EA shuts down BioWare, cancels next Mass Effect in ~400-job restructuring

Electronic Arts is shutting down BioWare and cancelling the next Mass Effect, the studio said in a statement on X on October 21, 2026.

BioWare, founded in 1995 and acquired by EA in 2007, built Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Dragon Age and Mass Effect, and ran the MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic from 2011. "Now, after more than three decades of shared adventures, BioWare is closing and early development on the next Mass Effect project is ending," the studio wrote.

The next Mass Effect was announced in 2020 and never shown beyond teasers. The last new entry in the series was Mass Effect: Andromeda in 2017. EA chief operating officer David Tinson and chief studios officer Cam Weber told staff in a letter that EA had "a small team at BioWare working on early-development for Mass Effect," and that "we've made the decision not to move forward with this development, which means we're closing the studio and our Edmonton workspace."

About 400 jobs cut across EA

Bloomberg's Jason Schreier reports that around 400 EA employees, roughly 3% of the company's staff and including about 50 BioWare people, are being laid off. The cuts come two months after EA went private in a $55 billion buyout led by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, which Polygon and VGC report left the company around $18 billion in debt and about $1.8 billion a year in interest payments. EA had promised investors $700 million in annual cost reductions, including $170 million in what the staff letter calls organizational efficiencies.

What else was cancelled

The same letter says EA is cancelling a Sims franchise project code-named Project Lotus, which Polygon describes as pausing development, and refocusing that team on another project code-named Evergreen. EA said it will keep investing in sports games, Apex Legends and Battlefield, along with action-adventure projects including the next Star Wars Jedi title and a Marvel's Iron Man game. Respawn Entertainment and DICE are collaborating on a new project that Bloomberg's reporting suggests is likely a new Star Wars Battlefront, though EA has not named it.

BioWare's last release was Dragon Age: The Veilguard on October 31, 2024, which drew mostly positive reviews but missed EA's sales expectations. The studio had already been downsized last year and restructured to work on one game at a time.

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