The lead writer of Star Wars: The Old Republic has expressed sadness at the death of former developer BioWare, after the studio’s official farewell statement failed to mention the MMO.
BioWare’s statement on its closure namechecked Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Dragon Age, Mass Effect, and Anthem, but Star Wars: The Old Republic was conspicuous by its absence.
Star Wars: The Old Republic, or SWTOR, was developed by BioWare and released all the way back in 2011, and the studio ran the game until it was handed over to Broadsword in 2023. But in the 12 years that BioWare did run the game, it ended up with more writing and voice work than any other BioWare game in history.
In a social media post, SWTOR lead writer Caitlin Sullivan Kelly called the situation “heartbreaking,” adding: “No mention of the game that’s been going for almost fifteen years, that supported the studio and all of its projects with income and manpower and time (sometimes to our own detriment).”
Indeed SWTOR carried on for years, generating revenue and maintaining a steady playerbase throughout its existence, even if it wasn’t quite as large as titans of the MMO world like World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy XIV. But, BioWare did pull members of the SWTOR team away from the MMO to support projects like Anthem, according to Kotaku, which ended up failing almost immediately. Yet SWTOR lived on, and continues to do so.
There could be any number of reasons why SWTOR was left out of BioWare’s statement. Maybe there were legal issues given it no longer operates the game, for example. “I said this when we got moved to Broadsword, DA:O was the game that made me want to be a game dev. I started playing SWTOR BECAUSE it was a BioWare game,” Kelly continued. “I can’t help but feel sad that the studio a lot of us loved even before we worked there leaves us out of the history books.”
We have much more on the dramatic news of BioWare’s closure, including reaction from fans and the video game industry, IGN’s Ryan McCaffrey on why BioWare was the greatest RPG developer ever, and the thoughts of one former BioWare developer on the possibility of Dragon Age and Mass Effect living on.
Jackie Thomas is the Senior Tech Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. She’s been covering gaming hardware for more than a decade for IGN, TechRadar, Gizmodo, PC Gamer and more. You can follow her @Jackiecobra
