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This is not news in any kind of way. As it´s been publicly known since February 9th that BioWare Austin cancelled their 4-versus-1 co-op RPG “Shadow Realms” (the game was actually scheduled for release this year).

I just wanted to summarize the whole thing and give my thoughts on the cancellation of the game. For starter, i had a feeling that it would turn out like this.

As Bioware only released one single trailer for “Shadow Realms” (and it was a live-action trailer from August last year). And most people didn´t seem to pick up on the trailer either (just read the comment section on the trailer).

BioWare sacrificed “Shadow Realms” so that they could focus on “SWTOR”. Ouch…

But to be honest, it seems like not even BioWare themselves believed in “Shadow Realms” (as they´ve got cold feet during the development process).

Then you got the blog post that BioWare posted back in February as well. The post is not live anymore, but this is what BioWare Austin wrote in that blog post:

“While the team did amazing work on the game concept and we got lots of great feedback from our fans at events and through other game testing, right now there are other projects for the team to work on within the BioWare studios for the coming year and beyond,”

Hickman said on the Shadow Realms website. “We’ve got an incredibly talented team here at the Austin studio, and they are excited and already deep on new projects within the BioWare family, ones that will make some great BioWare games even better.”

“These include additional ongoing enhancements to the award-winning Dragon Age: Inquisition, as well as the next game in the Mass Effect series and other new IP.”

“For all the people who registered for the Shadow Realms Closed Alpha, we’re working on a way to say thank-you for signing up. To all those players that gave us feedback at Gamescom and PAX, and those that shared their thoughts and impressions in the past months, we thank you for being part of the conversation.” – BioWare Austin

All of this basically boils down to one single thing. BioWare sacrificed “Shadow Realms” so that they could focus 100% on “SWTOR”.

Tough luck, but that´s how it is. Me, i would much rather see BioWare work on KOTOR 3. But that´s just me daydreaming i guess…