Bioware now has at least 5 games in development. This one is an MMOG.

[schild]

BioWare Corp. Announces New ''BioWare Austin'' Studio
Monday March 13, 8:01 am ET 
New Studio Recruiting for Massively Multiplayer Online RPG Project


EDMONTON, Alberta--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 13, 2006--Canadian videogame developer BioWare Corp. has announced the opening of a new studio, BioWare Austin, based in Austin, Texas. It is the second of BioWare's studios and the first to be located outside of Canada.
BioWare Austin has already begun work on a Massively Multiplayer Online roleplaying game (MMORPG) title; the new game will mark BioWare's debut in the Massively Multiplayer Online space. BioWare has recruited some of the top talent in MMO and RPG development, both to manage the development efforts at BioWare Austin and to collaborate with the experienced team at BioWare Edmonton, to develop a game that combines the best of BioWare's great past games with a compelling persistent online experience. Joining the Austin team as lead designer is James Ohlen, BioWare's Creative Director, whose previous credits include lead or co-lead design roles on Star Wars®: Knights of the Old Republic(TM), Neverwinter Nights(TM), Baldur's Gate(TM) and Baldur's Gate II(TM). Also leading the BWA team are MMO veterans Richard Vogel and Gordon Walton. Richard Vogel brings 15 years of experience to BioWare Austin, previously serving as VP of Product Development for Sony Online Entertainment's Austin studio, as well as launching Ultima Online(TM) as a senior producer at Origin. Gordon Walton recently served as VP, studio manager and executive producer at Sony Online Entertainment as well as VP and Executive Producer at Electronic Arts.

"BioWare is committed to a seamless collaboration between our two studios to ensure the same high standards of quality and creativity our dedicated teams have always delivered," said Ray Muzyka, co-founder and Joint CEO of BioWare. "With our extensive heritage in the roleplaying genre, BioWare Austin is extremely well positioned to innovate in the massively multiplayer online space for BioWare's valued community of fans."

The new BioWare Austin comes soon after the formation of BioWare/Pandemic Studios, a partnership facilitated by private equity firm Elevation Partners. The new entity combines top videogame developers BioWare Corp., an industry leader in the role-playing game genre, and Pandemic Studios, an award-winning developer of best-selling action titles.

Both BioWare Austin and BioWare Edmonton currently have job openings for programmers, designers, artists, animators, world builders and writers, with new jobs being posted regularly. Applicants may view job postings and submit materials through jobs.bioware.com. BioWare Austin will also be recruiting, along with BioWare Edmonton and sister studios Pandemic Studios LA and Pandemic Australia, at the Game Developers Conference at the San Jose Convention Centre in San Jose, California, March 20-24, 2006.

via Yahoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

The perfect location for poaching jobs from NCSoft and SOE. Go get'em tiger.

[WayAbvPar]

If an F5 ever roars through downtown Austin the MMOG market is fucked.

[HaemishM]

Well, it's got Bioware and Gordon Walton. That's a lot better track record than the dev teams of just about every other MMOG out there.

[Trippy]

Well, it's got Bioware and Gordon Walton. That's a lot better track record than the dev teams of just about every other MMOG out there.

Yes it really bodes well to have the former VP of Online Operations at EA and Executive Producer of The Sims Online on your MMO team (Gordon Walton), not to mention the Executive Producer of SWG (Rich Vogel). Why couldn't BioWare have poached somebody good down there like Warren Spector? I mean really, Austin is one screwed up place for MMO development. That city has given us UO and SWG and maybe Tabula Rasa some day. People really need to stop giving those ex-UO guys second, third, and fourth chances. And it may sound counter-intuitive but the best MMOs from the US have been from teams that had the least amount of prior MMO experience. Having a team with a lot of MMO experience just means that you end up with AC2, SWG, EQ2, and DDO.

[Yegolev]

Why couldn't BioWare have poached somebody good down there like Warren Spector?

They played Deus Ex 2?

[Trippy]

Why couldn't BioWare have poached somebody good down there like Warren Spector?

They played Deus Ex 2?

The one blemish on his otherwise stellar career. Seriously look up his bio on Moby Games. He was producer or exec producer on some of the greatest PC games of all-time including Wing Commander, Ultima Underworld, >>> SYSTEM SHOCK <<<, Deus Ex, etc.

[Stormwaltz]

At least five games in development? Only four are listed on the site; Mass Effect, Dragon Age, an MMG, and a "new next gen game."

Are you counting Eclipse? That is in development, but it's just an engine.

[HaemishM]

Maybe he means Neverwinter Nights 2, though I think Obsidian is the one doing that one.

[Yegolev]

Why couldn't BioWare have poached somebody good down there like Warren Spector?

They played Deus Ex 2?

The one blemish on his otherwise stellar career. Seriously look up his bio on Moby Games. He was producer or exec producer on some of the greatest PC games of all-time including Wing Commander, Ultima Underworld, >>> SYSTEM SHOCK <<<, Deus Ex, etc.

I was, of course, being funny, but I am glad you pointed this out.  I give him credit for helping ex-LGS people get Thief III out.  I even liked System Shock 2, although it wasn't quite System Shock.  No rollerskates!  Now I have to change my avatar to honor my favorite villain, SHODAN, once I figure out where that picture is.

Obsidian is doing NWN2.  We'll see how that turns out.  I predict that you'll get 80% through and the game will suddenly display a "footage missing" screen, roll credits, then exit to desktop.  Or it might install Fable.  Anyone's guess.

