Editing BioWare (section)

===2000s:  EA Acquisition, ''Mass Effect'' & ''Dragon Age''===
[[File:BioWare logo.svg|thumb|Logo used by BioWare for almost two decades, from ''[[Baldur's Gate (video game)|Baldur's Gate]]'' to ''[[Mass Effect: Andromeda]]'']]
At this point, BioWare decided to return to the action genre. The company's initial thought was to develop a sequel to ''Shattered Steel'', but eventually a sequel to ''[[MDK]]'' from [[Shiny Entertainment]] was chosen for development.<ref name="IGN History" /> ''[[MDK2]]'' was released on PC, [[Dreamcast]], and eventually [[PlayStation 2]], offering BioWare their first taste of developing [[console game|games for consoles]].<ref name="Eurogamer History" /> ''MDK2'' drew the same level of praise as its predecessor but, despite the success, BioWare returned to the ''Baldur's Gate'' series for their next project.<ref name="IGN History" />

''[[Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn]]'' was released in 2000,<ref name="Eurogamer History" /> two years after the release of ''Baldur's Gate''.<ref name="IGN History" /> ''Baldur's Gate II'' sold two million copies, matching the sales of the first game in the series. However, the success of both ''Baldur's Gate II'' and ''MDK2'' was not enough to stabilize Interplay financially.<ref name="IGN History" /> Subsequently, BioWare began to work with [[Infogrames]], which was later renamed to [[Atari]].<ref name="Eurogamer History" /> ''[[Neverwinter Nights (2002 video game)|Neverwinter Nights]]'' was originally to be published by Interplay, but the company lost the licence of the game to [[Atari, Inc. (1993–present)|Atari]] and part of their ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' licence to BioWare. After selling their D&D licence to Atari, BioWare developed ''[[Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (video game)|Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic]]'' and ''[[Jade Empire]]''. It had publishing relationships with Interplay Entertainment, [[Infogrames]], under its new name Atari, [[LucasArts]], and [[Microsoft]].

The next few years saw a number of changes in BioWare's corporate status. In November 2005, it was announced that BioWare and [[Pandemic Studios]] (itself founded by former [[Activision]] employees) would be joining forces (with each maintaining their own branding), with private equity fund [[Elevation Partners]] investing in the newly named VG Holding Corp. partnership. On 11 October 2007, it was announced that VG Holding Corp. had been bought by [[Electronic Arts]] for {{US$|775|link=yes}}{{nbsp}}million (equivalent to ${{Inflation|US|0.775|2007|r=2}} billion in {{Inflation/year|US}}).<ref>{{cite web |last=Klepek |first=Patrick |title=EA Acquires BioWare, Pandemic |url=http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3163607|archive-url=http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20160522222845/http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3163607|url-status=dead|archive-date=22 May 2016 |website=[[1UP.com]] |date=11 October 2007 |access-date=14 June 2009}}</ref> BioWare therefore became a unit of EA, but still retained its own branding.

In 2007, BioWare released the science fiction role-playing game ''[[Mass Effect (video game)|Mass Effect]]''. The following year, BioWare released ''[[Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood]]'' on the [[Nintendo DS]], its first title for a [[handheld game console]]. Later, EA announced that BioWare would merge with [[Mythic Entertainment]], another division of EA who would rename itself as BioWare Mythic after the deal.<ref>{{cite web |last=Fahey |first=Mike |date=2009-06-24 |title=EA Combines Mythic And BioWare Into A Giant RPG Robot |url=http://kotaku.com/5302069/ea-combines-mythic-and-bioware-into-a-giant-rpg-robot |publisher=Kotaku |access-date=7 February 2024 |archive-date=29 September 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110929153407/http://kotaku.com/5302069/ea-combines-mythic-and-bioware-into-a-giant-rpg-robot |url-status=live }}</ref>

