BioWare’s experimental four-on-one action role-playing game, Shadow Realms , made itself known during last year’s Gamescom. While the game’s name surfaced every once in a while thereafter, most information regarding its development has seemingly been kept under lock and key. Reports even suggested that the game had been cancelled, but the developer’s community manager later debunked this claim . Back in October, it was announced that game would be delayed, with the new launch date reportedly being 2017.
The reason for this delay? Rumors suggest that BioWare has rebooted the project to include integration for Electronic Arts’ Origin client. Previously, Shadow Realms was allegedly looking to have its own client service, but one industry source from Kotaku claims that the game will now seemingly support the publishers online service instead. An attributing factor to this decision was the fate of the promising Dawngate , which was unfortunately shut down last year.
The developer behind Dawngate , Waystone Games, didn’t integrate Origin (although it did use your Origin account details to log in). According to multiple people who have worked with EA before, developers receive less funding whenever they choose not to integrate the publisher’s services, and it’s reportedly because of this a limited budget that Dawngate didn’t survive. It’s reportedly the same story with the now closed Command & Conquer game as well.
Seemingly learning from this, BioWare has opted to build Shadow Realms up again with the inclusion of Origin. According to one source, this will mean that the developer will receive more funding, thus enabling it to be able to do more with its project. It’s assumed that this will mean that the game will no longer be a free-to-play title, although it has not been confirmed that the game will actually be free to play.
As well as being allegedly being pushed back until 2017, Shadow Realms is also said to release on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
[ Source(s): Kotaku ]
[ Via: VG24/7 ]