EA is shutting down BioWare

BioWare, the legendary studio behind RPGs like Mass Effect, Dragon Age, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, is shutting down, the company confirmed in a statement. Alongside the closure, Electronic Arts has chosen not to continue development on the next Mass Effect game that was in the works, according to an announcement sent to EA staff. The company is also laying off around 400 staffers, Bloomberg reports, including around 50 at BioWare. The changes follow EA being taken private by an investor group led by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners in a $55 billion deal that closed in August. Other major gaming companies have made sweeping changes this year as well, including Xbox’s “reset” that will include 3,200 cuts, Bungie’s “significant” layoffs, and Fortnite maker Epic Games laying off over 1,000 staff. “BioWare is a legendary studio that helped define the role-playing genre, and we do not take this decision lightly,” Cam Weber, EA president and chief studios officer, and David Tinson, EA president and COO, said in the announcement. Here is the full message that BioWare shared on social media: > For more than 30 years, BioWare has been more than a studio. It has been a home for storytellers, developers, and the players who brought our worlds to life. > Baldur’s Gate. Neverwinter Nights. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Dragon Age. Mass Effect. Anthem. > Now, after more than three decades of shared adventures, BioWare is closing and early development on the next Mass Effect project is ending. > 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. > What generations of BioWare built together is something to celebrate and remember. These games became so much more because you played them, debated your choices, fell in love with the characters, and made these worlds your own. > From all of us at BioWare, thank you for being the most meaningful part of our story. While the end of BioWare will shock many gamers who fondly remember its hits, the company hasn’t been as successful in recent years. 2017’s Mass Effect: Andromeda was widely seen as a misstep for that franchise, it took a big bet on live service games in 2019 with Anthem that didn’t pan out, and EA laid off some BioWare staff in 2025 after Dragon Age: The Veilguard missed sales expectations. There is no word yet on the fate of Amazon’s Mass Effect TV series. Last we heard, Amazon’s head of TV was close to giving it the green light, but had reportedly requested rewrites to make the show “more appealing to non-gamers.” Amazon didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment. EA spokesperson Justin Higgs said he had “Nothing to share on that at this point.” In EA’s company-wide announcement, Weber and Tinson outlined several other projects in development and changes to EA’s roadmap. The executives say that Respawn and DICE will be collaborating on “a future project,” which Bloomberg says is “likely” a new Star Wars: Battlefront game. The company is still working Marvel’s Iron Man and a new Star Wars Jedi title. EA is making a “brand-new, social-first open-world experience” football game that it calls “Project Gridiron” and is also in pre-production on a new Fight Night boxing title (which was teased yesterday). For The Sims, the company is pausing development on “Project Lotus” and focusing on “Project Evergreen.” And for its live-service Skate, EA is “making changes to the studio” to “deliver on a very clear roadmap for our community.” Here is the full message from Weber and Tinson at Electronic Arts: > Hi Team, > First, thank you. > Through every major moment we’ve faced as a company, your commitment to creating awesome games and experiences for our players continues to be impressive. Together, we’ve built epic worlds and global communities that are part of the lives of hundreds of millions of people. > Today, we’re the number one publisher in Western HD gaming. That’s an extraordinary position to lead from, and one we should be proud of. Yet our industry is changing quickly. Players have more choices than ever for their time and attention, competition is intensifying, and some of our biggest opportunities for growth are beyond the markets, platforms, and business models where EA has traditionally been the strongest. > That’s why, over the past several months, we’ve taken a hard look at our business, how we operate, and what it will take to lead in this next era of interactive entertainment. We’ve challenged assumptions, confronted hard realities, imagined new possibilities, and made deliberate choices in order to deliver exceptional experiences for our players and to drive sustained growth. > We believe our best creative work happens when we’re clear about what matters most for our players and give our teams the freedom to move quickly. So, we’re concentrating our teams, technology, and investment behind these three strategic priorities. > * Deepen Our Core: Our greatest opportunity starts with our franchises and global communities that have made EA a leader in interactive entertainment. This is where we’ve had to make our hardest choices. Saying no to some things