publisher shattered steel
___MASK51___ Inc . ( EA ) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City , California . Founded and incorporated on May 28 , 1982 by Trip Hawkins , the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers responsible for its games . As of 2014 , ___MASK51___ was the world ' s fourth - largest gaming company by revenue after Tencent , Sony and Microsoft The company sparked controversies over its advertising efforts , and acquisition of other studios . Jade Empire is an action role - playing game developed by BioWare and published by ___MASK76___ Game Studios , originally released worldwide for the Xbox . A ___MASK76___ Windows version , developed by LTI Gray Matter and published by ___MASK10___ , was released in North America on February 26 , 2007 , as a " Special Edition ". " Jade Empire " was released as an Xbox Original on ___MASK76___ ' s Xbox 360 on July 21 , 2008 . The " Special Edition " became available for Mac OS X on August 18 , 2008 . A role - playing video game ( commonly referred to as role - playing game or RPG , and in the past was also known as computer role - playing game or CRPG ) is a video game genre where the player controls the actions of a character ( and / or several party members ) immersed in some well - defined world . Many role - playing video games have origins in pen - and - paper role - playing games ( Including " Dungeons & Dragons ") and use much of the same , settings and game mechanics . Other major similarities with pen - and - paper games include developed story - telling and narrative elements , player character development , complexity , as well as replayability and immersion . The electronic medium removes the necessity for a gamemaster and increases combat resolution speed . RPGs have evolved from simple text - based console - window games into visually rich 3D experiences . Since the 1980s , Role - playing is the most commercially viable video game genre in ___MASK57___ , and has more market share of any other genre in the japanese gaming industry , although in the 2010s first - person shooters and western iOS and Android games were becoming rapidly and increasingly popular in that country . ___MASK76___ Corporation ( commonly referred to as ___MASK76___ or MS ) is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Redmond , Washington , that develops , manufactures , licenses , supports and sells computer software , consumer electronics and personal computers and services . Its best known software products are the ___MASK76___ Windows line of operating systems , ___MASK76___ Office office suite , and Internet Explorer and Edge web browsers . Its flagship hardware products are the Xbox video game consoles and the ___MASK76___ Surface tablet lineup . As of 2016 , it was the world ' s largest software maker by revenue , and one of the world ' s most valuable companies . Canada ( French : ) is a country in the northern half of ___MASK78___ . Its ten provinces and three territories extend from ___MASK39___ to the Pacific and northward into the Arctic Ocean , covering , making it the world ' s second - largest country by total area and the fourth - largest country by land area . Canada ' s border with the United States is the world ' s longest land border . The majority of the country has a cold or severely cold winter climate , but southerly areas are warm in summer . Canada is sparsely populated , the majority of its land territory being dominated by forest and tundra and the Rocky Mountains . About four - fifths of the country ' s population of 36 million people is urbanized and live near the southern border . Its capital is Ottawa , its largest city is Toronto ; other major urban areas include Montreal , Vancouver , Calgary , Edmonton , Quebec City , Winnipeg and Hamilton . ___MASK76___ Windows ( or simply Windows ) is a metafamily of graphical operating systems developed , marketed , and sold by ___MASK76___ . It consists of several families of operating systems , each of which cater to a certain sector of the computing industry with the OS typically associated with IBM PC compatible architecture . Active Windows families include Windows NT , Windows Embedded and Windows Phone ; these may encompass subfamilies , e . g . Windows Embedded Compact ( Windows CE ) or Windows Server . Defunct Windows families include Windows 9x ; Windows 10 Mobile is an active product , unrelated to the defunct family Windows Mobile . Shattered Steel is a mech simulation game released in 1996 by BioWare for MS - DOS , and later ported to Mac OS by now - defunct Logicware . It is notable for the deformable terrain effects , and for being BioWare ' s first developed game . Neverwinter Nights is a third - person role - playing video game developed by BioWare . ___MASK67___ was originally set to publish the game , but financial difficulties led to it being taken over by Atari . It was released on Microsoft Windows on June 18 , 2002 . BioWare later released a free Linux client in June 2003 , requiring a purchased copy of the game to play . MacSoft released a Mac OS X port in August 2003 . ___MASK43___ PC compatible computers are those similar to the original ___MASK43___ PC , XT , and AT , able to run the same software and support the same expansion cards as those . Such computers used to be referred to as PC clones , or ___MASK43___ clones . They duplicate almost exactly all the significant features of the PC architecture , facilitated by ___MASK43___ ' s choice of commodity hardware components and various manufacturers ' ability to reverse engineer the BIOS firmware using a " clean room design " technique . Columbia Data Products built the first clone of the ___MASK43___ personal computer by a clean room implementation of its BIOS . Baldur ' s Gate is a fantasy role - playing video game developed by BioWare and published in 1998 by ___MASK67___ . It is the first game in the " Baldur ' s Gate " series and takes place in the Forgotten Realms , a high fantasy campaign setting , using a modified version of the " Advanced Dungeons & Dragons " (" AD & D ") 2nd edition rules . The game received critical acclaim and was credited for revitalizing the computer role - playing game genre . The game allows development of the player character through choice of companions , dialogue choices , exploration , and battle . " Baldur ' s Gate " uses a reputation system and rewards the player depending on the choices made in the game . Ray Muzyka is a Canadian investor , entrepreneur and physician . Originally trained as a medical doctor and practicing as an emergency room and family physician after graduation , he is the co - founder of video game developer BioWare , and was CEO , senior vice president , and general manager of the BioWare label of ___MASK51___ ( comprising BioWare Edmonton , BioWare Austin , BioWare Montreal , BioWare Ireland , BioWare Victory , BioWare San Francisco , BioWare Sacramento and Mythic Entertainment ). In October 2012 he announced that he was embarking on a ' third career ' mentoring and investing in technology , new media , medical and social entrepreneurs , and impact investing at ThresholdImpact . Mass Effect is a science fiction action role - playing third - person shooter video game series developed by the Canadian company BioWare and released for the Xbox 360 , PlayStation 3 , and ___MASK76___ Windows , with the third installment also released on the Wii U . The fourth game is expected to release on Windows , PlayStation 4 and Xbox One . BioWare is a video game developer located in Edmonton , Alberta , Canada . It was founded in February 1995 by newly graduated medical doctors Ray Muzyka , Greg Zeschuk , and Augustine Yip . BioWare is currently owned by American company ___MASK51___ . The company specializes in role - playing video games , and became famous for launching highly praised and successful licensed franchises , " Baldur ' s Gate ", " Neverwinter Nights ", and "". They proceeded to make several other successful games based on original intellectual property : " Jade Empire ", the " Mass Effect " series , and the " Dragon Age " series . In 2011 , BioWare launched their first massively multiplayer online role - playing game , "". MS - DOS (; acronym for " ___MASK76___ Disk Operating System ") is a discontinued operating system for x86 - based personal computers mostly developed by ___MASK76___ . It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems , and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s and the early 1990s , when it was gradually superseded by operating systems offering a graphical user interface ( GUI ), in various generations of the graphical ___MASK76___ Windows operating system by ___MASK76___ Corporation . Gregory P . Zeschuk is a former VP at ___MASK51___ and General Manager at BioWare Austin . He co - founded BioWare in 1995 with Ray Muzyka and Augustine Yip , after all three earned their medical degrees from the ___MASK28___ . Zeschuk announced his retirement from BioWare on September 18 , 2012 . He is currently involved in a number of projects related to the craft - beer industry , including the production of a web - based interview show known as " The Beer Diaries ."