[Signe]

Which Fable?  The old one or the new one?

[schild]

At least five games in development? Only four are listed on the site; Mass Effect, Dragon Age, an MMG, and a "new next gen game."

Are you counting Eclipse? That is in development, but it's just an engine.

Do you smell what I smell? I smell FEAR.

No, really, I cound Never Winter Nights. Just because you farm it out doesn't mean it's not taking resources.

[Stormwaltz]

No, really, I cound Never Winter Nights. Just because you farm it out doesn't mean it's not taking resources.

Honestly, other than hosting the forums and licensing the (now massively reworked) Aurora Engine, we have nothing to do with it. It's all Obsidian's sweat and blood. To the best of my knowledge no one in the building is involved.

[Strazos]

BioWare....MMG? Sign me up!

*Pre-Orders*

[VickeVire]

I remeber BG at release... was the first good RPG in a digital form.
Hope they do as good MMO as they did offline games.

[Soln]

Someone has to say it: wish it was in Canada.  /whine.

[Trippy]

I remeber BG at release... was the first good RPG in a digital form.

You're a young'un ain't ya?

[Morfiend]

Planescape 2 please.

[Lantyssa]

Huh.  What's this doing out of the MMORPG forum?  At least the Den is getting cozy for those of us that don't know where our games belong.

[MrHat]

Planescape 2 please.

Mmmmm.

I wish they'd rerelease it for PSP or something.  I really want to play through it again, but I'm a graphics whore.

[HaemishM]

Huh.  What's this doing out of the MMORPG forum?  At least the Den is getting cozy for those of us that don't know where our games belong.

It's industry news. Or at least, that's where it was posted first.

[schild]

Huh.  What's this doing out of the MMORPG forum?  At least the Den is getting cozy for those of us that don't know where our games belong.

It's industry news. Or at least, that's where it was posted first.

Also, it's going to be a PC Game. This thread really shouldn't hit 2 pages or so. Speculating this early is like putting your hand in a fire. It's just not a bright thing to do.

[VickeVire]

I remeber BG at release... was the first good RPG in a digital form.

You're a young'un ain't ya?

well it depends on how you look at it. Before BG RPGs in digital form sucked sooo hard

[schild]

well it depends on how you look at it. Before BG RPGs in digital form sucked sooo hard

Here, I'll treat your problem as if I were pulling off a bandaid.

You're wrong.

[WayAbvPar]

I remeber BG at release... was the first good RPG in a digital form.

You're a young'un ain't ya?

well it depends on how you look at it. Before BG RPGs in digital form sucked sooo hard

Obviously you missed the entire Ultima franchise.

[schild]

I didn't really like any of the Ultimas. But Vicke is still wrong.

[WayAbvPar]

I didn't really like any of the Ultimas. But Vicke is still wrong.

You are soulless.

[schild]

I didn't really like any of the Ultimas. But Vicke is still wrong.

You are soulless.

Nope. Just honest. I didn't like [most of] the Goldbox D&D stuff either. See, even when I was young I wouldn't accept anything put in front of me and I certainly don't look back at that shit nostalgically. EVEN with those opinions, Vicke is still wrong. :)

[WayAbvPar]

You probably liked crap like Zelda and Final Fantasy, didn't you? I think we are gonna agree that Vicke is wrong, but that is about it 

[schild]

I liked a lot of stuff. But D&D transferred rule for rule into digital form back then just wasn't fun to me. My imagination came up with better things than computers could give me in terms of graphics. In other words, my brain made D&D better than anything I could be offered on a PC. My opinion has nothing to do with Zelda or Final Fantasy.

[VickeVire]

Well we all have our flavor and thoughts how a RPG should be right? I could have missed out on some game but BG was the first one I got the "Hey, this IS a RPG on a computer!" feel

[HaemishM]

Well we all have our flavor and thoughts how a RPG should be right? I could have missed out on some game but BG was the first one I got the "Hey, this IS a RPG on a computer!" feel

I'll prove how you are wrong.

Wasteland.

That is all.

[schild]

Fallout came out before Baldur's Gate also.

So did Daggerfall.

And Actraiser.

And The Bard's Tale.

And Crystalis.

And Final Fantasy IV & VI.

And Phantasy Star I & II.

And the Wizardry series.

This list could be endless.

[VickeVire]

So all those games should make me change my feel? They don't. And yes I missed out on some of those. Might have been a gem I missed. Too bad for me

[schild]

I suggest stepping away from the computer and catching up on 20 years of gaming there, chief. You didn't miss out on a gem or two, you missed out on a gem or fifty to a hundred.

[Lantyssa]

Huh.  What's this doing out of the MMORPG forum?  At least the Den is getting cozy for those of us that don't know where our games belong.

It's industry news. Or at least, that's where it was posted first.

Also, it's going to be a PC Game. This thread really shouldn't hit 2 pages or so. Speculating this early is like putting your hand in a fire. It's just not a bright thing to do.

It is also MMORPG news.  I imagine each crowd has its own take on its significance.  It was posted so I do not particularly care where, it was just kind of hidden to some of us that don't delve into this section of the boards often so I had to tease.  Besides, the consiracy theory bit that interested me most has been added to the SWG thread...  :-D

And I agree about there being some good old games.  There were plenty that held my attention far better than Baldur's Gate.