Over a week has passed since EA shut down BioWare and subsequently canceled the Mass Effect game, Mass Effect Universe.
This left many people grieving the loss of this legendary studio or motivated to start campaigns to save its iconic Mass Effect franchise through petitions, Fundraisers, and even raising a billboard in Times Square, New York.
People are debating furiously as to why EA decided to close BioWare’s doors, whether it’s due to EA going private after being bought by Saudi Arabia for $55 billion, or the declining quality of BioWare’s games over the past decade.
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Jason Schreier, a reporter from Bloomberg, offers his own take on why EA ended BioWare and canceled Mass Effect Universe — Star Wars. According to Jason Schreier’s report, his sources claim one of the biggest reasons was that EA was presented with a deal by Walt Disney Cop’s Lucasfilm to make a third Star Wars Battlefront game.
At the same time the deal was proposed, EA was facing financial pressure from the aforementioned Saudi Arabia buyout, which saddled the publisher with a $18 billion debt.
In this situation, EA decided to cancel development on the next Mass Effect so it could invest its money in Star Wars: Battlefront 3. Even though Star Wars: Battlefront 3 wasn’t even in development when this deal was made, EA decided it would be a safer, more predictable bet than taking a risk with another Mass Effect, especially since EA always preferred shooters like Battlefield over RPGs.
Jason Schreier also mentioned in his report that other contributing factors in EA shutting down BioWare included:
- The poor reception of 2017’s Mass Effect: Andromeda and 2019’s Anthem.
- 2024’s Dragon Age: The Veilguard missed sales expectations by 50%, which led to EA gutting and relocating BioWare’s staff elsewhere within the company. By the time BioWare was shut down, only 50 employees were left.
- Possible corporate politics when EA shuffled its executive ranks over the summer. During this time, EA promoted EA Sports veterans David Tinson and Cam Weber, while sidelining Laura Miele, who ran EA’s studios and advocated for BioWare and Mass Effect.
The Bloomberg report claimed that an EA spokesperson, when asked about EA’s decision to axe BioWare, said the company “collectively reached this decision following months of planning, review, and analysis, including careful consideration of evolving business conditions, industry dynamics, and our long-term priorities”
While the spokesperson didn’t offer more specifics on that statement, they did say, “While this is never easy, we ultimately have to make tough decisions to focus our teams on the biggest opportunities for our future, including investing in new projects across our portfolio.”
How cruelly ironic that the studio who made one of Star Wars’ best games, was ultimate ended because of Star Wars
Jason Schreier concluded his report stating that the deciding factor in BioWare’s shutdown is the same factor that’s causing big game companies to cull their staff by the thousands over the past three years.
“Game budgets have grown exponentially while sales have not, driving game companies to shift development outside of North America and focus only on their biggest franchises moving forward.” Jason then added, “And Star Wars is bigger than most.”
It’s quite a sad, cruel irony that BioWare, the studio responsible for one of Star Wars’ best games, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and the Star Wars: The Old Republic MMORPG, was eventually forsaken by EA for the movie franchise it helped support.
Personally, all we can hope for now is a miracle that somebody buys BioWare’s original IPs like Mass Effect and Dragon Age to give them the love they deserve, or, failing that, we turn to new developers who aim to carry on BioWare’s spirit with their titles, like Owlcat Games‘ The Expanse: Osiris Reborn.
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