Source: Kotaku. Verified against multiple sources; datamines and reports are labelled as such, not stated as fact.
What Happened
BioWare's goodbye named six of its games and left out SWTOR, the online RPG its lead writer says supported the studio's other projects.
The closure post
- BioWare is closing. On October 21, 2026, BioWare, the EA-owned role-playing game studio, posted on X that it "is closing and early development on the next Mass Effect project is ending."
- The job cuts. EA, the publisher that owns BioWare, is cutting about 400 jobs, about 50 of them at BioWare, Bloomberg reports.
- The legacy list. The post named six games: "Baldur's Gate. Neverwinter Nights. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Dragon Age. Mass Effect. Anthem."
- The missing game. Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR), the online RPG BioWare launched in 2011 as its first large-scale multiplayer game, is not on the list.
- Its reach. The closure post passed 32 million views.
The lead writer's posts
- Who she is. Caitlin Sullivan Kelly is SWTOR's lead writer. Her X bio reads "Lead Writer @SWTOR. Formerly BioWare."
- The quote-post. A few hours after the closure post, she quote-posted it and called the omission heartbreaking.
- How far it went. Her post had about 259,000 views and 2,860 likes when we checked.
- Why it stings. Replying to a fan the next morning, she wrote that she "started playing SWTOR BECAUSE it was a BioWare game."
- Said it before. In another reply she wrote: "I said this when we got moved to Broadsword, DA:O was the game that made me want to be a game dev."
- The game she means. DA:O is Dragon Age: Origins, a BioWare fantasy RPG.
No mention of the game that's been going for almost fifteen years, that supported the studio and all of its projects with income and manpower and time (sometimes to our own detriment). Heartbreaking.
— Caitlin Sullivan Kelly, SWTOR lead writer, on X, October 22, 2026, post
Where SWTOR stands now
- Moved in 2023. EA moved SWTOR's development to Broadsword, the studio behind Ultima Online, in 2023.
- Not closing. Newsweek reports the Broadsword team is not part of BioWare's closure, and EA still publishes the game.
- How it sells. Its Steam store page lists it as free-to-play with a subscription option.
- Voiced class stories. The same page lists 8 class stories and "full voiceover for all in-game characters."
What This Means for the Riot MMO
SWTOR shows what an MMO becomes for its maker after launch: years of income and staff, and a game that can end up with another team.
- A long commitment. SWTOR launched in 2011 and is still being updated after the studio that built it closed.
- Money and staff. Kelly says the MMO supported BioWare's projects "with income and manpower and time," the cost-and-revenue tradeoff of any studio running an MMO.
- Story as the pitch. Every SWTOR class gets its own fully voiced story; Riot has not said how its MMO will tell story.
- Handed off. The move to Broadsword kept SWTOR alive, and BioWare's goodbye then left it out of the studio's history.
- Riot's own link. Riot's MMO boss made Mass Effect at BioWare, and posted his own farewell to the studio the same day.
- What Riot has said. Nothing about how its MMO will be staffed or funded after launch, so every comparison here is ours.
Our read. An MMO that runs for fifteen years outlives the plans made at launch, including who owns it. The question SWTOR raises for Riot is where its MMO sits once it ships: the flagship, or a revenue engine handed to another team, as SWTOR was in 2023.
Other studios are betting on the same long tail: Blizzard is relaunching its original game as WoW: Forever, and Jagex, the studio behind RuneScape, is building a new RuneScape MMO.
Your Take
Should the Riot MMO give every class a fully voiced personal story, like SWTOR?
Reported from Kotaku and corroborating coverage. The MMO read is ours and clearly speculative. Analysis by RuneGrove.
