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Will Bioware’s Upcoming MMORPG be Based in D&D's Forgotten Realms?

By Carl Cascone

It is virtually impossible to be interested in the MMORPG industry without hearing the news announced by Bioware on March 13, 2006.  If you haven’t heard and consider yourself an MMO aficionado, you need to stop staring at the stalagmites in your humble cave and pay some attention.  

Simply put, Bioware - the heavy weight company that brought Baldur’s Gate, Baldur’s Gate II, and Knights of the Old Republic to millions of computer monitors and console screens - announced they were working on an MMORPG of their own.  This announcement had to send shivers down the spine of Blizzard and Sony Online Entertainment.  Bioware is a strong company with strong licenses, and any game they develop is guaranteed to cause shockwaves through the MMORPG market.   

Bioware is hosting a design contest to win merchandise and a possible job at Bioware Austin.

Let us fast forward just a little bit over a year, to more recent announcements.  Bioware, following in the footsteps of one of its most valuable licensing partners, Wizards of the Coast, has announced it will hold a world design contest.  Some lucky and creative winner will have their technical prowess noticed by Bioware, and will win a hoard of company merchandise, the premium Neverwinter Nights modules, and in all likelihood a job in Austin, Texas.  The winner for this will be announced in August or September, and I am sure from that point on, if not already, development will achieve hyperspace proportions.  Before this contest was announced rumors were already circulating about a Star Wars or even a Forgotten Realms MMORPG.

Whether you like them or not, both of these name licenses are a colossus within the game industry from table top to computer.  The Sony Online Entertainment-made Star Wars Galaxies sports a fairly decent subscription rate, slowly gaining ground from their loss post-NGE.  I am not sure of the sale numbers, but all of Bioware’s Forgotten Realm games have achieved the vaunted “PC RPG of the Year “award for the year they were released, and some even the year after.

Despite the hopes of many Star Wars fans, the recent contest announcement by Bioware points the spotlight towards a Forgotten Realms MMORPG, and not a competing Star Wars title. Judging by the reaction to Star Wars Galaxies, if a KotOR MMORPG was done correctly, it would serve the death knell to the older Galaxies title.  People play SW Galaxies because there is no other Star Wars MMORPG available.  Trolling forums for information is a very anecdotal way to gather data, but from what I read, speculation is that about three quarters of Galaxies subscribers would switch to a KotOR game.  Galaxies would make no more money and disappear.  I am not a marketer, but I could not see Lucas Arts renewing the Star Wars Galaxies license with such a harsh competitor on the rise.  

Blizzard and the World of Warcraft may be in danger of losing their title as the champion of the MMO world if a quality MMO comes out of Bioware.

However, there is also an argument that a similar situation would occur with Turbine’s Dungeon and Dragons Online: Stormreach. Although the game was based out of the Eberron campaign setting and not the Forgotten Realms, I can’t help but see the slow dissipation of DDO to a Forgotten Realms competitor. The Forgotten Realms is a highly loved D&D campaign setting – more so than Eberron – and Bioware is a heavy hitter when it comes to beating out the competition.

After the contest announcement, Sony might be breathing a bit easier and Turbine is probably holding its breath. There’s a third party in this mix who also may be waiting for the true announcement of the Bioware MMO, and that company is the reigning champion of the fantasy MMO realm, Blizzard.  

First, take a look at the contest itself.  The rules are that the prospective developer must develop a 20 to 40 minute adventure level using the Aurora tool set from Neverwinter Nights.  The Neverwinter Nights toolset can be used for just about any setting, it does not have to limit itself to the Forgotten Realms, but it might be a good indicator that Knights of the Old Republic is not going to be the MMORPG that Bioware will create.

There is another factor to consider as well, and this comes from the tabletop industry.  Wizards of the Coast has not allowed any other companies to renew their D&D licenses.  Dragon Magazine and Dungeon Magazine have been called back to Wizards of the Coast from Paizo publishing, and the Dragonlance license has been pulled from Margaret Weiss Productions.  Yet Wizards is still allowing Bioware to maintain their license.  Perhaps Wizards of the Coast is anticipating a big seller.

These factors lead me to believe that Bioware’s MMORPG will be a Forgotten Realms licensed product.  Bioware could easily make their own MMORPG but with the tough competition of Lord of the Rings and World of Warcraft, a Forgotten Realms MMORPG seems to be the key to Bioware leveling the field and creating a grand success.  

Some of the most memorable fantasy characters have come from the Forgotten Realms.

Carrying the Forgotten Realms label on a video game is a virtual guarantee to first place sales.  In 1988 SSI was granted the license for a Forgotten Realms PC game, called Pools of Radiance.  This turned into an entire trilogy of games that were released over the course of the next 4 years, and each on of these games did very well on the market.  Baldur’s Gate and its brethren that ran on the Infinity engine were also first place sellers, and they took the game industry by storm.  

Forgotten Realms is an expansive game world.  Some areas of the Forgotten Realms have more written about them than countries in our real world.  This vast amount of information allows for an MMORPG of depth that far surpasses any of the other MMORPGs on the market.  The expanse of the Forgotten Realms offers game developers a myriad of choices for setting.  I doubt a Realms MMORPG would be limited to the city of Neverwinter or the Sword Coast, when there is an entire virtual continent to explore.  

The Forgotten Realms is the most logical choice for an MMORPG.  The flavor of the realms is familiar to gamers, and the environment has the potential to be completely immersive.  The Realms already has a cast of iconic characters like Drizzt Do’Urden, Elminster the Sage, and Storm Silverhand that have made their mark on the fantasy genre.  

Bioware’s greatest chance of success – in my opinion – is to create a Forgotten Realms MMORPG.  This will guarantee sales, and will bring many tabletop gamers who are not in the market of MMORPG’s into its ever increasing fold.  In any case one thing is for certain, no matter the license used, Bioware is going to produce a game of superb quality.

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