A former BioWare developer has claimed that the Electronic Arts board of directors denied BioWare the opportunity to reboot Star Wars: The Old Republic.
Speaking with PC Gamer, BioWare veteran James Ohlen revealed that the failed attempt to greenlight the reboot was the “beginning of the end” of his 22-year career at the studio.
Following the success of Knights of the Old Republic, for which Ohlen is credited as lead designer, BioWare bosses Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk offered him the opportunity to lead a team at the developer’s new studio in Austin, which Ohlen accepted.
The Austin studio would go on to produce Star Wars: The Old Republic in 2011, which was an ambitious blend of classic MMOs like World of Warcraft, with the deep storytelling that BioWare had become known for. “I was like, ‘I hate massive multiplayer games. But all right, I’ll do it,'” Ohlen said.
It wasn’t long before development became what felt like a “never-ending” project for Ohlen, who was spending more time making sure “big ego designers … didn’t kill each other”.
“I’m just not someone who can manage hundreds and hundreds of people to go in a different direction,” Ohlen explained. “Everyone wants to build WoW in space, and it’s my job to say no, we’re making [something different], and I wasn’t able to do that.”
In 2015, Ohlen began work on a plan to reboot The Old Republic, a process that saw him spend six months working on a design document for the game, which would be renamed to Star Wars: The New Republic. Ohlen’s pitch was able to win the approval of Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, as well as chief creative officer Dave Filoni.
“He was like, ‘if you set it a couple hundred years before the fall of the Republic, we can have a tie in,’ Ohlen recalled.
“I remember I got super excited because the big challenge was [EA exec] Patrick Söderlund, who I think is great but hates Star Wars: The Old Republic. And I convinced him … it was one of the greatest accomplishments of my career.”
That joy would, unfortunately, be short-lived.
Despite getting the green light from both Lucasfilm and Söderlund, EA’s board of directors were much less in favour of the idea. “We were going to be able to have a Star Wars: The New Republic, until the board of directors of EA, who all remembered the launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic, and remembered spending $300 million,” Olhen explained.
“They’re like, ‘Why the fuck are we gonna spend a bunch more?'”
“That was the beginning of the end for me,” Olhen said. The only way you get through life is by having empathy for everybody, including people that are causing you pain. I was thinking of it through the lens of EA. And I’m like, there’s no way I’m ever going to win in this. It just doesn’t make sense to empower someone like me. If I was there, I wouldn’t.
“So I gotta get out. This is just not for me.”
Now, Ohlen is working on a trio of RPG books alongside former BioWare creative director Jesse Sky, who Ohlen describes as one of the “good people” from his time as studio head of Archetype Entertainment, a period that he described as “six years of nearly killing me.”