In between the hit role-playing games Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and more recently Mass Effect (which has sold over one million copies), the talented folks at BioWare developed another well-received action-RPG called Jade Empire. The game first hit the original Xbox in 2005 and also saw a special edition release on the PC.

Now it appears that the martial arts focused IP will be receiving a sequel. Mercury News columnist Dean Takahashi revealed on his blog that he "talked with someone who saw code for Jade Empire 2." Takahashi added that "it's coming for the Xbox 360, and it's real."

Considering BioWare's close relationship with Microsoft, it's likely that the game was initially developed with the Xbox 360 in mind, but in light of the recent acquisition of BioWare/Pandemic by Electronic Arts, one has to wonder if Jade Empire 2 will make its way to PlayStation 3 as well. EA doesn't typically like to limit its properties to a single platform.

GameDaily BIZ has pinged BioWare for comment, but has not heard back as of press time.