BioWare Is Free to Create a New Game Universe

BioWare might be just one studio inside publisher Electronic Arts, but the company has complete freedom when it comes to the kind of video game projects it wants to work on, according to Frank Gibeau.

The boss of the EA Games division has told Kotaku that if he team “decides on a story that he wants to tell, guess what? He’s going to be able to step forward at EA and we’re going to back him with capital for him to be able to go build that experience and tell a new story in the Mass Effect universe if that’s what he wants to do.”

Despite the risks involved, Electronic Arts is also ready to offer BioWare the resources it needs in order to create a new intellectual property because both the company and the public trust the developer to create quality games.

Gibeau pointed out that EA had the same attitude when it came to other studios it was overseeing, adding, “It’s the same thing with PopCap, it’s the same thing with how we reinvigorated Maxis. It’s the same thing with DICE. The way it actually really works is those guys report to me and they run their own individual businesses.”

The executive clarified that his job consisted mostly of doing customer research and trying to see the trends of the gaming industry and that he rarely offered direct editorial feedback to the studios he was working with.

Gibeau had previously suggested that EA was no longer interested in games that did not offer a multiplayer experience, but he has since clarified his comments to show that the focus is on connectivity and that single player is still supported.

At the moment, BioWare is supporting the MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic and it is in the early stages of creating a new Dragon Age title.