Electronic Arts has shut down BioWare. The studio behind Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect, and Dragon Age — founded in Edmonton in 1995 and owned by EA since 2007 — announced its own closure on October 21, and the in-development Mass Effect 5 is canceled with it.
“Now, after more than three decades of shared adventures, BioWare is closing and early development on the next Mass Effect project is ending,” the studio wrote in a farewell statement posted to social media. “There is nothing easy about writing those words. Our focus right now is on our incredibly talented team who put their hearts into these games, and supporting one another through this transition.”
The First Big Cut Since the $55 Billion Buyout
The closure comes just months after EA was acquired by a consortium of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, investment firm Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners — the group led by Jared Kushner — in a $55 billion deal, one of the largest leveraged buyouts ever. Engadget reports the buyout left EA carrying $20 billion of debt, and Bloomberg now says the publisher is cutting roughly 400 jobs, around 3 percent of its total workforce, in its first wave of major post-sale cuts.
“Today, we’re the number one publisher in Western HD gaming,” chief studios officer Cam Weber and chief operating officer David Tinson told staff in a memo seen by Bloomberg and shared with Kotaku. “That’s an extraordinary position to lead from, and one we should be proud of. Yet our industry is changing quickly.”
“BioWare is a legendary studio that helped define the role-playing genre, and we do not take this decision lightly,” the memo continued. The roughly 50 people who were in pre-production on the next Mass Effect account for about 12.5 percent of the incoming layoffs, Kotaku reports.
What Mass Effect 5 Was Becoming
Veteran cinematics lead Tony de Waal, one of those affected, offered a rare look at what the team was attempting: “I was one of the lucky ones who stayed with BioWare to start on the next Mass Effect, where I believe we were making something special: a level of autonomy and choice that no other game has been able to match,” he wrote on LinkedIn. “We saw what Larian and CD Projekt were bringing to the table with their latest offerings, and started down a path to bring Mass Effect to the next level while remaining true to the trilogy.”
Novelists Catherynne M. Valente and Derek Künsken, who had both been writing on the project — Valente for three years, Künsken on and off for five — described it as “the most energizing, in-the-zone collaboration” of their careers. Per IGN’s sources, Amazon’s live-action Mass Effect series at Amazon MGM Studios is reportedly unaffected, with all attached creatives still on board.
The Cuts Reach Respawn, Maxis, and Full Circle
BioWare is the headline, but not the whole story. Per a memo shared with staff and reporting from Vertical Slice, layoffs are also hitting The Sims studio Maxis, Battlefield support studio Ripple Effect, EA Motive, and Skate developer Full Circle. An unannounced Sims project codenamed Project Lotus has been paused in favor of another initiative, Project Evergreen, and the Skate team is being shrunk to “a more focused, smaller team.”
EA says it will keep investing in Apex Legends and Battlefield, with Respawn and DICE collaborating on a new shooter that Variety’s sources say is Star Wars: Battlefront 3. Marvel’s Iron Man and the next Star Wars Jedi game remain in the works, and EA Sports is bringing back the Fight Night series.
An Industry Says Goodbye
Tributes poured in from across the games industry. “As much as it’s not really a surprise, especially given the industry right now coupled with the Saudi sale, the news today still made me sad,” former Dragon Age lead writer David Gaider wrote. “BioWare joins other great studios of the past, with a legacy that will not soon be forgotten.” Former Mass Effect boss Casey Hudson added that the news was sad “for those of us who worked there, for our friends and colleagues at BioWare who are impacted, and for fans who were looking forward to the next Mass Effect adventure.”
By Kotaku’s count, BioWare is the 19th studio or publisher EA has acquired and then shut down since 1987. The studio’s last release was 2024’s Dragon Age: The Veilguard, which — like Anthem before it — fell short of EA’s sales expectations.
Sources
- Eurogamer — BioWare is closing down and Mass Effect 5 is cancelled, months after Saudi Arabia’s $55bn EA buyout
- Kotaku — Here Are The Games EA Says It Will Still Make Amid Cancelations And 400 Layoffs
- Eurogamer — Following shock BioWare closure, scope of EA job cuts becomes clear as layoffs hit Respawn, Maxis, Full Circle, EA Motive, and more
- Eurogamer — Games industry mourns sudden BioWare closure
- Engadget — EA is shutting down BioWare and cutting around 400 jobs
- Kotaku — Mass Effect 5 Writers Speak Out About The Game We’ll Never Get