planned but later became 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, but the project was canceled when he left BioWare in 2009. Unused art from Agent and Revolver is 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 BioWare and Mythic Entertainment. Ray Muzyka, co-founder and general manager of BioWare, became the group’s general manager. Greg Zesch

Technology

Between 1998 and 2011, BioWare created several game engines to support the development of their video games. Some of these engines were shared with other companies to help them make their own games. Others included tools that let fans create their own game content using the technology from BioWare’s games.

BioWare designed the Infinity Engine to build the Baldur's Gate series (1998–2001), which were 2D role-playing games based on Dungeons & Dragons. This engine was also used by Black Isle Studios to create Planescape: Torment (1999) and the Icewind Dale series (2000–2002). In 2012, Beamdog received a license from BioWare and made improved versions of these games. They updated the Infinity Engine, calling it the "Infinity Enhanced Engine" (also called Infinity Plus Engine or Infinity Bless Engine).

The Aurora Engine replaced the Infinity Engine. It supported 3D environments, real-time lighting and shadows, and surround sound. BioWare used the Aurora Engine to make Neverwinter Nights (2002) and its expansions. The game included the Aurora toolset, which allowed players to create their own adventure modules for single-player or online multiplayer. Fans used the toolset to make over 1,000 modules within six months. Obsidian Entertainment, which took over from Black Isle Studios, used an updated version of the Aurora Engine called "Electron Engine" to create Neverwinter Nights 2 (2006) and its expansions. 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 rewrote the engine’s rendering module completely.

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

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

In September 2004, BioWare received a license to use Unreal Engine 3 from Epic Games. This engine was later used to create 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 be made using DICE’s Frostbite engine. Since then, games like Dragon Age: Inquisition, Mass Effect: Andromeda, Anthem, and Dragon Age: The Veilguard were developed using Frostbite 3, as part of EA’s effort to use a common technology across all its studios.

Subsidiaries

• BioWare Austin in Austin, Texas; created in March 2006 to make Star Wars: The Old Republic with help from BioWare Edmonton. Later, the studio started working on a new game called Shadow Realms, but this project was put on hold in February 2015 to focus on Dragon Age: Inquisition and The Old Republic. On June 27, 2023, BioWare announced that the Austin branch gave responsibility for The Old Republic 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; formed in March 2009 to support the Edmonton studio when needed. The team led the creation of downloadable content for the Mass Effect series and developed Mass Effect: Andromeda. In August 2017, BioWare Montreal was merged with EA's Motive Studio.

• BioWare San Francisco in San Francisco, California; originally named EA2D, the studio made Mirror's Edge 2D and Dragon Age: Legends. It became part of BioWare but was closed in February 2013.

• BioWare Mythic in Fairfax, Virginia; previously called Mythic Entertainment until June 2009, then renamed Mythic Entertainment again in November 2012. The studio closed completely in 2014.

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

• Waystone Games in Los Angeles, California; the developer of Dawngate, which was canceled in November 2014.

• BioWare Sacramento in Sacramento, California; founded in 2008 as KlickNation, then bought and renamed BioWare Sacramento in 2011. In 2014, the studio was renamed EA Capital Games.

Awards and recognition

The complete list of awards is available on the company's website.

• Spike TV's 2010 Video Game Awards: Studio of the Year (2010)
• Hall of Fame recognition (2010)

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

BioWare's co-founders, Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk, were honored as members of the Order of Canada in December 2018 "for their important contributions to the video game industry as a developer and co-founder of a well-known studio worldwide."