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Wikipedia has an article about: BioWare. |
BioWare Corp is a Canadian entertainment software company best known for its roleplaying games, including a number of Forgotten Realms computer game titles.
BioWare was founded in Edmonton, Canada in 1995 by medical students Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk. After initially developing Shattered Steel in 1996, BioWare went on to develop Baldur's Gate for Black Isle Studios in 1998, their first out of many contributions to the Forgotten Realms license. Baldur's Gate proved to be both a smash success and critically acclaimed and in 1999 the developer put out an expansion pack, Baldur's Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast, followed by a sequel, Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn in 2000, which was even more acclaimed and acquired another expansion pack, Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal in 2001.
In 2002, BioWare released its last stand-alone Forgotten Realms game to date, Neverwinter Nights, which, again, proved a critical and commercial success. BioWare continued support for the game, releasing two story-based expansions (Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide and Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark) as well as several downloadable "premium modules" and the Neverwinter Nights: Kingmaker expansion pack. BioWare would later also provide limited oversight over Obsidian Entertainment's development of the sequel, released in 2006.
In 2005, BioWare merged with Pandemic Studios which were later both acquired by Electronic Arts in late 2007. BioWare's most recent release was Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening, an expansion to Dragon Age: Origins, which BioWare billed as a "spiritual successor" to Baldur's Gate.
List of Forgotten Realms titles[]
| Title | Platform | Release date |
|---|---|---|
| Baldur's Gate | Microsoft Windows and Mac OS PCs | November 30, 1998 |
| Baldur's Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast | Microsoft Windows and Mac OS PCs | April 30, 1999 |
| Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn | Microsoft Windows and Mac OS PCs | September 24, 2000 |
| Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal | Microsoft Windows and Mac OS PCs | June 21, 2001 |
| Neverwinter Nights | Microsoft Windows, Linux and Mac OS PCs | June 8, 2002 |
| Neverwinter Nights | Microsoft Windows, Linux and Mac OS PCs | June 21, 2003 |
| Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark | Microsoft Windows, Linux and Mac OS PCs | December 2, 2003 |
List of other titles[]
| Title | Platform | Release date |
|---|---|---|
| Shattered Steel | MS-DOS and Mac OS PCs | 1996 |
| MDK2 | Dreamcast, Microsoft Windows PCs, PlayStation 2 | March 31, 2000 |
| Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic | PC, Xbox | July 15, 2003 |
| Jade Empire | Xbox 360, Windows and Mac OS PCs | April 12, 2005 |
| Mass Effect | Xbox 360, Windows PCs | November 20, 2007 |
| Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood | Nintendo DS | September 25, 2008 |
| Mass Effect Galaxy | iPhone OS | June 22, 2009 |
| Dragon Age: Origins | Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and Windows PCs | November 3, 2009 |
| Mass Effect 2 | Xbox 360, Windows PCs | January 26, 2010 |
| Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening | Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and Windows PCs | March 16, 2010 |
| Star Wars: The Old Republic | PC | Spring 2011 |