Sometimes I really don’t understand developers. Shadow Realms was by all means one of Bioware’s most thrilling upcoming games. By blending their trademark branching narrative style with asymmetrical 4v1 multiplayer, Bioware Austin aimed to create an intriguing ongoing storyline that would keep players hooked for months on end. They also advertised their game quite a bit.

Unfortunately, it seems that we’ll never see the title finished. Today Jeff Hickman, the general manager at Bioware Austin, made a blog post on the Shadow Realms website declaring that the project is dead. Just like that.

Hickman says, that the decision has been made so that Bioware Austin’s employees can work on supporting other Bioware titles. Ongoing improvements to Dragon Age: Inquisition have been promised, and Shadow Realms team members will also work on the upcoming Mass Effect game, as well as new Bioware IPs.

Hickman says that since “this is a massive year for the Star Wars universe” that they’ll be focus a lot on Star Wars: The Old Republic. News about their plans to expand the game should be revealed in the coming weeks.

While it’s fine that the Shadow Realms team has moved on to other projects instead of getting fired, I can’t help feeling disappointed. There was a lot of promise in Shadow Realms’ combat mechanics and multiplayer dynamics, and I was excited to see Bioware’s take on a contemporary sci-fi horror fantasy setting. Hopefully the extra effort will at least make Bioware’s other games better.