BioWare is on the verge of two of their biggest video game launches ever. Star Wars: The Old Republic, one of the most anticipated MMORPGS in years, finally has a release date set for this December, and Mass Effect 3 is set to finish the trilogy's main story early next year.

With the Commander Shepard story coming to an end, fans are left wondering where the future of Mass Effect is headed. The Success of Knights of the Old Republic led to that series transforming to an MMO, so could the same happen for the currently single-player experience we know as Mass Effect?

A lot of fans were not happy to see Knights of the Old Republic 3 not happen in favor of The Old Republic MMO. That very same thing could potentially happen with Mass Effect if SWTOR proves to be the success BioWare and Electronic Arts hope it to be (they even opened up a new 400-person help center in Ireland just for the game).

Speaking to IndustryGamers, BioWare's Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk spoke of their current focus on launching the new Star Wars MMO.

"You never know... I think once The Old Republic is done, we'll take a fresh look at the market. And we'll have learned a lot. While making it, you learn an enormous amount. It's one of the nice things about having these properties in our back pocket... If we want to use something we own as a source for a game, it's easy to do. So yeah, you never know. We've got this giant product to launch, but once that's done we'll consider next steps."

With rumors of Mass Effect 3 pointing towards the introduction of multiplayer, it seems an inevitability that the series will expand into that realm at some point - especially since it's been their goal since Mass Effect 2 to make the games more accessible.

"We're focused very much on The Old Republic, Mass Effect 3 and [our free-to-play game] Wrath of Heroes, and all the other things we've announced, and haven't announced, but we also have the opportunity to look at our franchises in a way we haven't ever before. There are lots of new platforms and lots of new business models."

BioWare is working out the details for the next Mass Effect game and you can read our thoughts on what we want from Mass Effect 4 but we can safely say that all fans of the series would like to see the captivating, in-depth story-driven campaigns to continue and this is lost in an MMO.

Then again, back in April, BioWare did say Mass Effect lends itself well to the MMO genre and that it "makes sense" to pursue that opportunity.

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Source: IndustryGamers