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RIP Sir Patrick Stewart

News has sadly broken of the passing of Sir Patrick Stewart at the age of 86. Stewart was considered one of the finest Shakespearean actors of his generation, with a dedicated love of the theatre. In later years he reinvented himself as a science fiction genre icon, through roles in Dune, the X-Men movie franchise and, by far his best-known role, as Captain Jean-Luc Picard on Star Trek: The Next Generation and numerous spin-off projects.

Patrick Stewart was born in Yorkshire in 1940. The youngest of three brothers, his early life was blighted by domestic violence from his father. He was encouraged to study drama by a teacher at primary school and made this his main area of study in secondary school. During an extra-curricular drama course he met and befriended his fellow soon-to-be-iconic British actor, Brian Blessed. After leaving school he worked as a reporter for a local newspaper, though he would frequently skip an assignment to instead attend theatre performances. He had to leave the job after his boss challenged him over his dedication to the role. Stewart received a grant to attend the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, where he renewed his acquaintence with Blessed.

Stewart started appearing on stage in 1959, joining the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1966 and getting his first screen role in 1967 on British soap opera Coronation Street. His reputation in the theatre was already impressive and led to him being recruited by the University of California, Santa Barbara to teach Shakespeare to American students, in the early 1970s. This accompanied his first appearances on Broadway.

Stewart made numerous small appearances on television before making his breakthrough by playing Vladimir Lenin in Fall of Eagles (1974) and Sejanus in the storied BBC adaptation of I, Claudius (1975), alongside Blessed as Emperor Augustus. This led to more roles, such as in the legendary BBC adaptation of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979) and playing Leondegrance in John Boorman's lavish period drama Excalibur (1981).

Though Stewart was open to any acting challenge, he had a lot of scepticism towards the science fiction genre. In the late 1970s he expressed surprise when an actress acquaintence,  Lalla Ward, accepted a role on Doctor Who (playing the Time Lady Romana; she later married co-star Tom Baker), not considering the genre to be challenging. He overcame his reluctance when offered the chance to work with cult director David Lynch, who was planning an ambitious and lavish film adaptation of Frank Herbert's novel Dune (1984). Stewart was cast in the role of Gurney Halleck, the commander of House Atreides's military forces. Though some of his scenes were cut, Stewart made an impression in the film with his military bearing and some quotable lines. He also may have inadvertently created one of the earliest screen memes for the scene where he charges into battle inexplicably holding a pug, which numerous magazines reprinted.

Stewart's newfound admiration for science fiction quickly saw him cast in Lifeforce (1985). His forays into Hollywood were briefly disrupted by a name dispute with an American actor of the same name; Stewart atypically refused to change his name and instead paid the other actor off to release the rights.

Between films, Stewart gave dramatic readings at the University of California, Los Angeles. Robert H. Justman, a producer of the original Star Trek who was working with Gene Roddenberry on a revival project, saw him at one of the readings and suggested they call him in to audition for the role of the lead. Stewart was sceptical but needed a better-paying job and his agent strongly recommended he attend the audition to make himself known to the casting director, if nothing else. Roddenberry was impressed by his reading and said, "he's a very nice guy, but a bald Englishman is not going to be the successor to Captain Kirk." Other producers in the room, including Justman and Paramount's representative, Rick Berman disagreed and worked on convincing Roddenberry. Roddenberry eventually agreed to let Stewart audition for the Paramount executives, thinking they'd shoot down Stewart for not being an action-oriented leading man and would also be sceptical of him being bald. Stewart had to have his own wig flown in at great expense from the UK to audition in. The Paramount execs were impressed by Stewart but told him to lose the wig when they offered him the role.

Stewart hesitated to accept the offer, and his colleague Ian McKellan advised him against taking the role for fear of typecasting. However, Stewart's agent argued the show would almost certainly fail after just one season and Stewart would be free to choose his own acting roles with the substantial fee and residuals gained from Trek. Stewart initially struggled to adapt to the rigours of American episodic filming and was initially distraught at his younger castmates' more relaxed attitude to shooting, cracking jokes between takes. At one point Stewart said on set, "we are here to work, not have fun!" which he quickly realised was incredibly pompous. The press kept calling Stewart, "an unknown Shakesperean actor," which his costars felt was extremely funny, at one point pinning such an article to Stewart's trailer door. An important bonding moment came during the shooting of the third episode Code of Honor, which the cast unanimously called "the racist episode," leading to the writer being blacklisted from the show and the director quitting halfway through. Stewart quickly relaxed in the role and went from being the most straight-laced actor on the show to one of the most likely to get into hijinks.

However, Stewart also took his role as the de facto leader of the show and a mentor to the younger actors very seriously. He also advised the other actors on representation and the value of their work, often intervening with the producers when he felt they were being exploited. The other castmembers admitted that Stewart gave them all a strong work ethic, including making sure they always turned up on time with their lines memorised. Stewart also relished the episodes which stretched his acting muscles and pitted him against worthy sparring partners like John de Lancie as Q, Mark Lenard (in Sarek, where Picard dealing with Sarek's emotions is sometimes cited as Stewart's finest scene on the show), Paul Winfield (in Darmok) and his favourite guest star, Andreas Katsulas as Romulan Commander Tomalak in several episodes.

Stewart also exercised his power as the show's lead to have his friend Gates McFadden, who played Dr. Beverly Crusher, reinstated after she was fired at the end of Season 1 after falling out with producer Maurice Hurley. Hurley quit in turn as a result at the end of Season 2, allowing Michael Piller to take over as showrunner. This resulted in an immediate, swift upturn in the show's writing and popularity during its third season. Stewart found his opinions being given more weight and gleefully exploited this. One of his favourite gags was to tell new writers on the show, "remember, Picard needs to do more shooting and more f---ing!" Ira Steven Behr took this to heart by delivering Captain's Holiday, an episode in which Picard went on leave to the pleasure planet Risa, foiled an intergalactic heist and got the girl (in more ways than one, with Stewart having a brief fling with co-star Jennifer Hetrick), to Stewart's immense satisfaction. Piller then wrote the cliffhanger episode The Best of Both Worlds, in which Picard is kidnapped by the Borg and converted into their spokesman, Locutus. Stewart realised the impact of Trek for the first time when he was shouted at by fans driving past him on the freeway, "great episode man!" and people asking if he was going to be killed off.

Stewart used his increased profile and wealth to fund personal projects, such as a one-man performance of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol (starting in 1990). Stewart initially reacted poorly to coming out on stage to find some of the audience in Starfleet uniforms but then decided to make it a virtue by refusing to sign autographs until after the performance, "forcing" the Trek fans to sit through the full show. He was pleased when many of the fans stayed for the whole thing and enjoyed it.

