Bioware was working on a spy RPG in 2009

Ex-Bioware staffer Trent Oster has revealed that the company was working on the concepts for a Bond/Bourne style spy thriller in 2009 - but the project was cancelled.

"It had a working title of Agent," he told Eurogamer of the project - though it's unrelated to Rockstar's famous vaporous title of the same name. "The concept was to do the other half of GoldenEye."

"The idea being that James Bond isn't just a gun that walks around the world and shoots people. He's a suave manipulator, he's a talented martial artist, he's a secret agent. We wanted to cross that 007 with Jason Bourne, where he's been modified in some way; you're not sure what, but he's definitely deadly."

He goes on to describe how the intention was for the game to push drama through use of digital acting techniques, offering a feeling of dramatic intensity most other games didn't.

"Fundamentally EA didn't believe in the concept," he told the site. In the end, it "failed to survive the recession." 

We rather liked Obsidian's Alpha Protocol, so this is sad to hear. Hopefully the concept is revisited one day. Oster's latest project, Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition for iOS, is out now.