BioWare’s Shadow Realms ‘may have been totally rebooted’?

It looks like Shadow Realms is going to be a very different game to what is was when it was revealed to the public in August 2014. According to Kotaku, an unnamed source says that the game was overhauled in late October and will now have a full campaign, as well as now being planned as a 2017 release for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Initially we were led to believe Shadow Realms had all the makings of a free-to-play game, but things may have changed drastically. Shadow Realms already went through a closed alpha delay in October, something that gives even more strength to these rumors.

The reason that is given to justify this possible reboot is a bit surprising – it may have to do with the decision to embrace the integration of EA's digital store and online service, Origin. Apparently BioWare is very aware of the fate of two EA games, Dawngate and Command & Conquer, which ended up canceled because they didn't integrate Origin, leading to a smaller budget and ultimately to cancellation. Not using internal technology and services at EA leads to significant budget hits, hence the surprising Shadow Realms reboot that will bring some extra money.

While this is a rumor, it could lead to Shadow Realms going the opposite way that we're used to: from potential free-to-play game to retail. We'll try to follow this topic.