Stewart was happy to reprise his role as Picard in the first episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (relishing playing an antagonist role against Avery Brooks's Sisko, whose wife had been killed by the Borg), for an enhanced fee as per his agent's advice. He continued in the role of Picard in the movies Star Trek: Generations (1994, alongside William Shatner and Malcolm McDowell), First Contact (1996), Insurrection (1998) and Nemesis (2002, with a young Tom Hardy). He considered Nemesis to be an underwhelming film and a disappointing finale to the Next Generation saga. From 2020 to 2023 he reprised the role in the CBS All Access/Paramount+ series Star Trek: Picard, with the final episode featuring him once again commanding from the bridge of the Galaxy-class USS Enterprise-D, surrounded by his friends and costars of over thirty years' standing.

After The Next Generation finished in 1994, Stewart found getting screen roles tricky and his reduced presence on the stage had seen roles dry up on that front. Stewart remained philosophical and was sought out by Bryan Singer to appear in his superhero film X-Men (2000). Stewart had long been a dream fan-casting for the role of Professor Charles Xavier, the founder and leader of the X-Men organisation, and Singer had not seriously considered other actors for the role. Stewart was wary of doing another big franchise but was keen to work with Singer and also his friend Ian McKellan, who had been cast as Magneto. The film was a huge success, in part due to the immense chemistry between Stewart and McKellen. They reprised their double act in X2 (2002), X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) and X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014). Stewart returned in the role solo in Logan (2017) and Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022). He will reprise the role, now for presumably the final time, in Avengers: Doomsday (2026). Assuming neither Wesley Snipes nor Hugh Jackman reprise their Marvel movie roles in Doomsday or later, this should also solidify Stewart's position as the longest-running Marvel actor.

The X-Men experience saw McKellen and Stewart bond as best friends, with McKellen officiating at Stewart's wedding. They performed onstage together in 2014 in a touring version of Waiting for Godot and No Man's Land, publicising the project by recording themselves appearing around New York City in bowler hats.

Now an established screen star, Stewart was happy to poke fun at himself, appearing in an episode of Extras in 2005 as a perverted version of himself where he writes a film script which involves his female co-stars' clothes falling off "instantly," allowing him to "see everything." Co-star Ricky Gervais was almost physically unable to get through the shots without losing his mind laughing. He also co-starred with William Shatner in the documentary The Captains (2011) where they compared notes on their respective Star Trek experiences. Shatner had initially been wary of The Next Generation's success whilst Stewart had been concerned about the earlier show's cultural dominance, but the two actors got on very well.

Stewart benefited from both writers and directors who had been fans of Star Trek beginning their careers in the 2000s and 2010s, leading to a multitude of TV, film and voice actor roles. In particular, Seth MacFarlane, a colossal fan, cast Stewart in many of his projects, including a regular role on American Dad, guest roles on Family Guy and providing the voice-overs for the Ted movie duology.

In 2006 Stewart made his first major appearance in a video game, playing Emperor Uriel Septim in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Despite dying in the opening sequence, Stewart's role was acclaimed and popular with players. His vocal lines were re-used in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered (2025).

Stewart's roles and profile made him a British national treasure and icon. In 2010 he was knighted for services to acting, and in 2012 was one of the people to carry the Olympic Torch during the opening ceremony of the London Olympics.

Stewart had extensive charity connections, frequently raising money for Amnesty International and speaking out on the importance of being a positive male role model, citing his own unpleasant experiences with his father. He has also campaigned for Combat Stress, which seeks to raise awareness of combat-related PTSD, which he blamed for his own father's experiences. Stewart was a big fan of dogs, owning and fostering several pit bulls and campaigning for animal charities.

For personal interests, Stewart was also a lifelong fan of Huddersfield Town football club and an avid motor enthusiast, regularly attending the British Formula One Grand Prix at Silverstone and making an appearance on the TV show Top Gear racing a reasonably-priced car around the show's airfield racing track.

Stewart was married three times and had a son and daughter. His son Daniel is also an actor and appeared alongside his father in the all-time classic Star Trek episode The Inner Light. In 2023 he published a successful autobiography, Making It So: A Memoir.

Sir Patrick Stewart was easily one of the most iconic British actors of the past fifty years, with a wide-ranging number of roles on screen, in voice-over and on stage. He will be overwhelmingly remembered for Star Trek and X-Men, but his numerous, powerful guest roles on other projects and his tremendous theatrical record should not be ignored. He championed many great causes, stood up for his fellow actors and creatives, and developed a sense of humour about himself and his own image. He would acknowledge his own failings, particularly about romantic relationships and his own arrogance when starting work on Star Trek. He was loyal to his friends, standing up for them against more powerful producers in Hollywood. He was happy to acknowledge fans whilst ensuring he was not just a performing monkey for them.

It is a tremendous understatement to say that he will be missed by not just fans of science fiction, but also anyone who enjoyed seeing a great actor working on the screen.

RIP Walter Koenig

News has sadly broken of the passing of actor and writer Walter Koenig, veteran of the science fiction small screen where he played key roles on both the original Star Trek (and associated movies) and Babylon 5.

Koenig was born in Chicago in 1936 to Russian parents. He decided to become an actor relatively late, after receiving a psychology degree and a professor suggested he try acting. Koenig's first notable television role was on The Lieutenant, produced by Gene Roddenberry.

Koenig was then cast in 1967 in Roddenberry's Star Trek, playing Ensign Pavel Chekov, debuting in the second season. Roddenberry had mused that the international nature of the Enterprise crewed merited having a Russian character on board. Falsely, a publicity story was issued claiming that the Soviet periodical Pravda had complained there were no Russian characters on the show supposedly set in a peaceful future where mankind had united. Koenig was cast due to his resemblance to Davy Jones of the Monkees, and only later did the writers and crew discover that he had actual Russian ancestry. Koenig was also cast to add more youth appeal to the series, despite Koenig turning 31 around the time he debuted on the show.

The role of Chekov was originally intended to be minor and recurring rather than regular, but the absence of George Takei whilst he shot the film The Green Berets at the start of Season 2 of Trek meant that Chekov's role was beefed up to compensate, with Koenig getting a good reception from the audience and being promoted to a regular. Takei was initially unhappy about this upon his return, but after sharing a dressing room with Koenig for the season, they became fast friends. Koenig would serve as Takei's best man in 2008. Koenig went on to appear through the second and third seasons of the show.

When the show returned as Star Trek: The Animated Series, the studio decided there wasn't enough money to hire the entire original cast, so Chekov was left out of the scripts, to his frustration. An apologetic Gene Roddenberry instead hired Koenig as a writer, contributing the script The Infinite Vulcan, giving Koenig the minor historical distinction of being the first Star Trek castmember to contribute to an episode in a creative capacity as well as acting. Koenig returned to the role of Chekov for the first seven Star Trek movies, and was given an especially large role in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), which he was grateful for. The film also gave him his first iconic scene, where his character is taken over by mind-controlling parasites given to him by the tyrannical Khan. Later in the film he gets payback by blasting Khan's ship with photon torpedoes.

