EA is shutting down BioWare after 31 years, and the next Mass Effect is cancelled. Here is the quick video version of the story.
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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, and BioWare said goodbye in a farewell statement on X, announcing that early development on the next Mass Effect project is ending too. The studio’s Edmonton workspace is being shut down along with it.
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 Bloomberg reporting. Around 50 of those roles were at BioWare. The next Mass Effect was announced back in 2020 but never moved beyond teaser trailers, and the last new entry in the series was Mass Effect: Andromeda in 2017.
These are EA’s first big cuts since the publisher went private in August 2026 in the $55 billion buyout that left it carrying roughly $18 billion in debt. EA is now refocusing on sports games, Apex Legends, Battlefield, and licensed action-adventure titles. It is the end of a run that began in Edmonton in 1995 and helped define the role-playing genre.
