To SEGA Nerds,

Thanks for everything!

–biowaRe

Electronic Arts announced this week that it is closing BioWare, its Edmonton, Alberta studio, as part of a wider post-buyout restructuring that saw roughly 400 people laid off across the company. And if your first reaction to that news was “BioWare? That name sounds vaguely familiar…” well, friend, you’re not alone. That’s kind of the tragedy here.

For younger readers, a quick history lesson. BioWare was founded in 1995 by Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk, and Augustine Yip, three straight, cis male-identifying persons—and actual medical doctors—*who looked at the noble profession of healing the sick and decided they would rather spend their lives making some gol’ dern vidya. The “Bio” in BioWare came from the trio’s medical background, which is presumably why the games always felt like they were good for you, or maybe more like a bitter pill being shoved down your throat?

The studio came out swinging in 1996 with Shattered Steel on PC, a mech combat game that delivered a prescription of pain in the form of giant robots. Then came the studio’s hot streak: Baldur’s Gate in 1998 and Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn in 2000, a pair of Dungeons & Dragons games that everyone over 40 swears are the greatest RPGs ever made and everyone under 40 has never played. If you fall into the second group, just nod politely the next time a Gen X gamer brings them up.

The early 2000s kept the machine chugging along. BioWare made MDK2 in 2000, a sequel to an action game created by an entirely different studio, because apparently nobody else was going to do it. Then more Dungeons & Dragons arrived in 2002 in the form of Neverwinter Nights. Jade Empire followed in 2005 for the original Xbox, a martial arts-focused RPG where players could learn kung fu, punch ghosts, and romance his/her/their/hir/zir/xer/er/xir/zyr/boop traveling companions, as any good martial artist does when questing.

And then, in 2008, came the crown jewel. The masterpiece. The one history will remember: Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood for the Nintendo DS.

I mean, yes, it has a SUPER-problematic title (A-hem, it’s “Dark SIBLINGhood“, m’kay BioWare?), but taking a deep breath and moving forward as best as we can… To this date it remains BioWare’s only handheld game, a turn-based RPG where Sonic the Hedgehog and friends gained experience points, equipped gear, executed attacks using the DS touch screen, and took their time in combat like sensible people. The game’s story also ended on a cliffhanger. The heroes return home to discover that Dr. Eggmanperson has conquered the world in their absence. The ending screen promises that the story will continue, and then, nothing. No sequel. No resolution. Cliff? Hanged.

And the weirdest part? Not much from BioWare after that, either. Since then, things at BioWare had been quiet. Suspiciously quiet. Too quiet? Eighteen years of relative silence, broken only by Anthem in 2019, a live-service game featuring flying robot suits that, legally speaking, happened. Some people played it and presumably spent some money on it. It existed. Moving on.

But the truest of BioWare fans have held out hope that one day the studio would return to finally tell us how Sonic and company planned to take back the planet from Eggmanperson. This week’s news closed that door for good. The damage is permanent now. Eggmanperson won.

So pour one out for BioWare: three cis male doctors who gave up on medicine so a blue hedgehog known for speed could slow down enough for a turn-based RPG, and then walk away shamelessly mid-sentence. To everyone at BioWare, we here at The Splintering wish him/her/them/hir/zim/xem/em/xim/zym/bop the best, and that each lands on his/her/their/hir/zir/xer/er/xir/zyr/boop feet.

*These em dashes were not added by AI. I love em dashes. LOVE them. I will die on this hill.

Like what you just read?

The Splintering is 100% ad-free: no banners, no pop-ups, no sponsored nonsense. The trade-off is we need you to come to us. Get new posts by email and never miss a campaign, interview, or unboxing.

No ads, no spam. Unsubscribe anytime.

---

The Splintering’s TeePublic store has items for all budgets, great and small! If you like what we do & want to help keep our site 100% free of paid ads, go here!