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) gave Koenig arguably an even more iconic moment when his character is trying to find his way to a US Naval Shipyard in 1986 San Francisco, constantly asking passers-by to the "nuclear wessels."

Like many of his co-starts, Koenig felt typecast by his role and found other work somewhat hard to come by, especially in the 1970s. However, he did pick up guest star roles in shows including Columbo and Bring 'Em Back Alive. He was interested in writing and producing, and impressed Gene Roddenberry and the famously irascible writer Harlan Ellison with his enthusiasm, becoming friends with both. This led to his casting in Roddenberry's short-lived 1974 science fiction series The Questor Tapes and also encouraged him to write a behind-the-scenes book about the strained making of Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), published as Chekov's Enterprise.

In the 1980s he was introduced by Ellison to his friend J. Michael Straczynski, who was producing a radio talk show about science fiction. This friendship led Koenig to being given a guest role on the animated series The Real Ghostbusters, which Straczynski was working on. Straczynski created the role of a "Knight" on the his live-action science fiction show Babylon 5, in the episode A Sky Full of Stars. However, shortly before filming Koenig had to undergo a major operation on his heart and could not play the role, which was taken over by Christopher Neame. Koenig later pointed out this could be a blessing in disguise, as that was a one-shot role which ended with that episode. Straczynski instead created the character of Psi Cop Alfred Bester instead, a recurring nemesis for the crew of the titular space station who went on to appear in 12 episodes across five seasons. Bester even got his own special episode in the final season with him as the star, with even a specially-modified credit sequence reflecting that.

Koenig continued to make return appearances to Star Trek after his final appearance alongside William Shatner and James Doohan in the film Star Trek: Generations (1994). He went on to appear in numerous video games and several Star Trek fan series. He also technically reappeared in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in the episode Trials and Tribble-ations, though only through archive footage from the original series. Koenig's final appearance was in the final episode of Star Trek: Picard in 2023, providing the voice of Federation President Anton Chekov, a presumed descendant of Pavel Chekov's.

Koenig wrote two volumes of autobiography, the first published as Warped Factors: A Neurotic's Guide to the Universe (1998), which was later revised and expanded as Beaming Up and Getting Off: Life Before and After Star Trek (2020). Koenig also had a variety of hobbies, including collecting "big little books" and buttons of various pop culture characters.

Walter Koenig was married to actress Judy Levitt (who briefly starred alongside him in Babylon 5). They had two children, Andrew (who sadly passed away in 2010) and Danielle.

Walter Koenig was a fine actor who perhaps didn't always get the roles he deserved, but excelled when given the opportunity. Whilst he will be best-remembered for Star Trek, it was his outstanding, chilling performance in Babylon 5 which was more impressive and gave him far more meat to chew on as an actor. He will be extremely missed.

Iconic BATTLESTAR GALACTICA board game to be reprinted

The iconic Battlestar Galactica board game, originally published by Fantasy Flight in 2008, is to be reprinted by Ghost Galaxy Games, with funding to be sought by a crowdfunding campaign in the New Year.

The game was launched during the early stages of the big board game revival scene of the late 2000s and most of the 2010s. It cast players as members of the Colonial Fleet attempting to escape the pursuit of the Cylons, with the caveat that one or more of the players were secret Cylon agents themselves. Mechanics simulated resource shortages and space combat. The game had three expansions: Pegasus (2009), Exodus (2010) and Daybreak (2013), which each added new mechanics, cards, characters and ships to the game.

The game fell out of print later in the decade and rapidly became a much sought-after rarity, with copies of the base game alone going for three figures on eBay. Unopened collections of the base game and all three expansions can easily command four figures online.

Ghost Galaxy was founded in 2019 by Christian T. Petersen, the former founder and head of Fantasy Flight, with it appearing that some of the original design team may return for this new version of the game.

Franchise Familiariser: Deadlands

Tabletop roleplaying games are currently back in vogue. Dungeons & Dragons 5^th Edition continues to be the biggest fish in the pond, with a revised edition released in 2024, whilst games like Traveller, Call of Cthulhu, Cyberpunk RED, Mothership, Mork Borg and Dragonbane continue to do well. But another venerable RPG recently (ish) returned with a new edition (with a minor new revision arriving soon). What is Deadlands? What is it about? We have you covered with a Franchise Familiariser course!

The Basics

Deadlands is a horror-steampunk-alternate history franchise that debuted in October 1996 as a tabletop roleplaying game. Since then, it has spun off novels, comics and multiple editions of the tabletop game, but no live-action or video game adaptations as yet (despite interest and attempts).

The game was developed by RPG writer Shane Lacey Hensley, inspired by a painting by the artist Brom depicting a Confederate vampire from the World of Darkness line. Hensley set up a new company, PinnacleEntertainment Group, to publish the game. Two industry veteran friends of his, Greg Gorden and Matt Forbeck, come on board early on to act as writers, editors and even investors in his company.

Launching in October 1996, the game was an unexpected smash hit success, given the poor state of the tabletop industry at the time (Dungeons & Dragons was just starting to undergo the convulsions leading to the collapse of TSR and its buy-out by Wizards of the Coast several years later), and won an Origins Award. Deadlands sold well enough to warrant no less than forty-nine sourcebooks and a revised edition (launched in 1999), as well as spin-off roleplaying games Deadlands: Hell on Earth (1998) and Deadlands: Lost Colony (2002). A collectible card game, Doomtown, was launched in 1998 and ran until 2001. The roleplaying game also generated an accompanying miniatures line and its own focused wargame, Deadlands: The Great Rail Wars, which began in 1997.

In 2001 Deadlands was relaunched as Deadlands d20. It abandoned the use of the original, popular rules system and switched to the d20 rules system popularised by Dungeons & Dragons 3^rd Edition, under the Open Game Licence. Although new companies had found financial success with d20 games, established companies were fiercely criticised by long-term fans for making such a move to chase dollars at the expense of existing fans (who saw no reason to move to a whole new rules system and spend more money when the existing rules were still fine). The move was also of arguably limited utility: many D&D fans who came on board with 3^rd Edition showed a reluctance to move to a new game, even one using compatible rules. As a result, Deadlands lost many of its established fans and failed to pick up many new ones.

The financial losses stemming from the d20 experiment were substantial and Pinnacle almost went under; the company was refounded as Great White Games to alleviate these issues.

In 2003, the Deadlands rules, specifically the simplified set used in Great Rail Wars, were revamped and republished as Savage Worlds, a generic rules system with no established setting. Like earlier generic games like GURPS, the idea with Savage Worlds was to have one central rules system and players could then pick up a number of different optional settings and games to slot into the core system. Savage Worlds was warmly-received, with a number of different games and settings released for it in the first few years.

