BioWare, the studio behind Mass Effect, Dragon Age, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, is closing its doors after more than three decades. Electronic Arts confirmed the shutdown on October 21, 2026, ending one of the most storied runs in role-playing game history.
BioWare itself broke the news in a farewell statement posted on X, writing that “after more than three decades of shared adventures, BioWare is closing and early development on the next Mass Effect project is ending.” The studio’s Edmonton workspace is being shut down along with it.
A 400-job restructuring
The closure is part of a wider restructuring at EA that is cutting about 400 jobs — roughly 3 percent of the company’s workforce — according to reporting by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier. Around 50 of those roles were at BioWare. EA itself has not published headcount figures. In a staff letter seen by Bloomberg, EA chief operating officer David Tinson and chief studios officer Cam Weber wrote that the company had “taken a hard look at our business” before deciding not to move forward with the Mass Effect project, calling BioWare “a legendary studio that helped define the role-playing genre.”
The next Mass Effect was announced in 2020 but never shown beyond a handful of teaser trailers. It had been in early development with a small team and was never given a release window. The last new entry in the series, Mass Effect: Andromeda, launched in 2017.
The debt behind the cuts
The restructuring is EA’s first since the publisher went private in August 2026 in a $55 billion buyout led by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, alongside Affinity Partners and Silver Lake. The deal left EA carrying roughly $18 billion in debt, with interest payments of about $1.8 billion a year. EA had reportedly promised investors $700 million in annual cost reductions, including $170 million in what executives called organizational efficiencies.
The cuts reach beyond BioWare. A Sims franchise project codenamed Project Lotus is also being dropped, with EA refocusing on another Sims project codenamed Evergreen — though reports differ on whether Lotus is cancelled outright or merely paused.
What EA is keeping
What EA is keeping says a lot about where the money goes: sports games, Apex Legends, Battlefield, and licensed action-adventure projects, including the next Star Wars Jedi game and a Marvel’s Iron Man title. EA executives called Battlefield 6 “a great success” and said the company would invest heavily in Apex over the next few years.
Founded in Edmonton, Canada in 1995 by Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk, BioWare built its legend on Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights, and Knights of the Old Republic before EA acquired it in 2007. Its final release, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, launched in October 2024 to mostly positive reviews but missed EA’s sales expectations, and the studio was downsized repeatedly afterward. What happens to support for its existing games, including The Veilguard and Star Wars: The Old Republic, has not been announced.
Sources: GamesHub, Gamereactor (original reporting by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier)
