A feature documentary on BioWare, the Edmonton studio behind Mass Effect, Dragon Age and Baldur's Gate, is set for a 2027 premiere after Deadline reported that Canada's Super Channel has commissioned Massive Effect: The BioWare Story from Fennessey Films and Score G Productions.
Written and directed by Akash Sherman and co-produced by Shane Fennessey and Adam Scorgie, the film began shooting about two years before Electronic Arts shut BioWare down on October 21st, and kept filming through the closure. Deadline said the project has a festival run planned ahead of its world premiere next year, with Jhod Cardinal of Upstream Flix handling worldwide sales and support from the Canada Media Fund.
Founders, staff and industry voices
BioWare was founded in 1995 by three medical doctors, Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk and Augustine Yip. Deadline said the studio's role-playing games have sold 100 million copies, spanning Mass Effect, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Dragon Age and Baldur's Gate. Muzyka, Zeschuk and Yip will appear in the film, alongside figures including Lucasfilm Games Vice President Douglas Reilly, former Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello, Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect game director Casey Hudson, The Game Awards creator Geoff Keighley, The Electric Playground creator Victor Lucas, voice actor Jennifer Hale, and longtime BioWare developers Mark Darrah, David Gaider, Drew Karpyshyn, Aaryn Flynn, Mac Walters, Trent Oster, James Ohlen and Caroline Livingstone.
"When the production team asked for our blessing to tell the BioWare story, we were honored and deeply moved," Muzyka and Zeschuk said in a statement carried by Deadline. "BioWare was never just about the logo or the building. It was about the stories brought to life by the amazing people on our dev teams, and the fans who defended those worlds, championed them and carried them forward. We're proud this film honors those who made it all possible. The best stories never really end. They live on in our memories and wait for someone to pick them up again."
Fan submissions and Super Channel
An official site for the documentary is inviting fans to send photos, videos and other material on how BioWare touched their lives, with a chance to appear in the film. "BioWare's fans have been part of its journey since the very first game," Scorgie said. "It's only right that they help us tell the rest of the story." Sherman called the founders his "hometown heroes" and said that with the studio's recent closure, the film is now "a profound valediction."
Kim Ball, Super Channel's EVP of Content & Communications, said the channel is "thrilled to bring Massive Effect: The BioWare Story to Canadian audiences," and pointed to BioWare's Edmonton roots. Fennessey Films and Score G Productions' earlier credits include Funny Money: The Dane Cook Story, Dolph: Unbreakable, Inmate #1: The Rise of Danny Trejo, Breaking Olympia, Singhs in the Ring and The Great Ones.