By 2006 Great White Games was able to revert to the Pinnacle Entertainment moniker. In that year Pinnacle released Deadlands: Reloaded, effectively a second edition of the game using the Savage Worlds fork of the rules system. Numerous supplements and expansions followed. Hell on Earth was also relaunched, and in 2012 was joined by a new spin-off game, Deadlands: Noir. In 2020 the game was relaunched as Deadlands: The Weird West, aka “Deadlands for Savage Worlds Adventurer Edition” (SWADE), compatible with the latest edition of Savage Worlds. This is the current version of the game being supported, with additional adventures and sourcebooks following.

A small selection of the original 1st Edition Deadlands sourcebooks, courtesy of Wayne's Books.

The Canon

The Deadlands canon consists of four roleplaying games (with a fifth in development) broadly sharing the same timeline. Time travel and parallel universes exist in the setting, allowing for retcons and lore changes between versions of the games without getting too caught up in minutiae, an in-universe phenomenon known as “the Mandela Effect.” Each roleplaying game exists in multiple editions, broadly speaking the original (now dubbed “Classic”), the Reloaded edition that used the first version of the Savage Worlds rules system, and the modern editions that use the Savage Worlds Adventure Edition rules system (SWADE).

The five roleplaying games in the setting are Deadlands (sometimes called The Weird West to differentiate it from the others), Hell on Earth, Lost Colony, Deadlands Noir and the forthcoming Dark Ages.

Deadlands

Classic Core Rulebooks: Deadlands: The Weird West Roleplaying Game (1996) • Deadlands: Weird West Player’s Guide (1999) • Deadlands: Marshal’s Handbook (1999) • Deadlands Classic: 20^th Anniversary Edition Core Rulebook (2017)

Classic Sourcebooks: The Quick and the Dead (1997) • Book o’ the Dead (1997) • Smith & Robards (1997) • Hucksters & Hexes (1997) • Rascals, Varmints & Critters (1997) • Twisted Tales (1997) • The Great Maze (boxed set) (1997) • Marshal Law (1996) • Ghost Dancers (1998) • Fire & Brimstone (1998) • City O’ Gloom (boxed set) (1998) • Law Dogs (1998) • Devil’s Tower 1: The Road to Hell (1998) • Devil’s Tower 2: Heart O’ Darkness (1998) • Devil’s Tower 3: Fortress of Fear (1998) • Tales o’ Terror: 1877 (1998) • Lost Angels (1998) • River O’ Blood (boxed set) (1998) • Boomtowns (boxed set) (1999) • Marshall’s Log (1999) • Doomtown or Bust! (1999) • Bloody Ol’ Muddy (1999) • Back East: The North (1999) • Back East: The South (1999) • South O’ The Border (1999) • Canyon O’ Doom (1999) • Rascals, Varmints and Critters II (2000) • The Agency – The Men in Black Dusters (2000) • Ghost Busters (2000) • Hexarcana (2000) • The Collegium (2000) • Rain O’ Terror (2000) • The Great Weird North (2000) • The Black Circle – Unholy Alliance (2000) • Dead Presidents (2000) • Lone Stars – The Texas Rangers (2001) • Epitaph #1 (2000) • Epitaph #2 (2000) • Epitaph #3 (2000) • Epitaph #4 (2001)

Dime Novel Adventures: Perdition’s Daughter (1996) • Independence Day (1996) • Night Train (1997) • Under a Harrowed Moon Part 1: Strange Bedfellows (1997) • Under a Harrowed Moon Part 2: Savage Passage (1998) • Under a Harrowed Moon Part 3: Ground Zero (1998) • The Forbidden God (1998) • Adios, A-Mi-Go! (1998) • Skinners (1999) • Worms! (1999)

d20 Core Rulebook: Deadlands: d20 (2001)

d20 Sourcebooks: Horrors o’ the Weird West (2001) • The Way of the Brave (2001) • The Way of the Dead (2001) • The Way of the Gun (2001) • The Way of the Huckster (2001) • The Way of the New Science (2001) • The Way of the Righteous (2001)

GURPS Deadlands Core Rulebook: GURPS Deadlands: Weird West (2001)

GURPS Expansions: Dime Novel 1 – Aces and Eights (2001) • Dime Novel 2 – Wanted: Undead or Alive (2001) • Hexes (2002) • Varmints (2003)

Reloaded Core Rulebooks: Deadlands Reloaded (2006) • Deadlands Reloaded Player’s Guide (2006) • Deadlands Reloaded Marshal’s Handbook (2006)

Reloaded Sourcebooks: Marshal’s Screen (2009) • Trail Guide: The Great Northwest (2010) • Trail Guide: South o’ the Border (2010) • Trail Guide: Weird White North (2011) • 1880 Smith & Robards Catalog (2011) • Ghost Towns (2012)

Reloaded Adventures: Coffin Rock (2008) • Don’t Drink the Water (2009) • Doomtown: A Fight They’ll Never Forget (2009) • The Flood (2009) • Murder on the Hellstromme Express (2009) • Night Train 2: For Whom the Whistle Blows (2010) • Saddle Sore (2010) • Devil’s Night (2011) • Blood Drive 1: Bad Times on the Goodnight (2012) • Blood Drive 2: High Plains Drovers (2012) • Guess Whose Coming to Dinner (2012) • The Last Sons (2012) • Return to Manitou Bluff  (2012) • Blood Drive 3: Range War! (2012) • The Inheritors (2013) • Stone and a Hard Place (2015) • Dead Men Walkin’ (2015) • The Tombstone Seven (2015) • All the Purty Little Horses (2016) • The Twilight Protocol (2016) • The Land Beyond the Busted Doorway (2016) • Sawed ‘em in Gomorra (2016) • Paradise Lost (2017) • Good Intentions (2017) • Knights with No Armor (2017) • A Tale of Two Killers (2020)

Reloaded Dime Novel Adventures: Beast of Fire (2005) • Deadshot (2006) • Frostbite (2006)

SWADE Core Rulebooks: Deadlands: The Weird West Savage Worlds Adventure Edition (2021)

SWADE Sourcebooks: Hell on the High Plains (2023) • The Abominable Northwest (2025) • The Mysterious Maze (2026)

SWADE Adventures: Showdown at Sundown (2021) • Blood Drive (2021) • Crater Lake Chronicles (2021) • Horror at Headstone Hill (2021) • Night Train (2024) • Carnage in the Cascades (2025) • Curse of the Maze Queen (2026) • Red Tide (2026)

Short Story Collections: A Fistful O’ Dead Guys (1999) • For a Few Dead Guys More (1999) • The Good, the Bad and the Dead (1999) • Wendigo Tales: Savage Stories of the Weird West (2025)

