A week after Electronic Arts shut down BioWare, a Bloomberg report offers an explanation for why: according to the report, EA weighed the studio's next Mass Effect against a new Star Wars: Battlefront game, decided it didn't want to pay for both, and chose Star Wars.
We couldn't read Bloomberg's original report directly, so everything below comes from how two outlets, Game Developer and Game Informer, describe it. EA has not publicly explained the closure.
What the report says
According to Game Developer's summary, the closure came down to a financial showdown between two science-fiction projects: Mass Effect: Universe, which was in development at BioWare, and an unannounced Star Wars: Battlefront title. Game Developer reports that EA was unwilling to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on both, so it moved its resources to Star Wars.
Game Developer says the Bloomberg report points to the financial pressure from EA's leveraged buyout, which left the company with $18 billion in debt that it is expected to pay off through operating profits. In that light, the outlet writes, EA cancelled Mass Effect to focus on what it saw as the less risky and more predictable bet: a new multiplayer-shooter Battlefront game.
The report also points to internal politics. Per Game Developer, EA had reshuffled its executives and sidelined longtime EA Entertainment president Laura Miele, who had supported BioWare and Mass Effect in particular. With Mass Effect: Universe cancelled, Game Developer notes, BioWare was left with no active projects.
The other pressures on BioWare
Game Informer's report, which also cites Bloomberg, names Star Wars Battlefront III as the game that won out. It lists the poor reception of 2017's Mass Effect: Andromeda, the failure of Anthem in 2019, and 2024's Dragon Age: The Veilguard as other factors. Game Informer writes that Veilguard was well received by critics but apparently missed EA's sales expectations by 50%.
By the end, BioWare was small. Game Informer reports that when the studio closed last week, only 50 employees remained, all of them working on the next Mass Effect, after years of layoffs. It also notes that the Mass Effect TV series at Amazon is still in the works, even though EA seems to be done with Mass Effect games.
The licensed-games U-turn
The Star Wars detail stands out because of what EA said before. Game Developer points out that the decision comes about two years after EA announced a strategic shift away from licensed titles, and about 18 months after it cancelled an open-world Black Panther game and closed the developer working on it, Cliffhanger Games. The outlet adds that EA never fully dropped licensed games, since it is still developing an Iron Man game.
So, if the report is right, a publisher that said it was moving away from other companies' properties ended a studio known for its own worlds to fund someone else's. That is still Bloomberg's reporting as relayed by other outlets, not something EA has confirmed.
What's confirmed and what isn't
Both outlets report as fact that BioWare closed and that the next Mass Effect was cancelled; Game Developer names that game Mass Effect: Universe. Reported by Bloomberg but not confirmed by EA: that a Star Wars: Battlefront game was the deciding factor, that the buyout debt drove the decision, and that executive changes played a part. EA has not announced a new Battlefront game.
Mason's take: If this reporting holds up, it is the clearest picture yet of how an $18 billion debt changes a publisher's priorities. Mass Effect was a risk EA owned outright; Battlefront is a licence with a known audience. On a spreadsheet that probably reads as the safe call. It also says a lot that a studio built on its own original worlds ended up on the losing side of it. Until EA explains the closure itself, this is the best account players have, and it isn't a flattering one.
Reporting notes
