BioWare is known for lots of things. Anthem (sadly) and Star Wars Knights Of The Old Republic (RIP), but did you know it could have been the starting point for Game of Thrones‘ world domination?
In an interview with EDGE magazine, James Ohlen who served as a lead designer at BioWare, said GoT took a back seat in favour of Star Wars.
“I remember we were trying to figure out what our next big game was going to be when we were starting up Neverwinter Nights and finishing off Baldur’s Gate II,” says Ohlen.
“Ray [Muzyka, BioWare co-founder] would come in, and sometimes he’d throw some books on my desk and say, ‘Hey, you should read these. This is something we should look at.’
“Funnily enough, one time – the reason I got into George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones was because Ray had thrown it down on my desk and said, ‘Hey, we’re negotiating with this guy to potentially make a game.”
Unfortunately, the negotiations didn’t seem to pan out, and that’s when LucasArts swept in.
Although Ohlen didn’t go into detail about what went down, it’s unfortunately a pretty common occurrence in the cut-throat video game industry.
The world ended up with Knights of The Old Republic instead of a Game of Thrones RPG, and some time later GoT shot to popularity thanks to the HBO show.
Still, Game of Thrones definitely could use an RPG for its millions of fans…especially since the current and final series of the show isn’t leaving viewers too impressed.
Maybe we’ll get a great GoT game and we can live out series eight as it should be?
Are you glad we got Knights of the Old Republic over Game of Thrones?
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Featured Image Credit: HBO