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RPG that will be an "epic struggle between the
Jedi and the evil Sith."
EDMONTON, Alberta -- LucasArts Entertainment -- in its quest to find the Yoda to create its first Stars Wars role-playing game -- went north and settled on BioWare, an Edmonton, Alberta company formed by two MDs.
The game, which is due to be released in 2002, will be set 4,000 years before the Star Wars films and will feature an "epic struggle between the Jedi and the evil Sith."
On Monday, BioWare announced it will develop the game for LucasArts, which will handle the marketing and distribution. Versions of the game will be available for PCs and video consoles, such as Sony Playstation II and
Microsoft's X-Box. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
BioWare landed the partnership on the strength of its last game, Baldur's Gate. Since it was released in 1999, Baldur's Gate has won numerous awards and sold over a million units worldwide.
Like Baldur's Gate, the Star Wars project will be a role-playing game, the first for the successful franchise. Electronic role-playing games generally feature strong elements of adventure, along with characters whose identity gamers may assume. Simon Jeffery, president of LucasArts, said he opened discussions late last year with BioWare after the commercial and critical success of Baldur's Gate came to his attention.
He cited the company's strength in storytelling as well as its ability to create strong graphics as reasons for wanting to work with BioWare. "They understand what hot buttons to press and what makes the hard-core, role-playing fans tick." Jeffery said it didn't take long for him to warm up to Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk. "It helps they were Star Wars fans."
"Our mission statement is, 'We want to entertain the world.' I guess we're part-way there," said Muzyka. He and Zeschuk are joint CEOs of BioWare. Both Muzyka and Zeschuk have seen the Star Wars films numerous times. LucasArts carefully controls the Star Wars image, and will continue to do so with the new title. "There are legions of people around the world who know everything that's ever been written or said about Star Wars, so you can't afford to make mistakes."
In some of the previous games, LucasArts took what Jeffery called a "light-hearted approach," something the fans apparently didn't appreciate. "While we do believe Star Wars has appeal to all ages, all demographics, and that everyone has a right to enjoy Star Wars games, we also know that the hard-core Star Wars fans like to see the subject matter taken very seriously."
Zeschuk agreed one of BioWare's jobs will be satisfying the series' enthusiastic fans. "One of the big challenges for us is to live up to the epic nature of these (movies)." Zeschuk and Muzyka both hold medical degrees from the University of Alberta and still practice occasionally. They developed their first software application while still in medical school. After selling the subsequent computer tutorial to the U of A's faculty of medicine, a shared love of video gaming led them to form BioWare.
BioWare has grown steadily over the last year, increasing from a staff of 50 in early 1999 to about 90 employees currently. Besides the LucasArts' project, BioWare is developing a sequel to Baldur's Gate, as well as an Internet-based role-playing game.
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