BioWare's co-founder and the director of Star Wars: KOTOR want to team up to save Mass Effect and Dragon Age
, by Enzo
It's not often we hear news like this. Trent Oster, co-founder of BioWare, and James Ohlen, director of Star Wars: The Old Republic (KOTOR—please forgive the acronym in the title), want to join forces to save the Mass Effect and Dragon Age franchises.
Unfortunately, these franchises have been in jeopardy since Electronic Arts announced last month that it would be closing the BioWare studio that created them. Co-founder Oster, who left BioWare in 2009 (and later founded Beamdog), took to social media to express his views.
He then mentioned James Ohlen, creative director for numerous games including Baldur’s Gate 1 and 2, Dragon Age: Origins, and Neverwinter Nights, to ask if he’d be interested. As indicated in the X post shared below, the answer was yes.
"My first recruit would be James Ohlen, gotta go for the design OG. I know he’s cooking hard on his own adventure setting, but I gotta ask. James, you up for a reunion? Hey James, want to #SaveMassEffect?"
Various discussions then took place between the two men and other key figures. While there now seems to be a glimmer of hope for saving two iconic franchises, nothing is certain yet. There has to be a solid financial plan and negotiate with EA to regain the rights.