Revolver also kown as Jade Empire 2 or Jade Modern was to be a sequel to Jade Empire, but evolved and changed course many times throughout its development.
Described as a loose follow-up to Jade Empire, Revolver is a smorgasbord of different styles — a cyberpunk world of demonic businessmen and leather-clad gangers slicing up metrocops, all painted with the East-Asian influence of its supposed predecessor.
Eurogamer, reported that Revolver in development between 2005 and 2008. The game would have featured a dense urban sandbox for players to parkour through, while a non-linear narrative would've seen characters pop up organically across town. Unfortunately, the project was eventually cancelled in favor to Dragon Age: Origins. [1]
Timeline of information[]
- BioWare's official Jade Empire forums (now defunct) allowed a wishlist for Jade Empire 2.
- In November 2005, BioWare co-founder Ray Muzkya [[;title;1 said that "BioWare definitely plans to continue the Jade Empire franchise".
- In January 2007, a BioWare staff member posted a comment to the official forums indicating that there was not at the time any firm intention of making Jade Empire 2.
- In October 2007, when BioWare (as part of the BioWare/Pandemic group) was acquired by Electronic Arts, they listed Jade Empire as one of the intellectual properties involved in the sale.
- In February 2010, BioWare said in Official Xbox 360 Magazine that we should not "count out the studio revisiting this franchise in the not-too-distant future...". The lead designer on Dragon Age: Origins doubted that a Jade Empire sequel was in active development, but mentioned the IP as being a staff favorite and that they would love to revisit it at some point.
- In April 2011, it was reported by Kotaku that a former BioWare developer had listed Jade Empire 2 on his resumé, suggesting that work had been underway at one stage. However, there was no comment from BioWare, and Kotuku expressed the opinion that any work mentioned in the resumé "likely was little more than a concept piece" rather than actual development.
- In September 2011, BioWare's co-founder Ray Muzkya said of Jade Empire that "[i]t's an IP, it's a setting that we were really passionate about, and we still are. Both Greg and I were big believers in the IP... We're just looking for the right way to deploy it."
- In March 2015, a Gamespot article quoted BioWare Edmonton and Montreal general manager Aaryn Flynn as saying that BioWare's "plate is awfully full right now, but the idea to go back to the universe does come up pretty regularly. [...] Mark [Darrah] and I spent a solid two hours in my office talking about it not long ago...". Darrah said "Never say never, but no current plans."
- In November 2016, a history of BioWare appeared in GameInformer which made reference to the Jade Empire franchise. It says that although a small team had experimented with possibilities for a sequel, BioWare eventually decided to focus its efforts on other projects. However, it quotes BioWare creative director Mike Laidlaw as saying that "Jade as a sequel is never dead", and BioWare general manager Aaryn Flynn as saying that "[t]there are a lot of people still at the studio who worked on that game and want to get back to it".