Mass Effect MMO still possible, says BioWare

BioWare co-founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk have said a Mass Effect MMO is not off the cards yet.

However, speaking to IndustryGamers, they explained the current focus for BioWare’s MMO development is Star Wars: The Old Republic and Wrath of Heroes.

Regarding a massively multiplayer Mass Effect, Zeschuk stated:

“You never know. 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 that the firm is not quite ready to begin thinking about the idea seriously just yet.

“We’re focused very much on The Old Republic, Mass Effect 3 and 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.”

Star Wars: The Old Republic is slated to hit retail stores December 20 in North American and December 22 in Europe.

Interesting that they point out new business models. Star Wars: The Old Republic will be adopting a traditional monthly-payment model during a time when MMOs are moving in the direction of free-to-play. Many have suggested this will be the last time we see subscription fees in a major MMO release, but whether they would really want to toy with a basic microtransaction model for a giant franchise like Mass Effect is another story.