Summary
- BioWare has a history of starting ambitious projects that ultimately never see the light of day, such as sequels to Jade Empire and Knights of the Old Republic.
- Shadow Realms, an original action RPG by BioWare, was canceled due to the studio's focus on other games like Dragon Age: Inquisition and Mass Effect: Andromeda.
- Anthem Next, the reboot of BioWare's potential hit Anthem, was shut down in order for the studio to prioritize their established franchises like Dragon Age and Mass Effect. The decision's success is still uncertain.
There are some amazing video game companies that have helped to create multiple massive franchises that have managed to last the test of time and remain notable to fans, prompting gamers to continually gain fresh excitement from seeing what the development team is working on next.
BioWare is one of the largest game companies in the world, having developed franchises like Dragon’s Age, Baldur’s Gate, and Mass Effect to name but a few titles that have stood the test of time. However, there are a number of titles over the years that BioWare began but never managed to finish and release to the public. While it is a shame that gamers will never get to see fully realized versions of these products, the potential in them is incredible to dream about.
6 Revolver / Jade Empire 2
One of the most notable games in the history of BioWare is Jade Empire, and it remains an enormous surprise that this fantastic RPG, steeped in Chinese Mythology, has never managed a sequel since its release in 2005. However, there was one in development at one time, which struggled a great deal throughout development, partially due to a mid-way move to Mass Effect’s Unreal Engine.
This shift prompted the team to change the setting, originally supposed to be set a few decades after the original, the idea was moved forward to a modern-day setting within the Jade Empire universe. This slowly shifted again, becoming a project known as Revolver which was similar in style but had almost no connection left to the original Jade Empire game. Eventually, the project was completely surrendered after a lengthy and costly development process.
5 Shadow Realms
Originally meant to be released in 2015, Shadow Realms was an original action RPG that BioWare eventually had to give up on developing. It was supposed to involve humans with magical powers that would go between Earth and a parallel world, Embra, where they would do battle against Shadow Legions in an attempt to save humankind.
Shadow Realms looked set to be a potential new hit and even a franchise for BioWare, having a number of traditional RPG features such as different classes for characters, plenty of customization, and an episodic release style that would pit four players as a team working against a single player Shadowlord. Some of the ideas were pretty unique, but unfortunately, BioWare was overloaded trying to prepare Dragon Age: Inquisition and Mass Effect: Andromeda and canceled Shadow Realms, though some think it could still return eventually.
4 Knights Of The Old Republic 3
Despite the first two entries in the franchise providing huge hits for BioWare, the Star Wars RPG franchise that they had developed hasn’t seen a third entry thus far after a planned threequel was canceled swiftly following the release of the second game. Apparently, according to a reference book about the history of LucasArts, the development was halted before it got very far due to the company going through a difficult time financially.
Many ideas and concepts had already been drawn up for the threequel, with developers stating that a trilogy had always been the plan for the franchise. The story was supposedly going to follow a character called Naresha, and the plot would involve her tracking down the “really ancient Sith Lords who are far more terrifying than the Darths that show up” for an exciting conclusion to the franchise that never managed to come to fruition, and it may be too late now to ever do it justice.
3 Mass Effect Team Assault
While the Mass Effect franchise has always been one of BioWare’s top series in the video gaming world, there was one game that was supposed to take place inside of it which never managed to get released. Following the success of Mass Effect 2, the team began to develop an online competitive multiplayer game set in the universe of the Mass Effect franchise, called Mass Effect: Team Assault which got as far as releasing screenshots of the gameplay.
After four months of development, work was halted and a different direction was taken. Fortunately, much of what would have been available in Team Assault was eventually released as part of the multiplayer mode in Mass Effect 3, meaning that BioWare and Mass Effect fans didn’t miss out on much due to the cancelation of this entry.
2 Anthem Next / Anthem 2.0
Anthem was always a property with a lot of potential for BioWare, which sadly never came to fruition. In 2021, the developer in charge of rebooting Anthem as part of a project dubbed Anthem Next, announced that the project was shutting down. There were a number of difficulties attached to the release of this project, including the hit of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the main reason BioWare gave up was different.
Over the years, BioWare has slowly turned away from attempting to make as many original projects, instead choosing to focus on their biggest moneymakers in franchise terms. They began to feel that Dragon Age and Mass Effect provided them with safe bets for continued growth, so they pulled the plug on Anthem Next in order to work on the big franchises more. Whether this was the right call remains up in the air today.
1 Baldur’s Gate 3: The Black Hound
With a release having finally occurred, fans don’t have to look back and mourn the cancelation of the first attempt at Baldur’s Gate 3 as much anymore. The Black Hound was in development in 2002, it isn’t known exactly how long they spent on it, but by the time the enhanced edition of the original Baldur’s Gate was announced in 2012, the team behind the franchise said that they planned on making Baldur’s Gate 3 but not using The Black Hound ideas.
The Black Hound was going to be a dark figure that would represent guilt and the player’s evil choices, appearing at various times throughout the game. Not a lot is known about the story except that it would have involved players going after May Farrow, an evil cleric who killed a Black Hound. The game was also set to include a heavy focus on the Archenrider faction, and the Church of Lathander. Fortunately, a great version of this game was eventually released to huge success.