Novels: Deluge: A Novel of the Flood (John Goff, 2008) • Ghostwalkers (Jonathan Maberry, 2015) • Thunder Moon Rising (Jeffrey Mariotte, 2016) • Boneyard (Seanan McGuire, 2017)

Graphic Novels: The Cackler (2016) • Rise of the Black Circle (2025)

Deadlands: The Great Rail Wars

Core Rulebook: Deadlands: The Great Rail Wars (boxed set) (1997) • Deadlands: The Great Rail Wars Revised (2001)

Expansions: Reinforcements (1997) • Derailed (1998) • A Fist Full of Ghost Rock (1998) • Dogs o’ War (1998) • Cry Havoc (1998) • High Noon (2000) • Raid on Roswell (2001)

 

Deadlands: Hell on Earth

Hell on Earth Core Rulebooks: Deadlands: Hell on Earth (1998) • The Wasted West (1998)

Hell on Earth Sourcebooks: Brainburners (1998) • The Last Crusaders (1998) • Children o’ the Atom (1998) • Road Warriors (1998) • Toxic Tales (1998) • Radiation Screen (1998) • Cyborgs (1999) • The Junkman Cometh (1999) • Shattered Coast (1999) • Iron Oasis (1999) • Monsters, Muties ‘n’ Misfits (1999) • Waste Warriors (2000) • Spirit Warriors (2000) • Denver (2001) • City O’ Sin (2001)

Hell on Earth Adventures: Hell or High Water (1998) • Something About a Sword (1999) • Urban Renewal (2000) • The Boise Horror (2000) • The Unity (2002)

Hell on Earth Dime Novels: Leftovers (1998) • Killer Clowns (1999) • Infestations (1999)

Hell on Earth d20 Core Rulebook: Hell on Earth d20 (2002)

Hell on Earth d20 Sourcebooks: Horrors of the Wasted West (2002)

Hell on Earth Reloaded Core Rulebooks: Hell on Earth Reloaded (2012) • Hell on Earth Player’s Guide (2012)

Hell on Earth Reloaded Sourcebooks: Hell on Earth Companion (2014)

Hell on Earth Reloaded Adventures: The Worms’ Turn (2014)

Deadlands: Lost Colony

Classic Core Rulebooks: Deadlands: Lost Colony (2002)

Classic Sourcebooks: Lost Colony Companion (2002)

SWADE Core Rulebooks: Deadlands: Lost Colony for Savage Worlds Adventurer’s Edition (2020)

SWADE Adventures: A Billion Miles from Home (2019) • Widowmaker (2020) • Hellstromme Triumphant (2020) • Maw of Oblivion (2024) • Mad World (2025)

Lost Colony Novels: Banshee Screams (2002)

 

Deadlands: Noir

Core Rulebooks: Deadlands Noir (2012) • Deadlands Noir Player’s Guide (2012)

Adventures: The Old Absinthe House Blues (2013) • The Case of the Jumbo Shrimp (2013)

Dime Novels: Tenement Men (2012) • Blood & Roses (2013) • Memories of Yesterday (2013)

 

Deadlands: Dark Ages

SWADE Core Rulebooks: Deadlands: Dark Ages Core Rulebook (forthcoming)

SWADE Adventures: Sins of the Father (2023)

Graphic Novels: Merlin’s Champions (forthcoming)

Brom's original cover art for the 1996 release of Deadlands.

Backstory

In 1863, the American Civil War peaked with the Battle of Gettysburg, a decisive confrontation between the United States of America and the rebel Confederacy. But on the day of the battle, a mystical ritual ruptured the walls between this dimension and one beyond, the Hunting Grounds, the home of incredibly powerful entities known as the Reckoners. The Reckoners were able touch our world, unleashing chaos, evil and darkness. The dead began to rise, strange creatures appeared and an uncanny sense of fear began to spread across North America. The greater the cumulative level of fear in the world, the more powerful the Reckoners became.

Shortly after this event, a massive earthquake tore California apart, dropping most of the coast into the ocean and forming a shattered landscape of ravines, whirlpools and canyons: the Great Maze. In the walls of the Maze, explorers found an incredible source of energy and power, ghost rock. Capable of burning far hotter than coal and for far longer, ghost rock opened amazing new avenues for scientific research and engineering. New technology appeared, including steam-powered gatling guns, gyrocopters and steam tanks. Stories of “strange happenings” around ghost rock were dismissed, or even accepted as the price of harnessing this new power. The Civil War raged on, far longer than anyone expected, before the North finally gained the upper hand and defeated the South in 1871 (although many swear blind to having memories where the Civil War continued into the early 1880s).

Deadlands chronicles the “classic” Weird West, the original incarnation of the setting. The original edition of the game was set in 1876, the very mild revised edition in 1877, the Reloaded edition was set in 1879 and the current SWADE edition updates things to 1884.

Deadlands: Hell on Earth is a sequel to the original game. Set in 2094, Hell on Earth postulates that the Reckoners finally succeeded in entering the world in 2081, triggering the Last War, a cataclysmic conflict that devasted the world. Hell on Earth is set in the Wasted West, a post-apocalyptic North America where magic and technology have become intermingled. The world has largely been laid waste but, curiously, having entered our world the Reckoners soon after vanished, and a key part of the metaplot ties into finding out what happened to them, as well as traditional post-apocalyptic concerns.

Deadlands: Lost Colony runs simultaneously alongside Hell on Earth and is also set in 2094. However, the setting is another planet altogether, known only as Banshee. Using a mixture of ghost rock and magic, an expedition was sent via wormhole to this planet. Discovering it to be rich in ghost rock, humanity began colonising and exploiting the planet, leading to conflict with the native species, the Anouks. More than three million humans were on Banshee when the Last War took place, sealing the wormhole and leaving them trapped. The game depicts more of a classic science fiction setting, with some spaceships, laser weapons and more advanced technology, mixed with magic. The game’s metaplot kicks in when it is revealed that the Reckoners were banished from Earth shortly after the Last War…but they were banished to Banshee, and their arrival obviously is not good news for the inhabitants of the planet. Fortunately, since Banshee is in a much better state than Earth and has a smaller population (depriving the Reckoners of the vast quantities of fear they feed on), there is also the possibility that they might be finally vulnerable on Banshee. The SWADE edition of the game updates the timeline to 2096 and hints of a final way of defeating the Reckoners.

Deadlands Noir is a limited-run RPG that updates the setting to the early 20^th Century, and is thus an interquel, set between the original Deadlands and Hell on Earth. The rulebook provides information on running games from the 1910s to the 1950s, and is a moody, noir-infused game where intrigue and investigation is favoured over combat. Elements such as Prohibition, World War I, gangsters and jazz music feature.

