BioWare will enlist the help of their new partners Mythic Entertainment in the development of their upcoming MMOG, Star Wars: The Old Republic.
The recently established partnership between BioWare and Warhammer Online developers Mythic Entertainment is already starting to bear fruit, with BioWare revealing that the Mythic team will be helping BioWare’s Austin branch with the development of their upcoming MMOG, Star Wars: The Old Republic. And as Mythic shares with BioWare, BioWare will in turn do the same for Mythic.
“We’ve both played Warhammer, and actually I’ve still been playing it on and off for a while, so I think for us it’s not so much a popularity boost as just the fact that we can probably bring perspectives to the table that will be new and perhaps helpful to the guys from Mythic in the same way from an online perspective they can certainly share with us,” BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk told Eurogamer.
That’s not to suggest that BioWare Austin are struggling and in desperate need of assistance from MMOG vets, however. “To give credit to the Austin team, we have a number of serious MMO veterans on there, so it’s certainly not neophytes, but there’s absolutely opportunities to share and learn things back and forth,” Zeschuk explained.
Though there have been drastic changes at Mythic as a result of the merger (for lack of a better term), BioWare believes that the order of operations won’t really be morphing too much. The two studios, both being under the Electronic Arts umbrella, have already been sharing information before this, according to Zeschuk. “We’ll just continue what we’re doing, which is actually sharing technology ideas,” he said.
As for how Mythic will operate on its own, Zeschuk sees the company as remaining very much an independent force, not unlike BioWare Austin, which he describes as managing their own internal processes, and running “it like a BioWare studio, but in the Austin vision.” Mythic will continue to pursue their own goals, while Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka will be managing the entire group, making sure “all the sharing is happening and everyone’s supported and getting the resources they need.” Aww. Just like one big RPG developing family.
