BioWare specializes in role-playing video games, and achieved recognition for developing highly praised and successful licensed franchises: Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

Interplay suggested that the demonstrated gameplay engine would be well-suited to the Dungeons & Dragons licence which it had acquired from Strategic Simulations.

In November 2005, it was announced that BioWare and Pandemic Studios (itself founded by former Activision employees) would be joining forces (with each maintaining their own branding), with private equity fund Elevation Partners investing in the newly named VG Holding Corp. partnership.

The following year, BioWare released Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood on the Nintendo DS, its first title for a handheld game console.

The first, located in Austin, Texas, and headed by industry veterans Gordon Walton and Richard Vogel, was created to work on the Star Wars: The Old Republic MMORPG project.

[14] Trent Oster led a team which worked on a spy-themed role-playing game codenamed Agent prior to his second departure from BioWare in 2009.

[14] On 24 June 2009, Electronic Arts announced a restructuring of their role-playing and massively multiplayer online games development into a new group that included both Mythic Entertainment and BioWare.

The massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) Star Wars: The Old Republic is based on BioWare's previous contribution to the Star Wars franchise,[18] and was announced on 21 October 2008, although BioWare had first mentioned an unspecified new collaboration with LucasArts in October the previous year.

[20][21][22][23] Following the release of Mass Effect 3 in March 2012, numerous players complained about its endings failing to fulfill the developer's earlier promises regarding the conclusion of the trilogy.

[27][28] After almost a year without a formal head, EA appointed Matthew Bromberg the group general manager of the BioWare label on 9 September 2013.

[31] At E3 2014, BioWare Edmonton announced working on a new (unnamed) original intellectual property in addition to continuing their established series.

[32] Another new IP, titled Shadow Realms is an episodic 4 vs. 1 story-driven online action role-playing game, and was announced on Gamescom 2014.

[38] Alexis Kennedy, co-founder of Failbetter Games and the creative director of Dragon Age: The Last Court, joined BioWare as its "first ever guest writer" in September 2016.

[40] Released in March 2017, Andromeda was at the center of controversy of equal proportions, if not higher than that around the third chapter; starting with heavy criticisms that were addressed before the video game was released[41] to the lukewarm response received by the specialized press and the fandom[42] with sales lower than the previous Mass Effect games.

[48] Lead story developer for Jade Empire and Dragon Age creative director Mike Laidlaw announced his departure from BioWare in October 2017 after 14 years with the company.

[50] On 24 September 2019, it was announced that BioWare had moved from their old location on Calgary Trail into 3 stories of the Epcor Tower in downtown Edmonton.

[52] The following month, on 3 December, both Hudson and Mark Darrah, the executive producer on the Dragon Age series, announced their departures from the studio.

[65] In late October 2024, following the release of Veilguard, creative director John Epler stated that BioWare's attention had "shifted entirely to the next Mass Effect [game]" in an interview with Rolling Stone.

[67] Amazon MGM Studios officially confirmed on 7 November 2024 that a Mass Effect TV series is in development, following negotiations that had started in late 2021.

[70][71][72] EA stated that Veilguard had "engaged" 1.5 million players during the three months ending December 31, 2024, underperforming their expectations by half.

[74] While a small Mass Effect team was retained to continue work, the studio "is now down from more than 200 people two years ago to less than 100 today".

[2] This restructuring included layoffs in the Dragon Age team,[74] with IGN noting that "terminated" employees "are being offered time to apply to other roles within the company if they so choose".

BioWare created the Infinity Engine to use it as a core component for development of the Baldur's Gate series (1998–2001), which were 2D role-playing video games based on Dungeons & Dragons.

The engine was also used by Black Isle Studios to create the critically acclaimed Planescape: Torment (1999) and the Icewind Dale series (2000–2002).

The game included the Aurora toolset, a collection of tools allowing users to create their own digital adventure modules to be played either in single-player or in online multiplayer.

The toolset enjoyed great popularity among the modding community, with over a thousand fan-made modules produced in it within half a year after the release.

[78] Obsidian Entertainment (successor to Black Isle Studios) used an updated version of BioWare's Aurora, titled "Electron Engine", to produce Neverwinter Nights 2 (2006) and its three expansion packs (2007–2009).

[80] BioWare used an updated version of the Aurora, titled the Odyssey Engine, to produce Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic in 2003 and their first original intellectual property role-playing game Jade Empire in 2005.

Like Neverwinter Nights, Origins was released with a toolset to allow the players to run their own adventure modules on the Eclipse Engine.

[105] In addition to numerous game awards, in October 2008, the company was named one of Alberta's Top Employers by Mediacorp Canada Inc., which was announced by the Calgary Herald[107] and the Edmonton Journal.