Jade Empire Could Have Been on the Same Level as Mass Effect and Dragon Age If It Hadn’t Been for Microsoft’s “Totally Idiotic Advice”

Released at the end of the sixth console generation, BioWare’s oriental-flavored action RPG Jade Empire did not start a new franchise, as Mass Effect and Dragon Age did after it. But such chances were there.

Image source: BioWare

BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk lamented on the My Perfect Console podcast that Microsoft’s advice led the studio to release Jade Empire toward the end of the original Xbox’s life cycle, before the Xbox 360 was released.

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Jade Empire was released in April 2005, a few months before the November launch of the Xbox 360.

According to Zeschuk, a port to a next-gen console would have cost more, but would have allowed Jade Empire to stand in the same league as Dragon Age and Mass Effect, and BioWare to launch another successful franchise.

Zeschuk admitted that Jade Empire’s combat system was far from ideal, but the game’s inclusion in the Xbox 360 launch lineup could theoretically compensate for the console’s lack of RPGs at launch.

Jade Empire started as an Xbox exclusive and was later ported to PC (Windows), macOS, iOS, and Android. Despite weak sales (half a million copies by October 2007), a sequel was planned, but it never saw the light of day.