Deadlands: Dark Ages is a forthcoming game that acts as a prequel to the entire Deadlands saga. It is set in Dark Ages England in 877, a thousand years or more before the original game, and taps into Arthurian legends. Morgana le Fey will be a major character in this game. Despite being a prequel, time travel (which canonically exists in the setting) allows for events in Dark Ages to impact on the other time periods and vice versa, and possibly allows characters from one game to travel to another.

A map of the Weird West by Cheyenne Wright.

Setting

The primary Deadlands setting is the continent of North America in the latter half of the 19^th Century, specifically the area known as the Wild West, approximately an area extending from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean incorporating the Great Plains, the south-western deserts, the Rocky Mountains and the coastal regions of California and the Pacific North-West.

The geography is more or less identical to that of the real world, with several notable exceptions. A massive earthquake destroyed the coast of California in 1868, obliterating most coastal cities and settlements. What was left behind was a maze of water canyons, bays, inlets, towering sea stacks and vast seams of ghost rock. The resulting terrain became known as the Great Maze. Fear of a recurrence was offset by the immense wealth to be gained by mining ghost rock, resulting in a crazed rush reminiscent of earlier gold rushes. The City of Lost Angels became the dominant settlement of the region, benefitting from the resulting westwards rush.

In terms of geopolitics, the United States remains the dominant force on the continent, especially after defeating the Confederate States in 1871. However, control of the western states is somewhat tenuous, and Native American tribes have regained autonomous control of two regions: the Sioux Nations, which expand across western Dakota, most of Nebraska, eastern Wyoming and south-eastern Montana; and the Coyote Confederation, in eastern Oklahoma and south-eastern Kansas. In 1866 Utah declared itself the independent nation of Deseret, a religious nation under Mormon leadership.

As well as political entities, there are also powerful factions within those entities to contend with, such as the Pinkerton Detective Agency, the Texas Rangers (both now oriented towards supernatural threats more than mundane ones), and various newspapers and do-gooders determined to expose what's "really happening" out west, though the folks back east are still distracted by reconstruction and other issues.

With the Civil War over, the Great Rail Wars have begun: several major and numerous minor rail companies were established with a competitive goal: to drive railheads all the way from the Mississippi to the Pacific, allowing for fast cross-continental travel and delivery of ghost rock, gold and trading goods back east. The Rail Barons would turn out to be utterly ruthless, competitive to the point of lunacy and almost untouchable in their power, using means both mundane and supernatural to ensure they would come out on top. The rail companies include Bayou Vermillion (noted for their use of zombie labour), Black River, Union Blue and Iron Dragon.

The Deadlands world also features significant differences to our own when it comes to technology. Ghost rock, a supercharged (and, some say, supernatural) form of coal, has allowed for the creation of advanced steam technology, including steam wagons, faster steam trains, steam-powered gatling guns and even steam-enhanced gyrocopters. Alongside the standard six-shooters and horse-drawn wagons, more exotic, weird technology is starting to appear in the West.

More concerning are the Reckoners: enigmatic beings of supreme power, the Reckoners were sealed away from our world but that seal was broken in 1863 during the Battle of Gettysburg, when their influence was able to seep into and touch our world once more. Since then, supernatural events have become more commonplace. Magic, though unpredictable, works through strange rituals and processes. The dead – the Harrowed – can rise again to torment the living. Wendigos, jackalopes, wallcrawlers, ghouls, sasquatches, maze dragons, gremlins, pox walkers and Texas skeeters, among many others, have become increasingly common and unnerving threats.

To overcome these threats, the various groups of the Weird West have a powerful resource to call upon: you. Or rather, any number of well-meaning adventurers, heroes, antiheroes, cowboys, cowgirls, huxsters, hexslingers or mad scientists who are ready to heed the call to adventure and take on the forces of evil armed with noting but their wits and guts, and maybe a gatling-cannon-armed steam gyrocopter.

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Star Wars: Galactic Racer

The horror and trauma of decades of warfare is over. The Empire has fallen and peace reigns...which means a return to prominence for the Galactic Racing League. Speeder racers from across the galaxy converge for a new championship, but the rich family of spoiled brat Kestar Bool has basically bought him the championship. Organiser Darius Pax hires the racer Shade to take the fight to Bool, if he can.

Star Wars: Galactic Racer is pretty much exactly what it says on the tin: a racing game in the Star Wars universe, and a spiritual successor to Star Wars Episode I: Racer (1999). The development pedigree is impressive, with new company Fuse Games assembling a team of top talent from other racing games, with a majority coming from the Burnout franchise.

Galactic Racer does some interesting things with its premise. The main gameplay mode is the single player campaign, which combines a narrative story with roguelite elements. The player takes part in a tournament consisting of multiple races but losing certain events means losing a token; lose all your tokens and you fail the entire season, and have to wait to start the next tournament to rejoin the fray. Early in the game you only have one token, so losing an event is an insta-fail condition. But, whilst you lose your upgrades for the season, you keep any permanent upgrades you make to your vehicle between tournaments, plus of course you as the player get better and better as you go along. You need to win three tiers of tournaments to complete the game, though once you've completed one tier, you automatically start at the next (i.e. once you've beaten the first tier, all future resets will be to the start of the second tier until you complete it, and then the third; you don't need to complete all three tiers in one go, for the sake of sanity and any furniture near you). You can also start grudges with other characters, eventually forcing them to agree to a duel. Defeating them means taking a token from them. Certain sponsors also provide you with additional tokens, so you can fail one or two token events per run and still have a shot at victory.

This structure is surprisingly compelling, and the game is successful at nailing that "fail by doing," angle. When you fail a run, you usually know exactly how and why you failed, and how to succeed next time, nailing the appeal of games like Hades and Frostpunk in a completely different genre. This also makes the single-player campaign surprisingly chunky. It took me 20 hours to finally beat it, which doesn't seem unusual. That's a decent amount of SP content compared to most racing games, where the SP material is fairly limited with the main focus on multiplayer.

You have a choice of three vehicles to race, namely a speeder, a bike or a skimmer. Certain flashback missions also give you access to a Phantom Menace-style podracer. Each vehicle can be customised, though for the most part changing models only has an aesthetic effect. You get actual new parts for your vehicles through the game from winning events, and can also buy new parts from your mechanic or new rare parts from the specialised merchant (who also repairs your vehicle). You can also tweak certain characteristics between each race, though which characteristic you want to tweak is randomised. Also, oddly, you can only buy new parts or engage in repairs between planets, or if you visit the merchant at the expense of not taking part in a race.

