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EA shuts down BioWare and cancels next Mass Effect in 400-job restructuring
By GamesHub
Electronic Arts has shut down BioWare and cancelled the next Mass Effect, the studio said in a farewell statement posted on X on 21 October, ending a 30-year run for one of the most influential role-playing game developers in the industry.
"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. The next Mass Effect was announced in 2020 but never shown beyond a handful of teasers, and had been in early development at a small team inside the Edmonton studio. The last new entry in the series, Mass Effect: Andromeda, released in 2017.
About 400 jobs going across EA
Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier reports that about 400 EA employees, roughly 3% of the company’s workforce, are being laid off, including around 50 at BioWare. The company itself has not released a headcount. COO David Tinson and chief studios officer Cam Weber told staff in a letter, seen by Bloomberg, that EA had taken "a hard look at our business". In the letter, the executives said: "We’ve made the decision not to move forward with this development, which means we’re closing the studio and our Edmonton workspace. BioWare is a legendary studio that helped define the role-playing genre, and we do not take this decision lightly."
According to the letter, a Sims project code-named Project Lotus is also being dropped, with reporting differing on whether it is cancelled outright or paused, and EA refocusing on another Sims project code-named Evergreen. EA said it will keep investing in sports games, Apex Legends, Battlefield and licensed action-adventure projects including the next Star Wars Jedi game and Marvel’s Iron Man.
The first cut after the buyout
The restructuring is EA’s first since it went private in August 2026 in a US$55 billion buyout led by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which left the publisher carrying about US$18 billion in debt and paying around US$1.8 billion a year in interest. EA had promised investors US$700 million in annual cost cuts, including US$170 million in what it called organisational efficiencies.
BioWare was founded in Canada in 1995 by Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk, and built its reputation on Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic before EA acquired it in 2007. Its final release, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, launched on 31 October 2024 to mostly positive reviews but missed EA’s sales expectations, and the studio had been downsized repeatedly before and after its launch.
