Yesterday came the disappointing news that Shadow Realms, the asymmetric 4v1 multiplayer shooter in the vein of Turtle Rock and 2K’s Evolve that Bioware had been working on, had been canceled. We don’t quite know a whole lot about the project, or about what exactly caused its cancelation- but according to industry insider Shinobi, who has usually been accurate with his news and leaks, and who is especially an ardent follower of Bioware, the game was being retooled into a single player RPG before it got canceled.
Guys, in case the implication of that somehow missed you: this sucks. Bioware is incredible at making single player games. Its best games of all time have all been games that chiefly focused on a single player element (Baldur’s Gate 2, Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age: Origins), while any time it has tried to chase multiplayer, it has largely failed (Mass Effect 3, Star Wars: The Old Republic).
It would have had a chance of being something legitimately awesome, and another possible universe for Bioware to craft epic games from. And now it’s dead.
I am sad now.