Highlights

  • Former BioWare developer Mac Walters reflected on leaving the studio after working on the successful Mass Effect trilogy and the recent Mass Effect Legendary Edition.
  • Walters formed his own studio named Worlds Untold, aiming to create triple-A action-adventure games with a focus on narrative and worldbuilding.
  • The success of Mass Effect Legendary Edition convinced Walters to move on from the franchise and pursue working on original IPs, leading to his departure from BioWare.

Former Mass Effect developer Mac Walters recently reflected on his decision to leave BioWare and form his own studio, including the success of 2021’s Mass Effect Legendary Edition. Walters joined BioWare as a writer for the East Asian-inspired RPG Jade Empire, and went on to help craft the narrative of the studio’s highly successful Mass Effect trilogy. He would then briefly serve as a narrative director for Anthem, before returning to the Mass Effect universe for 2017’s Mass Effect: Andromeda.

Mac Walters’s final job for BioWare was as project director for the upcoming Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, but earlier this year he announced that he was leaving BioWare after nearly 19 years and forming his own development team named Worlds Untold. Under the umbrella of Chinese gaming company NetEase, this Vancouver-based studio aims to create triple-A action-adventure games with “an emphasis on narrative and worldbuilding” and an eye toward developing successful franchises like the ones Walters helped craft during his time at BioWare.

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One of the last things Mac Walters worked on before leaving BioWare was Mass Effect Legendary Edition, a remastered collection of the first three Mass Effect games that included all of their supplementary DLC in one package. During a recent interview with gaming YouTube channel MinnMax, Walters revealed that the success of Legendary Edition convinced him to move on from the beloved sci-fi RPG franchise. “It just felt like this is the bow on all the things I've done in Mass Effect,” he explained to host Ben Hanson towards the beginning of the interview. “I don't want to do any more Mass Effect after this. Why tempt fate?”

Walters went on to describe the arduous development cycle for Mass Effect Legendary Edition, which he says reminded him of the early days of BioWare as a small, scrappy team of developers that formed a close bond while creating titles like the original Mass Effect. This development cycle also coincided with other major projects like Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, which Walters said complicated matters and required him to be "a little bit rogue" and "entrepreneurial" to keep Legendary Edition on track without disrupting the other development teams at BioWare.

When all was said and done, Mac Walters says he realized he wanted to go back to working on original IPs, just like he did with story-based BioWare games like Jade Empire and Anthem. After seeing that this wouldn’t be possible under EA and BioWare, Walters ultimately decided to leave and form his own studio in Worlds Untold. Meanwhile, the Mass Effect franchise will continue without him in the still-in-development Mass Effect 4, and Worlds Untold has yet to announce its first video game project under NetEase as of this writing.