BioWare is closing. In a message to staff published on 21 October, EA said a small team at the studio had been working on early development of the next Mass Effect, and that it had "made the decision not to move forward with this development, which means we're closing the studio and our Edmonton workspace."
BioWare confirmed it in a short statement of its own, reported by VGC: "BioWare is closing and early development on the next Mass Effect project is ending."
That's a hard sentence for a lot of players to read. BioWare made Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Dragon Age and Mass Effect, a run that shaped what people expect from role-playing games. EA's own message acknowledges as much: "BioWare is a legendary studio that helped define the role-playing genre, and we do not take this decision lightly."
What EA announced
The BioWare news sits inside a wider restructuring. EA's post, signed "Cam & David", which VGC says Bloomberg identified as Chief Studios Officer Cam Weber and Chief Operating Officer David Tinson, sets out where the company is putting its effort, and what it's stepping back from:
- BioWare: the studio and its Edmonton workspace are closing, and early development of the next Mass Effect is ending.
- The Sims: a project called Project Lotus is paused, which EA says is to give the team "more time to reach the full potential and vision for the game".
- skate.: the team is being reduced to "a more focused, smaller team" working to a defined roadmap.
EA also lists what it is still making: Battlefield, including a future project from Respawn and DICE together; Apex, with new multiplayer modes; Marvel's Iron Man and the next Star Wars Jedi game; EA Sports FC, "Project Gridiron" and a new Fight Night; and The Sims as "Project Evergreen".
As for why, the post points to the market: "Players have more choices than ever for their time and attention, competition is intensifying." EA says it wants to concentrate its teams, technology and investment so that every game it builds has "its best chance to succeed."
The numbers EA didn't give
EA's message doesn't say how many people are losing their jobs. VGC, citing Bloomberg, reports about 400 jobs, roughly 3% of EA's staff, with about 50 of those at BioWare. Treat those as reported figures, not EA's own.
VGC also sets out the wider context. EA completed its $55 billion leveraged buyout by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund two months earlier, and now carries about $18 billion in debt. BioWare had already been downsized last year, and the next Mass Effect, first announced in 2020, had shown little since.
Why it matters
There's a version of this story that's only about one cancelled game, but it's bigger than that. BioWare, founded in 1995 by Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk and bought by EA in 2007, was, in our view, one of the few studios whose name alone could sell a role-playing game. Its recent history was mixed, from Anthem's high-profile failure to Dragon Age: The Veilguard's mostly positive reviews in 2024, as VGC notes. But the closure ends a studio that, for many players, defined a genre.
What happens to Mass Effect itself isn't settled by this announcement. EA's post doesn't say what it plans for the series or BioWare's other properties, and nothing further has been confirmed. For now, the next Mass Effect, in the form BioWare was building, isn't coming.
Reporting notes