The developers of Baldur’s Gate, Mass Effect, Dragon Age and my favourite Knights Of The Old Republic series’ have officially marked their 20th anniversary as of yesterday. Bioware announced over Twitter yesterday that they were celebrating their 20th anniversary and gave a big thank you to all of their fans.
Bioware was founded on May 22nd 1995 by Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk, Trent Oster, Brent Oster, Marcel Zeschuk, and Augustine Yip. Three of these founders were medical school graduates who had practiced programming in university and enjoyed playing videogames recreationally. Upon graduating they had managed to pool together their recourses and put approximately $100,000 of their hard earned money into developing their first game. Oh the days without Kickstarter.
Bioware’s first game, Shattered Steel, on MS-DOS and published by Interplay had a modest success and gave the company notoriety among other developers. The company then moved on to pursue a computerised version of the pen-and-paper RPG that they loved so much, eventually leading to games such as Baldur’s Gate and Knight’s Of The Old Republic. Bioware’s recognition among gamers would increase tenfold with the releases of Mass Effect and Dragon Age: Origins, games that would prove to be among the top RPGs of the decade and would kick-start two of their most popular franchises.
This company’s humble beginnings grew bigger and bolder until it eventually became a precedent on RPGs, developing and producing some of our most beloved games and has become the Bioware we know and love today.
Sources:Gamereactor, Eurogamer