we’re passionate about allows us to focus our teams and resources so we give our biggest opportunities everything they need to succeed. * Expand Our Reach: The strength of our core business creates an enormous opportunity to reach more players across new platforms, markets, and business models. As one example, in regions as dynamic as Asia, success means building experiences that reflect local players, cultures, and expectations. * Transform Our Business: We believe we can use our experience building interactive entertainment, together with our relationships in sports, to create entirely new ways for fans to engage with the teams, athletes and sports they love. These will be disciplined investments that only scale when they demonstrate real potential. > These priorities will bring clarity and focus to your work every day, and so will the way we work. We’ve spent time listening to teams about what’s working, what’s getting in the way, and what you need to do your best work. The feedback was consistent: you want clearer priorities, faster decisions, and teams that work more closely together. We’ve already begun simplifying how we work so we can spend more time creating and innovating for our players. > Our Portfolio Choices > Across our portfolio, we’re making deliberate choices to align talent and investments where we see the greatest opportunities for players and long-term growth. > In our Shooters business, Battlefield 6 was a great success, and we learned a lot from the launch and the live service. We’re going to take those learnings, balance our resources, and leverage the technology to deliver a shooter portfolio that unlocks growth. In addition to our future Battlefield titles, we’ll be bringing together our Respawn and DICE studios to collaborate on a future project that will help us achieve that ambition. We can’t wait to share more when the time comes. We’re also continuing to invest heavily in Apex over the next few years by introducing brand new gameplay modes in multiplayer, and other new experiences, to expand the universe. > Action-adventure is one of the most competitive and high-stakes genres in the industry, where every game needs our full weight behind it. We’re continuing to deliver on our two huge launches coming up with Marvel’s Iron Man and the next Star Wars Jedi game. Beyond that, we will concentrate our efforts on fewer simultaneous, large-scale projects, ensuring that every game we build in this space is fully set up for success. > As we focus on these larger opportunities, we’ve had a small team at BioWare working on early-development for Mass Effect. 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. > EA SPORTS continues to operate from a position of strength. We are fully committed and investing in the global growth of our FC franchise and across the full EA SPORTS portfolio. We have two new projects in development you’ll hear about over the next few months, including a brand-new, social-first open-world experience for our American Football team that we call “Project Gridiron,” and we are also in pre-production to bring back a beloved, fan-favorite in Fight Night, leveraging capabilities from our simulation fighting team. > In Lifestyle, we’re focusing on the long-term potential of The Sims and skate. We’re going to prioritize our efforts on “Project Evergreen” for The Sims to give the team more time to reach the full potential and vision for the game, and to help make this possible, we’re pausing development on “Project Lotus.” For skate., we’ve had a lot of success in bringing players into the game, and we need to create an experience that keeps them engaged over the long-term. To do that, we are making changes to the studio to have a more focused, smaller team to deliver on a very clear roadmap for our community that we believe will build a healthier and more sustainable business. > Building the EA We Believe In > The decisions we’re making in our priorities, how we work, and with our portfolio reflect our belief in EA’s future. Some open exciting new possibilities. Others are difficult, especially for the people and teams across the company who are directly affected. In those cases, we will support impacted employees in exploring other opportunities within EA, and we’re committed to treating impacted colleagues with care and respect. > We’re sure there will be questions about what these changes mean for individual teams and for EA more broadly. You can speak directly with your leaders to hear more on that, and we’ll make sure to spend time discussing our direction and the work ahead at our next Global Town Hall in November. > The past several months have strengthened our belief in what EA can become. We have extraordinary people, franchises that matter to millions of players, and opportunities to build experiences we’ve only begun to imagine. > Our responsibility is to make the choices, provide the clarity, and create the conditions for our teams to do their best work. We also want to give every game we choose to build its best chance to succeed for our players and fans around the world. > We look forward to building more great games and experiences together. > Thanks, > Cam & David