The game’s been canceled.
Might as well just put it to you straight, eh? Even after an apparently successful closed alpha, BioWare has officially abandoned Shadow Realms so that it can put its full weight behind other larger and more important (read: cash-generating) pre-existing IPs, namely Star Wars: The Old Republic.
Jeff Hickman, General Manager of BioWare Austin put out this statement:
We’ve made the decision to not move forward with development of Shadow Realms. We fully recognize that this news is disappointing to some of our fans, so I want to explain more behind this decision. While the team did amazing work on the game concept and we got lots of great feedback from our fans at events and through other game testing, right now there are other projects for the team to work on within the BioWare studios for the coming year and beyond. We’ve got an incredibly talented team here at the Austin studio, and they are excited and already deep on new projects within the BioWare family, ones that will make some great BioWare games even better.These include additional ongoing enhancements to the award-winning Dragon Age: Inquisition, as well as the next game in the Mass Effect series and other new IP. But the biggest focus for our team in BioWare Austin will be on Star Wars™: The Old Republic™. As every Star Wars™ fan knows, this is a massive year in the Star Wars universe. We have some great plans for expanding this epic game this year, and look forward to sharing the news about those plans with our players in the coming weeks.
That’s about as plain as it gets in long-winded corporate speak. But you know what, game longevity is very important these days for value-minded gamers, so the extra effort put behind existing IPs and sequels can at least be appreciated. Hopefully they stick to whatever other new projects they are involved in as well.
Don’t mess with our feelings anymore, BioWare!
Hat tip to Crave’s Game Revolution for the update on Shadow Realms.
