While unconfirmed at this time, it appears that BioWare Austin is starting fresh with Shadow Realms.
Last year, BioWare Austin revealed Shadow Realms, a 4v1 multiplayer RPG, with some freaky marketing popping up last summer to tease the game. The title was believed to be a free to play multiplayer game, where four players would play as customize character classes against a "shadowlord" who is controlling the world around them to stop the other players.
In October 2014 BioWare Austin delayed the closed Alpha. Since then, there hasn't been a word about the title, leading many to speculate that Shadow Realms was ultimately cancelled, but it is apparently not the case.
According to several sources obtained by Kotaku, Shadow Realms is being rebooted into something bigger. This major overhaul revolves around the studio's use of Electronic Art's digital service, Origin. According to Jason Schreier of Kotaku "Developers at EA take budget hits if they/ don't use internal technology and services, according to multiple people who have worked for the company." In agreeing to utilize Origin for Shadow Realms, Electronic Art's has given more money to BioWare Austin, which has in turn changed the focus of the game completely.
Another reason for the change, as reported by the sources in the article, was the recent cancellation of Dawngate, a free to play MOBA being published by Electronic Arts. The failure of Dawngate, along with another online only title, Command & Conquer, became major factors into the decision to reboot Shadow Realms, possibly eliminating the online only aspect of the game as a result.
The sources have stated that Shadow Realms will now be a multiplatform release, including the Playstation 4 and Xbox One. The game was also overhauled to include a full campaign mode. Finally, the game is now slated for a possible 2017 release date.
BioWare Austin was founded in 2006, and is the primary development studio behind Star Wars: The Old Republic. Shadow Realms is to be the first new IP for the Austin branch.
Do you think they are rebooting Shadow Realms? What would you like to see them include in it? Tell us in the comments below!
