BioWare confirms developer change for Star Wars: The Old Republic

It's official: Star Wars: The Old Republic is changing hands. Going forward, Broadsword is taking the reigns from BioWare, which has worked on the MMO since its launch in 2011. 

Gary McKay, BioWare's general manager, confirmed that "both the Broadsword studio and SWTOR team members will be joining forces. Development of the game will move to our partner and friends at Broadsword, a boutique studio with expertise in managing online games." 

Electronic Arts will maintain publishing rights for the MMO, while BioWare will prioritize the return of its prestige franchises, Dragon Age and Mass Effect. As previously reported, SWTOR staff that won't be joining Broadsword will be offered positions at other EA studios. 

Keith Kanneg, executive producer for Old Republic, confirmed that the game's current roadmap is "still in motion." New content for the game will continue to be made, according to McKay, and the game will continue to have "commitment and full support" from Lucasfilm Games. 

The future of Star Wars games

Outside of The Old Republic, more titles for the sci-fi series are currently in production. The closest to release is Massive Entertainment's Star Wars Outlaws, which is set to come out sometime in 2024. 

Respawn Entertainment, creators of the Star Wars Jedi series, is presently working on both a first-person shooter and a strategy game set the Star Wars universe. At time of writing, those two projects are the only known games for the brand from EA, as DICE has shelved Star Wars Battlefront to work on its own Battlefield series. 

Somewhere in the mix of all this is Quantic Dream's Star Wars: Eclipse and a remake of BioWare's 2005 game, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. It was originally in the hands of Aspyr (which developed the remasters of various Star Wars games) before the studio was taken off the project last year. 

Another studio has since taken over development of the Knights remake, though parent company Embracer has yet to officially say who it is.