Mass Effect veteran to lead new game dev studio in Vancouver

BioWare Edmonton veteran Mac Walters is heading up a new Vancouver-based game development studio called Worlds Untold.

A subsidiary of Chinese tech giant NetEase (Harry Potter: Magic Awakened), Worlds Untold is set to develop an original sci-fi action-adventure game. For now, details are scarce on the project itself, but the team’s pedigree certainly speaks for itself.

For one, Walters was a writer on BioWare’s 2003 action-RPG Jade Empire, the lead writer on Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3 and the creative director of Mass Effect: Andromeda. Most recently, he was the director of the Mass Effect: Legendary Edition remaster collection and contributed to the upcoming Dragon Age: Dreadwolf before leaving BioWare in January 2023.

In addition to Walters, the small team includes the likes of head of production Elizabeth Lehtonen (Dragon Age), head of technology Benjamin Goldstein (Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag), head of art Ramil Sunga (Dragon Age) and audio director Sotaro Tojima (Metal Gear).

Worlds Untold will operate as an entirely remote studio as it continues to grow. To that point, the team is now hiring for several positions (more information can be found here).

Walters is the latest BioWare Edmonton alum to head off to lead his own studio in recent years. In 2018, former BioWare programmer and general manager Aaryn Flynn went on to work at the tech company Improbable before later heading up a subsidiary, Edmonton-based Inflexion, which is working on the Victorian survival game Nightingale. 

One year later, former lead designer James Ohlen and writer Drew Karpyshyn (Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic) moved on to the Austin, Texas-based Archetype to develop an original RPG.

Then, in 2021, KOTOR and Mass Effect creative director Casey Hudson opened Humanoid, an Alberta and B.C.-based studio working on a new sci-fi IP.

All of this comes amid a turbulent time for BioWare, which hasn’t released a new game since 2019’s maligned Anthem and is currently working on Dragon Age: Dreadwolf and an untitled new Mass Effect. Dozens of workers were laid off earlier this year, including Dragon Age testers who went on to file a lawsuit and stage a protest after alleging that they were denied service.

NetEase, meanwhile, opened the Montreal- and Toronto-based Bad Brain in May, and that team is working on a new open-world action-adventure IP inspired by ‘1980s cult films. The tech giant also acquired Vancouver-based SkyBox Labs, a developer that contributed to Halo Infinite, in January. These join its first Canadian studio, NetEase Montreal, which opened in 2019 and is working on a mysterious new IP.

Image credit: BioWare