And not because of “doomposting,” but because the business and political reality around BioWare has fundamentally changed.
BioWare built its name on: Queer romance options, Player-driven identity, Moral ambiguity, Rebellion against authority, Stories about oppression, faith, politics, resistance, and personal freedom
Those themes directly contradict the values and censorship rules of the entity that now owns EA:
Saudi Arabia’s PIF (93.4% ownership pending deal)
A state where: LGBTQ+ identity is criminalized, Media is censored if it challenges religious/state values, Art and entertainment are used as political tools, Public criticism is dangerous, Female autonomy is restricted
BioWare’s brand is literally everything Saudi cultural authority rejects.
any future BioWare games like Mass Effect 5, any new IP, any Dragon Age game will require approval from an ownership structure that prioritizes: “Global market compatibility", “Brand safety”, “Cultural alignment”, “Risk minimization”
BioWare’s storytelling approach is the opposite of all of that.
Even before PIF stepped in: EA removed branching storytelling (“too expensive, most players won’t see it”), They cut replayability, They replaced choice-based design with linear action systems, They pushed Frostbite on every project, They caused the departures of nearly every foundational writer, creative director, and systems designer
BioWare was already surviving on legacy fumes.
Now? Their new majority owners oppose nearly everything BioWare stands for.
Does that mean BioWare will shut down? Not necessarily.
But the BioWare that existed, the BioWare of Inquisition, Origins, DAO, ME1–3, KOTOR is basically dead artistically.
Even if the studio name continues, the creative soul is gone or will be tightly controlled.
At this point, preserving the legacy of BioWare storytelling probably won’t come from EA at all, it’ll have to come from ex-BioWare talent forming independent studios or fan-driven projects and studios like Larian and Owlcat
Do you want to let the person with no sense of loyalty, who murdered their entire clan, and oversaw horrific sexual violations of every women including her lover for her short term benefit and the long term detrimental of literally the entire world have control of the murder artifact, or do you let the selfless genius who made it end its reign of terror.
Also if you pick the first option no matter which other options you pick the artifact will never be useful for anyone 😀
This is our most complex series of choices and the one we tell our writers to aspire to!
Dragon Age.
Orzimmar, the choice of what to do with the anvil.
But to be fair Orzimmar is also the home of the one instance in the entire library of Bioware games where picking the morally dubious choice actually pans out. No matter what else you do it is literally always the good option to pick the serial assasinating usurper prince who would do anything for power, even though his choice of people to assassinate possibly includes you several times.
If you give him what he wants, he overturns bad traditions and... uhhh... is unwilling to compromise on his morality when it comes to the possible misuse of powerful but evil tools??????
Because once the ending slides roll around the conservative politician and personal keeper of tbe legacy of the last king (That the usurper prince probably had murdered, along with the rest of his family) who repeatedly stresses tbat he will never compromise on their old ways, WILL compromise on their old ways when the option to do so is bad. Also he's petty against you specifically for no reason?