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EA reportedly closed BioWare mainly because it chose to back Star Wars Battlefront 3 over a new Mass Effect game, according to Bloomberg. The closure and the Mass Effect cancellation are confirmed, but the reason comes from anonymous sources, so treat it as a claim for now. It's a sad one for me, because I've long been a BioWare fan.
Everything below comes from the outlets that covered Bloomberg's report. Here's what's been claimed so far.
What the Star Wars Battlefront 3 report claims
As VGC reported, Bloomberg's sources say EA's executives were planning the next few years while carrying $18 billion of debt from its acquisition by Saudi Arabia's investment fund. They found two big-budget sci-fi action games in the pipeline: Battlefront 3 and the next Mass Effect (its working title is thought to have been Mass Effect Universe).
Eurogamer says EA couldn't fund both, and went with Star Wars because it was seen as "a less risky, more predictable bet". Reaching for the safe option is classic EA, which is why this didn't surprise me one bit. Development on Battlefront 3 reportedly hasn't even started.
Other factors are said to have played a part:
- Weaker reviews for BioWare's recent games
- Corporate politics
- A reorganisation of EA's executive team
- EA bosses reportedly wishing Dragon Age: The Veilguard had been a live service game
TechPowerUp adds that EA's long history with shooters, such as Battlefield 6, may have influenced the choice.
What EA has said
EA confirmed the closure on 21 October 2026. As Push Square reported, around 400 roles are going across EA, including roughly 50 at BioWare, and the Edmonton studio is closing. The next Mass Effect, still early in development, has been cancelled.
EA told Bloomberg the decision followed months of planning, review and analysis, but didn't go into specifics.
Eurogamer also reports that an internal video for the cancelled game leaked after the announcement. The game was said to be set 600 years after the Reaper war, with "Hitman-style freedom" in its levels. How far development got isn't clear.
Fans have been reacting too. IGN reports that "Save Mass Effect" was spray-painted on an EA building in Madrid a few days after the news broke.
BioWare's legacy, and why Mass Effect 2 still matters
BioWare was founded in Edmonton, Canada, in 1995 by three newly qualified medical doctors: Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk and Augustine Yip. Role-playing games were its speciality from day one, and early hits Baldur's Gate (1998) and Neverwinter Nights (2002) each sold more than two million copies.
Then came Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (2003), Jade Empire, Mass Effect and Dragon Age: Origins, games built around your choices and their consequences. EA bought the studio in 2007 for US$775 million, according to BioWare's history on Wikipedia.
Mass Effect 2 arrived in January 2010 on PC and Xbox 360, with PS3 following a year later. As Commander Shepard, you recruit a squad and earn their loyalty for a suicide mission against the Collectors, and choices imported from the first game shape the story. It scored up to 96 on Metacritic and won Best Game at the British Academy Games Awards, as its Wikipedia entry notes. It's still regularly named among the best games ever made, and it was remastered in 2021 as part of the Mass Effect Legendary Edition. It's my favourite BioWare game, and Mass Effect 3 sits right alongside it in my fondest memories, polarising ending and all.
The studio's more recent games haven't hit the same way for me, though, and it's been a long while since a BioWare game properly won me over.
Which Mass Effect game is your favourite?
