BioWare on Mass Effect MMO: 'You Never Know'BioWare is cranking hard to finish polishing and ship Star Wars: The Old Republic on December 20. Depending on how the company's first MMO is received, might we see more online titles? Could BioWare draw upon the rich universe it created in Mass Effect for a new MMO?
BioWare heads Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk certainly appear open to the idea. "You never know," Zeschuk replied to our Mass Effect MMO query. "I think once The Old Republic is done, we'll take a fresh look at the market. And we'll have learned a lot. While making it, you learn an enormous amount. It's one of the nice things about having these properties in our back pocket... If we want to use something we own as a source for a game, it's easy to do. So yeah, you never know. We've got this giant product to launch, but once that's done we'll consider next steps."
Muzyka added, "We're focused very much on The Old Republic, Mass Effect 3 and [our free-to-play game] Wrath of Heroes, and all the other things we've announced, and haven't announced, but we also have the opportunity to look at our franchises in a way we haven't ever before. There are lots of new platforms and lots of new business models."
Casey Hudson, executive producer for the Mass Effect series, has hinted at the possibility of an MMO in the universe before. Janco analyst Mike Hickey also thinks a Mass Effect MMO would be better for BioWare's bottom line: "Looking forward, we believe BioWare could develop an MMO based on their highly successful Mass Effect franchise, which should have a considerably better (relative Star Wars MMO) margin profile, given the dilutive nature of the LucasArts royalty."
What's your take? Should Mass Effect get the MMO treatment?
