BioWare confirms it's moving its Star Wars MMO to a new studio so it can concentrate on Mass Effect and Dragon Age

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Star Wars: The Old Republic has a new home

Star Wars: The Old Republic
(Image credit: EA)

Development on Star Wars: The Old Republic is moving from BioWare to a new studio called Broadsword.

In a statement, BioWare general manager Gary McKay said that "while EA will remain SWTOR's publisher, development of the game will move to our partner and friends at Broadsword, a boutique studio with expertise in managing online games."

McKay says that current content plans around the game remain in place for the future, but that "new features" will come to the game under Broadsword, a company that "will give SWTOR the room to grow and flourish."

The statement confirms a report from earlier this month that SWTOR would be moving to allow BioWare more room to work on Mass Effect and Dragon Age. That lead to concern from fans of the long-running MMO, but senior developers urged them not to panic as details were ironed out. 

McKay's statement confirms not only the studio move, but also BioWare's focus on its single-player RPGs. For Dragon Age 4, McKay says that BioWare "continues to build, polish, and tune an exceptional experience." When it comes to Mass Effect 5, he says that that game remains in pre-production "with a core team of veteran storytellers" expanding on the existing franchise lore.

The statement closes with a message from SWTOR executive producer Keith Kanneg, who notes the ongoing success of the MMO, and says that while "no change is easy, [...] it certainly helps that we're all excited about the future of this very special game."

Star Wars: The Old Republic sits firmly on our list of the best MMORPGs.

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Ali Jones
Ali Jones
News Editor

I'm GamesRadar's news editor, working with the team to deliver breaking news from across the industry. I started my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I've run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularly find me playing League of Legends or Steam's latest indie hit.

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