BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk has revealed that BioWare had higher hopes for MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic. In a recent episode of the My Perfect Console podcast (transcription courtesy of Time Extension), Zeschuk said that the potential success of The Old Republic could have led to him, along with BioWare’s other co-founder, Ray Muzyka, into making a bid to take over Electronic Arts from within the company.
However, the dream was a longshot, with Zeschuk saying that Star Wars: The Old Republic would have needed to make an incredible amount of money – around $2 billion a year – for the move to be possible.
And ultimately, as history showed us, Star Wars: The Old Republic was, at best, modestly successful. “I lived in Austin for two-and-a-half years making Star Wars the Old Republic [and] I knew that was kind of a one-way trip,” said Zeschuk. “If it was super successful, super duper successful, Ray and I would have probably launched a bid to try and take over EA from the inside, being the corporate pirates that we are.
But it needed to be like $2 billion a year successful. But it didn’t work out so I was like, ‘Ah, I’m fine.'” For some context, Star Wars: The Old Republic was, at the time, one of the most expensive video games being developed.
The MMORPG was quite ambitious, and wanted to meld the multiplayer fun of other games in the genre with BioWare’s penchant for telling stories.