The growth of the MMORPG group as part of Electronic Arts in 2008 resulted in three additional studios being added to the BioWare group outside BioWare's original home base in Edmonton. The first, located in [[Austin, Texas]], and headed by industry veterans [[Gordon Walton]] and Richard Vogel, was created to work on the ''Star Wars: The Old Republic'' MMORPG project. Both the studio and the project were announced on 13 March 2006. On 2 March 2009, BioWare announced it had opened a new studio in [[Montreal]], [[Quebec]], to assist with existing projects as necessary.<ref name="Montreal">{{cite web |last=Thorsen |first=Tor |title=BioWare Mass-ing Montreal devs |url=http://www.gamespot.com/news/6205477.html |website=[[GameSpot]] |date=2 March 2009 |access-date=22 June 2009 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090621040131/http://www.gamespot.com/news/6205477.html |archive-date=21 June 2009}}</ref>

During the mid-2000s, BioWare staff developed a number of video game projects which were ultimately canceled. A handheld spin-off for ''Mass Effect'' franchise titled ''Mass Effect: Corsair'', inspired by the gameplay of ''[[Star Control]]'' and played from a first-person perspective, was briefly explored as a potential project for the [[Nintendo DS]] in 2008.<ref name=GS>{{cite web|url=https://www.gamespot.com/articles/mass-effect-corsair-would-have-been-first-person-space-sim-for-the-nintendo-ds/1100-6493393/#comments-block-33562476|title=Mass Effect: Corsair Would Have Been First-Person Space Sim For The Nintendo DS|last=Koch|first=Cameron|date=June 29, 2021|work=[[GameSpot]]|access-date=July 7, 2021|archive-date=7 September 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220907171249/https://www.gamespot.com/articles/mass-effect-corsair-would-have-been-first-person-space-sim-for-the-nintendo-ds/1100-6493393/#comments-block-33562476|url-status=live}}</ref> A sequel to ''Jade Empire'' was under development at one point.<ref name=Revolver/> The project transitioned into a spiritual successor codenamed ''Revolver'', which was canceled by 2008.<ref name=Revolver/> Trent Oster led a team which worked on a spy-themed role-playing game codenamed ''Agent'' prior to his second departure from BioWare in 2009.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.shacknews.com/article/76949/biowares-cancelled-spy-rpg-agent-revealed/|title=BioWare's cancelled spy RPG 'Agent' revealed|first=Alice|last=O'Connor|work=Shacknews|date=December 7, 2012|access-date=July 23, 2021|archive-date=24 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210724031222/https://www.shacknews.com/article/76949/biowares-cancelled-spy-rpg-agent-revealed|url-status=live}}</ref> Unused concept art for ''Agent'' and ''Revolver'' are featured in the art book ''BioWare: Stories and Secrets from 25 Years of Game Development'', published in January 2021.<ref name=Revolver>{{cite web|url=https://www.escapistmagazine.com/v2/bioware-art-revealed-for-scrapped-jade-empire-successor-project-revolver/|title=BioWare Art Revealed for Scrapped Jade Empire Successor, Project Revolver|first=Damien|last=Lawardorn|work=[[The Escapist (magazine)|The Escapist]]|date=January 25, 2021|access-date=July 23, 2021|archive-date=23 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210723065815/https://www.escapistmagazine.com/v2/bioware-art-revealed-for-scrapped-jade-empire-successor-project-revolver/|url-status=live}}</ref>

On 24 June 2009, Electronic Arts announced a restructuring of their role-playing and massively multiplayer online games development into a new group that included both Mythic Entertainment and BioWare. Ray Muzyka, co-founder and general manager of BioWare, was appointed the group general manager of this newly formed "BioWare Group". BioWare's other co-founder, Greg Zeschuk, became the Group Creative Officer for the new MMORPG studio group. BioWare's studios remained unchanged and continued to report to Muzyka. Near the end of 2009, BioWare released the critically acclaimed fantasy role-playing game ''[[Dragon Age: Origins]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.engadget.com/2009/02/03/dragon-age-origins-delayed-to-second-half-of-2009/|title=Dragon Age: Origins delayed to second half of 2009|first=Justin|last=McEloy|work=[[Polygon (website)|Polygon]]|date=March 2, 2009|access-date=September 26, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171104140417/https://www.engadget.com/2009/02/03/dragon-age-origins-delayed-to-second-half-of-2009/|archive-date=November 4, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>