Former Mass Effect and Dragon Age lead launches new studio with a focus on narrative and world-building

Mass Effect Legendary Edition — (Image credit: EA)

A Mass Effect and Dragon Age veteran has announced they are leading their own AAA game studio focusing on narrative and worldbuilding.

Mac Walters, who worked at BioWare for 19 years before leaving in 2023, is now leading a new studio called Worlds Untold. The remote studio is based in Vancouver, Canada, and joins China-based tech company NetEase Games' portfolio of studios.

Prior to heading up the new studio, Walters worked as project director for Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, lead writer on Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3, and production director on Dragon Age: Dreadwolf. So if you're a fan of those games, you may like what Worlds Untold is cooking up.

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In a press release, the company reveals that the brand-new studio is developing AAA action-adventure games with "an emphasis on narrative and worldbuilding." Elsewhere, NetEase says Worlds Untold plans to create franchises with "endless possibilities" and "IPs with depth and possibility that can't be contained in a single game, or even a single medium." So expect quite a few related projects coming from the new studio.

Finally, NetEase announces that the team's debut project is currently in development and is an action-adventure game that takes place in "a near future" and is set in a "breathtaking world filled with mystery and exploration." There are also plenty of roles looking to be filled at Worlds Untold, so if this sounds like the kind of game you'd like to work on, now's the time to apply.

"We're creating incredible and meaningful stories that we believe are best told and experienced through play. We are starting by crafting worlds that we all dream of discovering and then will put the player in the leading role of the most unforgettable adventures," Walters reveals in that same press release.

The Mass Effect developer isn't the only industry veteran on the team. Worlds Untold also features developers who have worked on games like Metal Gear Solid, Halo, The Sims, Dragon Age, Assassin's Creed, and more.

Find out about the future of the beloved BioWare series with our Mass Effect 5 guide.

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After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at GamesRadar+ before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training. My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I'm also known to write about the odd Korean drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.