This does lead into Galactic Racer's arguable biggest weakness. There are a lot of elements in this title which are "gameified," that is, it does things for game balance that have no basis in actual logic. Not being able to repair damage between races is infuriating, and strictly limiting when you can buy new gear is weird. If your engineer doesn't have any good parts, you need to pay an ever-increasing amount to reset the pool, which means you frequently waste your bank balance resetting the pool only to find you can't now buy the parts for your favourite setup. What this means in practice is that you may find a favoured setup which dominates one run but on the next, the randomisation means you can never achieve that setup again, which is annoying. It does encourage you to try different tactics and approaches, which is good, but if you've hit on the perfect ramjet build, not being able to recreate it again just feels aggravating.

Fortunately, the actual racing is excellent. Handling is solid and responds well to upgrades, and knowing when to deploy your afterburner versus your ramjet becomes a key strategy. Sliding around corners and then boosting out via ramjet feels fantastic and the game gives you a tremendous sense of speed. Getting into "the zone" as you learn the tracks and know exactly where and when to boost can be very satisfying. The three vehicle types respond differently and require different lines, and the podracers you fly in the flashback missions are genuinely unhinged, incredibly powerful monsters constantly on the verge of killing you or other racers, or both. The only disappointment here is opposition AI, which is rarely threatening, with the game resorting to the groan-inducing tactic of "rubberbanding" (mysteriously teleporting opponents you've really left utterly in the dust close enough behind you to keep things interesting) to keep them in the game.

For a racing game, there's a lot of good writing and characterisation here. The eleven other racers in the league gradually become more familiar over multiple runs, with some emerging as enemies, some as allies, some as frenemies, and some as, er, Biddy Blas. Some will also be vicious competitors on the track but turn on the charm off it (between runs you can wander around the paddock and converse with other characters). Do enough runs and you will have the opportunity to defeat them all in one-on-one duels. The flashback missions, which explore the life and misadventures of a Phantom Menace side-character, are also well-characterised, adding a lot of depth to the one-note racers from that movie. 

Graphically, the game is superb, the only issue being occasional readability on some of the tracks where the track limits are not clearly delineated. This is more of a problem on Jakku than the other tracks, and also an issue more with graphics options that can make the details smeary at a distance. The game also defaults to having the cinematic camera on, which is a nice idea but a damned liability mid-race and killed me more times than any competitor. Fortunately you can turn it off. Music and sound effects are also outstanding.

Star Wars: Galactic Racer (****) is a great arcade game, with a lot of customisability. The story and characters are much stronger than expected, it has an infectious sense of humour and fun, and the game has a ridiculous "one more race" feel that may cause serious sleep disruption. Some of the progression mechanics feel harsh for their own sake, and graphically some tracks have issues with not always making it clear in time where the hell the limits are. But these are mostly minor irritants. The game is available now on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.

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Electronic Arts shuts down BioWare and cancels the next MASS EFFECT game

In news that is not entirely unexpected, but the timing certainly is, Electronic Arts is to shut down BioWare, the legendary RPG studio behind some of the greatest games in history, including Baldur's Gate, Baldur's Gate II, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect and Dragon Age: Origins, along with their respective sequels. The fifth Mass Effect game, in development at the studio since at least 2020, has been cancelled.

BioWare was founded in Edmonton, Canada in 1995 by Ray Muzyka, Greg Zechuk and Augustine Yip. Their first game, Shattered Steel, was a mech combat title, published by Interplay Entertainment in 1996. Their second title was planned to be a fantasy roleplaying game with the working title Battleground: Infinity, using impressive new tech that was quickly dubbed the Infinity Engine. Interplay, impressed by a demo, suggested merging the game with their own Dungeons & Dragons video game licence. The resulting game, Baldur's Gate, was released in late 1998 and was hugely critically acclaimed, enjoying strong sales. Arguably, this was the first game to come close to nailing the atmosphere of playing a tabletop game of D&D. The game also had a robust multiplayer mode, allowing people to play different characters at the same time in a classic D&D party. BioWare developed an expansion pack, Tales of the Sword Coast (1999), and a fully-fledged, far more ambitious sequel, Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn (2000), still regarded as one of the finest video games of all time. Baldur's Gate II also received its own expansion, Throne of Bhaal (2001), which brought the story to an end (for twenty years, anyway).

In the meantime, Interplay licensed the Infinity Engine for their inhouse development team, Black Isle Studios, to develop their own Dungeons & Dragons games, giving rise to Planescape: Torment (1999), Icewind Dale (2000) and Icewind Dale II (2002). Collaboration between the two companies remained strong and BioWare began development of Neverwinter Nights (2002), their first 3D title. However, Interplay lost the D&D licence to Atari, who published Neverwinter Nights instead. Interplay and Black Isle went into financial freefall and collapsed in 2003, ironically whilst working on Baldur's Gate III: The Black Hound and Fallout 3: Van Buren, neither of which was ever finished.

BioWare had entered into discussions with LucasArts and in 2003 released Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, an epic roleplaying game set 4,000 years before the events of the films. Released at a moment when the franchise was at a low critical ebb, due to the perceived two disappointing prequel films, the game received enormous praise for its writing and central plot twist, which some held to be better than Empire Strikes Back's twist. Surprisingly, BioWare passed on developing the sequel, instead recommending Obsidian Entertainment, a new company set up by their friends who had escaped the collapse of Black Isle and Interplay. Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords was released in 2004 and began Obsidian's own storied (though bumpier) journey through the RPG space.

By this point BioWare had made the strategic decision that they were spending too much money on licences for other people's properties, and decided to develop their own worlds from scratch. This resulted in Jade Empire (2005), an Asian-influenced hybrid of roleplaying game and martial arts brawler. The game was critically well-received, but the RPG hardcore audience disliked the streamlining of RPG mechanics and the general audience seemed confused over the game's genre. Though it did okay, it did not meet BioWare's sales expectations and plans for a sequel were dropped.

BioWare's next game was Mass Effect (2007), an epic RPG that was an effective spiritual successor to Knights of the Old Republic, but in an original science fiction universe. Again, the RPG hardcore was let down by the removal of even more RPG mechanics, but the game's character creation system, dialogue choices, writing, worldbuilding and hugely iconic plot twists, which the player could influence, were all hugely praised. The game, originally published in a deal with Microsoft, sold quite well and attracted the attention of Electronic Arts, who acquired BioWare in late 2007.

One of the prevailing narratives through the years since has been that EA interfered significantly in BioWare's internal development. Upon acquiring the studio EA learned that their in-development game, a spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate called Dragon Age: Origins, was planned to be a PC-only title, despite having been in development already for several years and had spent a large amount of money. EA mandated the game be released on consoles as well and a marketing campaign filled with blood and gore was launched, which some people felt heavily misrepresented the tone and style of the game. Appalled at the game's budget, EA also demanded a "quickie" sequel to be developed in just one year. Dragon Age: Origins (2009) was extremely well-received reviewed on PC, but the console ports were criticised for being underwhelming. Dragon Age II (2011) was even more fiercely criticised for heavy reuse of limited assets, being a much shorter game than Origins, and removing a lot of RPG mechanics in favour of lots and lots of combat.

