Anyone remember Shadow Realms? It’s supposed to be the next big from BioWare, which was announced as a PC exclusive at Gamescom last year after some exciting cryptic marketing. The episodic, 4 vs. 1 styled dungeon crawler looked like it was going in the free-to-play direction, but now it could be an all new game entirely.
According to a source close to Kotaku, BioWare has completely rebooted Shadow Realms and now have their eyes set on a 2017 release for Xbox One, PS4 and PC. Two other sources claim that the game was cancelled outright, but a third “reliable” source states that it was quickly followed up with the start on the reboot. According to some documentation, the Shadow Realms servers were shut down for good last October – the same month that BioWare cancelled that game’s planned Alpha indefinitely.
The source adds that the new, rebooted title will be a full game, featuring a full storyline out the box and not several episodes as originally planned. There’s no word yet on how the game has changed, but considering it could be built from scratch it’s safe to assume nothing could stay the same. The gameplay shown at Gamescom was, personally, far from exciting, although the asymmetrical nature of the game seemed promising.
But was that the reason for the reboot? Oddly enough, probably not. It seems that BioWare could have simply needed more funding for the title, which publisher EA only hands out if the title agrees to make use of their online service, Origin. Shadow Realms, although published by an EA owned studio, was originally not going to use the service, but it seems like that has changed in exchange for a greater budget.
Neither BioWare nor EA have commented on the report, although it seems like a completely logical step for a title that really failed to wow audiences at Gamescom, and subsequently disappeared. Could we see a re-reveal at E3 this year or will BioWare hold out until closer to launch? More importantly, how drastically will Shadow Realms change? We’ll have to wait and see.
Last Updated: January 7, 2015
Mossel
January 7, 2015 at 07:51
After playing ME1,2,3, DA2 and starting with DA:O, I am now so impressed with BioWare that I will probably pre order anything they throw at me. cant wait to play DA:I!
Ghost In The Rift
January 7, 2015 at 07:53
I only recently started DA:I,that game is huge,massive,but 70% side quests
Kromas, Guardian of Cenarius
January 7, 2015 at 08:07
Commander Shepard would be proud of you!
Also I approve this message.
Brady miaau
January 7, 2015 at 11:58
Play Baldurs Gate and Neverwinter Nights as well. Old, but graphics is sort of ok and gameplay is fun. IF you have ever played table top AD&D, of course, it is just ten times better. If you have never role played or do not know the AD&D rules quite well (man, after so many years, seems I still do) then perhaps not so good.
Ghost In The Rift
January 7, 2015 at 07:52
Its not Mass Effect 4 so i dont think people care about this at the moment,
Is it true that bioware is redoing the whole mass effect 4 game with the FOX engine?
Mandom (Umar)
January 7, 2015 at 07:54
Probably just wild rumuors, though, FOX is an amazing engine
Ghost In The Rift
January 7, 2015 at 07:56
I got Metal Gear Solid:Ground Zero and when i started it up and saw the intro i was like “holly shit that is a good looking snake” lol
Mandom (Umar)
January 7, 2015 at 07:58
Lol What’s impressive is how well it performs while looking that good, its so well optimized.
Ghost In The Rift
January 7, 2015 at 08:02
Thats apparently the main reason why Bioware wants to switch to that engine,nice visuals,performance and optimized
CypherGate
January 7, 2015 at 08:50
It is an amazing engine but I do like the Frostbite engine as well. Either way if they use anyone of them it wont disappoint.
Spy Master Tokashi
January 7, 2015 at 08:38
Please do not read rumours posted by highschool dropouts.
If you develop a game on an engine for years and suddenly change the engine to a new engine and saying … yeah the release date will be delayed BUT we have a demo of the game in CES 2015. Then you know that there is so much BULLSHIT that you can even hear the cow moo from the poop.
You cannot simply change a game engine on the fly … really. This world is getting more stupid by the day.
Ghost In The Rift
January 7, 2015 at 08:43
Its the reason why i take everything on non-trusted sites with little to no salt at all,
Plus like you said,develope a demo,a game that is already in a playable state to switch engines,but hey,its wishful thinking at best lol
Ghost In The Rift
January 7, 2015 at 07:59
http://www.kdramastars.com/articles/65749/20150103/mass-effect-4-release-date.htm
Here is the article about ME4 and the FOX engine,i just want confirmation that its true so my gaming soul can rest:-p
RinceThis
January 7, 2015 at 08:33
Origin. NOPE.
Dutch Matrix
January 7, 2015 at 09:01
Origin WORKS! DAMNIT!
Rock789
January 7, 2015 at 09:41
Not on console… **RUNS**
RinceThis
January 7, 2015 at 12:25
*Runs with, holding ‘hands’
IlIlIlI
January 8, 2015 at 06:30
http://ts1.mm.bing.net/th?u=http%3a%2f%2ffc08.deviantart.net%2ffs70%2ff%2f2012%2f099%2f0%2f7%2fhah__gayyy__gif_2_0_by_lucky43539-d4vkbpb.gif&ehk=aJqg2x3WE4EqHdA%2beXpVbw&w=361&h=271&c=7&p=0&dpr=1.33&pid=1.7
Spy Master Tokashi
January 7, 2015 at 09:46
Played DA: I and Origin did not even bother me. I really do not see why people keep on bitching about Origin…It is 1000000 times better than Ukak but people still buy FC4 and AC Unity ..
Trendcending
January 7, 2015 at 12:06
We hate origin because its DRM and is the hate flavour of the week, along with Destiny and Microsoft, keep up dammit.
Spy Master Tokashi
January 7, 2015 at 12:21
bitching about DRM is so 2014, get over it.
BacchusZA
January 8, 2015 at 06:15
I love how both Steam and Origin are content to launch at startup, maybe throw up an info window to show you a special offer when it does, but then quite happily sit in the corner, in your taskbar, and *shut the fuck up*, and make not a peep while you happily launch and play your games without interruption.
uPlay? “You want to play this game you just spent lots of money on? Well, first you **will** launch our store interface for no other damn reason than we want to peddle our shit to you, and we’re going to make you navigate 2-3 pages before you can actually launch the game. And then it’s going to be a really interesting and fun looking game that you really want to play, but we’re going to make it so buggy and poorly optimised that you’re going to pull your hair out in frustration, and make it very hard for you to enjoy it. And when you’ve had enough of that, have another dose of our shitty store interface before you can go onto to something less painful and more fun.”
I so want to get The Division. That game looks all kinds of amazing. But I 99% will not buy it because it’s an Ubisoft title, which means I will have to deal with their execrable uPlay “service”, and because I have so little faith that they’ll make it work properly on PC without massive patching being required.
Spy Master Tokashi
January 8, 2015 at 06:28
jip, uPlay and Ubisoft is the main reason why I did not buy FC4 (I am a huge FC fan, love all 3 games) and AC Unity .. (again big fan)
The last game I bought was AC Black Flag, every time I had to download a cracked .dll file to get it to work because it kept on breaking the game after each update. I have not even finished it yet because of the last broken update could not be fixed by a cracked one. I guess it is fixed now but I lost interest.