BioWare’s Old Republic studio hammering away at “several” unannounced projects

Star Wars: The Old Republic

BioWare Austin was born to make The Old Republic. That’s not a comment on the studio’s suitability to build Star Wars MMOs, but a literal fact: its staff were brought together in 2006 explicitly to make that game, and since its release five years later they’ve done nothing else but run its operations, reconfigure its systems for free-to-play, and develop its expansions.

Or so we thought. A couple of new job listings ask for hires with experience in both MMO and action games to help out on some of “several unannounced projects”.

“After the hugely successful addition of its Free 2 Play option and the highly praised launch of space PVP with the Galactic Starfighter expansion, the Austin team continues driving forward with SW:TOR and is also hard at work on several unannounced projects,” reads a job posting for a senior software engineer.

That’s backed up by the Austin studio’s profile on the official BioWare site.

It’s hard to see where those projects might overlap with BioWare’s ongoing franchises, which seem pretty well covered for the time being. Mass Effect 4 is in the hands of their new Montreal outfit, while Dragon Age: Inquisition is the chief responsibility of BioWare Edmonton – fittingly, since their history threads right back to Baldur’s Gate.

A separate Austin job listing, for games testers, asks for experience with “both online games such as MMORPGs (Star Wars the Old Republic, DC Universe Online) and action games (Bayonetta, Devil May Cry, Infamous)”.

Should we expect a twitch-control MMO, then? It’d be unlike anything in BioWare’s back catalogue – bar Jade Empire, which featured an entertaining faux-martial arts system. Did any of you lot play that?

Thanks, VG247.