In between, BioWare released Mass Effect 2 (2010), possibly their single most well-received game, which featured greatly improved combat and a companion character mechanic which saw the player have to recruit a dirty dozen to take on an alien threat, with tremendous freedom in which characters to select and how to use them in the final mission, with differing numbers of casualties and outcomes possible. However, during the development of this game, development started of a Star Wars online multiplayer game, and the Mass Effect franchise lost some of its main writers to the new game. Star Wars: The Old Republic was released in 2011 to some good reviews and reasonable sales, but a lot of fan scepticism, especially those who perceived the game would prevent the development of a "proper" Knights of the Old Republic III.

Mass Effect 3 (2012), which concluded the epic story begun in the first game five years earlier, launched to a storm of controversy with players incensed that the complex choices players had made through three games was reduced to choosing one of three options at the very end of the game, and the game being thematically incoherent with the ideas being laid down in the earlier titles, which they blamed on some personnel (particularly chief writer and worldbuilding Drew Karpyshyn) being moved over to the Star Wars game. BioWare responded to the criticism by issuing patches rewriting the ending to acknowledge more of the players' choices, though ultimately it could only go so far. A few months later, the remaining BioWare founders at the company all quit.

Dragon Age: Inquisition was released in 2014 and was the company's biggest-selling game. Despite this, the game suffered criticism for being too big and long, an overreaction to Dragon Age II's shortness, and by being an open-world game, chasing the appeal of Skyrim, whilst not having game systems well-suited for that format. The game's critical cachet improved markedly with the release of its expansion, Trespasser (2015).

Mass Effect: Andromeda was released in 2017 and received fierce criticism for a likewise dramatic change to the series' structure, pursuing a similar open-world environment, albeit this time on multiple planets. The game was also criticised for having weaker characters than the trilogy, and by removing the action to the Andromeda Galaxy and some 800 years further in the future, many fan-favourite characters, species and ships were missing from the title. The game also launched in a heavily-bugged state. The game's critical cachet has improved somewhat in subsequent years, and its combat has been praised as the best in the series, but the game's financial underperformance was a bigger problem it could not solve. Anthem, a multiplayer shooter based around jetpacks, was released in 2019 and was the company's biggest failure to date, launching with an anemic amount of content.

The company rallied in 2021 for Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, a comprehensive remaster and re-release of the original trilogy as one game, optimised for modern systems. The remaster was regarded as a success, introducing the franchise to a new generation and selling well.

In 2024 BioWare released what would prove to be their final game: Dragon Age: The Veilguard. The game had been developed as a multiplayer title before pivoting to a single-player focus, and the game was criticised for weird pacing, an unusual visual aesthetic compared to the previous games and some odd mechanics and gameplay ideas that may have been remnants of the multiplayer focus. Though not completely without merit, the game's critical reception was dubious and its commercial success dire.

BioWare had confirmed they were working on a new Mass Effect game that would feature a return to the Milky Way Galaxy and would be a more direct sequel to the original trilogy, with some OG characters returning. In 2025, Amazon Television confirmed that a Mass Effect TV series was also in development. It was well-known inside and outside the company that "Mass Effect 5" (the final title would have likely been different) was the studio's last chance to shine, and failure would likely mean the shuttering of the company.

However, it's now clear that Electronic Arts had decided not to even give them that chance. Despite releasing a teaser trailer for the game in 2023, no new footage or information about the game had been released in over three years. Today's storm of news stories confirm that the game was in "early" development nine years after the release of the previous game in the series, which was clearly unacceptable. EA themselves may have been responsible for this, putting the studio through rounds of lay-offs after Veilguard's release that may have simply made it impossible for them to make a brand new AAA game. Some of today's reporting suggests that only 50 employees were left working at BioWare, clearly far too few to even consider the game in full production. Some reporting indicates that EA had been rotating BioWare personnel into other studios and projects for some time.

BioWare's obituary will be simply having created some of the greatest video games of all time. Baldur's Gate I and II, Knights of the Old Republic, all three Mass Effect games (despite the ropey ending) and Dragon Age: Origins are all-timer classics of the genre. Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Dragon Age II and Mass Effect: Andromeda are also all pretty solid games in their own right, if not of the same calibre. Dragon Age: Inquisition was also well-received, though I must confess that in my several attempts to play the game, I bounced off it pretty hard.

BioWare's legacy is also in the studios that it inspired. Without BioWare's early help and recommendations, Obsidian Entertainment would have likely never survived and achieved the things they did. CD Projekt Red also owe their existence to BioWare, having started off as the Polish localisation team for the Baldur's Gate games before licencing BioWare's Aurora Engine for The Witcher (2007), which was published by Atari on BioWare's recommendation. Larian Studios mooted their Divinity series as a spiritual successor to the Baldur's Gate games which led to them getting the licence to make Baldur's Gate III, an absolutely massive giga-success on release in 2023. Fans and personnel at BioWare themselves both asked why BioWare wasn't making that game instead. Other companies exist thanks to BioWare veterans, such as Beamdog (founded by ex-BioWare vets to release successful remasters of Baldur's Gate and its sequel) and Archetype Entertainmen, who will release their Mass Effect spiritual successor Exodus in April 2027.

The feeling, fairly or not, was that since at least the EA takeover in 2009, BioWare could no longer take creative risks and they were constantly funnelled into chasing trends rather than establishing them. Inquisition's open-world pivot was a response to the success of Skyrim, whilst Anthem was chasing the success of the likes of Destiny (without any understanding of why that was a success). EA, whose most successful franchises were online shooters and sports games, were an awkward fit for BioWare from the start. However, some commentators have cautioned on this as an overly simplistic narrative, pointing out that Anthem was a project originated by BioWare themselves and pushed by leadership at the studio.

Certainly BioWare's dramatically slowed release cadence was a problem; they released seven games in their first decade, ten in their second but then only three in their third (four only if you count a remaster). Sales were also an issue: Inquisition was, by far, their biggest-selling game but never cracked 20 million units, less than a third of Skyrim. Most of their games stayed under 10 million units sold. It did sometimes feel that BioWare was often treated and reported on as an AAA industry-leader developer but its sales never really reflected that (unlike Bethesda, CD Projekt Red post-Witcher III, Blizzard etc). This wasn't a problem when budgets were low and their release frequency was high, but as their budgets shot up and their release schedule elongated to ridiculous timespans, the situation clearly became untenable.

It will be interesting to see if EA does anything with the franchises it now owns in full after BioWare's dissolution, or if interested third parties try to acquire those series to do something with them. Whilst the company is gone, its games remain, and many of them remain solid gold classics.