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EA are shutting down BioWare. The publisher has confirmed it will close the studio and its Edmonton workspace after deciding not to continue development on the next Mass Effect game, according to a letter to staff. Jason Schreier first reported the news for Bloomberg.
Around 400 jobs cut across EA
Schreier says about 400 jobs are going across the company, with roughly 50 of them at Bioware. The studio had been reduced to a skeleton crew working on the early development of the next Mass Effect, which is now cancelled. In the letter, EA called Bioware “a legendary studio that helped define the role-playing genre”, and said the decision wasn’t taken lightly.
A wider EA reorganisation
The closure is part of a broader reshuffle. EA are cancelling a Sims game and other projects, and say they will focus on a smaller number of games. Apex Legends is getting extra investment, while the next Star Wars Jedi game, Marvel’s Iron Man and Battlefield continue. Respawn Entertainment and DICE will also collaborate on a new project, which Schreier believes is likely Star Wars Battlefront 3, though that is his guess rather than anything EA have said.
This comes two months after EA’s $55 billion leveraged buyout closed, led by Saudi Arabia’s investment fund alongside Silver Lake and Jared Kushner’s investment firm.
How BioWare got here
Founded in Edmonton in 1995, BioWare made Baldur’s Gate and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic before EA bought it in 2007, going on to create Dragon Age and the Mass Effect trilogy. The last decade was rougher. Mass Effect: Andromeda was critically panned, Anthem flopped and was eventually shut down, and Dragon Age: The Veilguard went through a troubled development before selling around 1.5 million copies, well below EA’s expectations. BioWare was then cut to fewer than 100 people.
Bioware confirmed the closure on X, confirming that the studio is closing and the next Mass Effect is being cancelled. "...after more than three decades of shared adventures, BioWare is closing and early development on the next Mass Effect project is ending."
The team thanked the fans for their support over the years and stated that they will celebrate and remember what the teams have created over the last decades.
What happens to Mass Effect and Dragon Age?
That’s unclear. EA haven’t said whether they tried to sell BioWare or its franchises, or whether the Mass Effect TV series with Amazon is still going ahead.
