BioWare is closing. Electronic Arts has decided not to move forward with the small team's early development work on the next Mass Effect, and with that it is shutting the studio and its Edmonton workspace.
The news came in a Wednesday memo to EA staff from Cam Weber, president and chief studios officer, and David Tinson, president and COO. "BioWare is a legendary studio that helped define the role-playing genre, and we do not take this decision lightly," they wrote. It's part of a wider studio restructuring, EA's first big move since going private this summer, that cuts about 3% of its global workforce. Variety puts that at around 400 people, and Bloomberg reported roughly 50 of them are at BioWare, according to VGC.
BioWare posted its own goodbye on its blog, listing Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Dragon Age, Mass Effect and Anthem, and saying that "BioWare is closing and early development on the next Mass Effect project is ending." The studio said its focus now is on supporting its team through the transition.
Other projects are moving around too. EA says it is still delivering Marvel's Iron Man and the next Star Wars Jedi game. For The Sims, it is prioritizing "Project Evergreen" and pausing development on "Project Lotus." The skate. studio is being reshaped into a smaller, more focused team.
BioWare was founded in 1995 and bought by EA in 2007. Its last release was Dragon Age: The Veilguard in 2024, and the next Mass Effect was first announced in 2020.