Canadian Names and Trade-Marks: BioWare

Whether on computers, tablets, mobile devices or even consoles, people of all ages all over the world have increasingly found video games to be attractive for a moment's distraction; video games are no longer seen as just for teenagers hanging out in the basement. It is no wonder, then, that the video game industry is thriving. What might be a surprise is that Canada, of all places, is at the forefront of this industry. On a per-capita basis, in 2013 Canada had the third largest number of people (after only the US and Japan) working in the video game industry, according to the Entertainment Software Association of Canada. Due to favourable tax and incentive programs, several large multinational entertainment companies have video game studios located in Canada, such as Warner Bros., Ubisoft and Capcom. The majority of studios of Canadian origin, however, are small and independent, though many games produced by these are played all over the world. Perhaps the most interesting and unexpected story in the Canadian video game industry is that of BioWare, an internationally acclaimed studio of Canadian origin. BioWare was established in 1995 by Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk, and Augustine Yip, who graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Alberta. From the time they were in residency, Drs Muzyka and Zeschuk programmed medical educational software, and Dr.Yip joined to assist with the art. Their last medical software project prior to founding BioWare was a Gastroenterology Patient Simulator. From these medical software beginnings, the founders decided to jump into making video games, and chose the name “BioWare” mainly as a reference to their profession, but they also liked it because it sounded like a reference between humans and machines. In fact, BioWare’s original logo included a human hand and a robot hand, although these features were later dropped in favour of a cleaner design. [caption id="attachment_5301" align="alignleft" width="160"] (Original trade mark)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_5302" align="alignleft" width="300"] (Current trade mark)[/caption] BioWare’s first commercial release, Shattered Steel, was published in 1996 by Interplay, a large American publisher which saw BioWare’s potential. BioWare’s next game, Baldur’s Gate, would carry the Dungeons & Dragons brand, a license for which Interplay had just acquired. Impressively, the three founders continued to work as doctors until the final year of development of Baldur’s Gate, when Muzyka and Zeschuk left medicine to focus on running BioWare; Dr. Yip left to return to the practice of medicine. Baldur’s Gate, released in 1998, was extremely successful and would establish BioWare’s reputation. BioWare would continue making popular games under licensed brands, including Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, after being offered a license to make a Star Wars-branded game from LucasArts. The making of games under third-party licenses likely allowed BioWare’s games to reach a wider audience than they would have had they not been associated with any brand names, and in making those licensed games BioWare also solidified its own brand. It was not until 2005, nearly 10 years after the release of Shattered Steel, that BioWare began to release a number of titles, such as Dragon Age and Mass Effect, under the strength of its own name, to positive reception. Although the company was purchased in 2008 by Electronic Arts (EA), a California-based company, the BioWare studios continue to operate under the BioWare brand. References and further reading: http://bit.ly/1eJNcnq; http://bit.ly/1bgm4Iv http://aol.it/hXc3YD; and http://bit.ly/1eNL51U Summary by: Cheryl Cheung