EA closes BioWare and cancels the next Mass Effect
The studio behind Mass Effect, Dragon Age and Knights of the Old Republic is shutting down after more than 30 years, as EA cuts about 400 jobs across its studios.
BioWare, the studio behind Mass Effect, Dragon Age and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, is closing after more than 30 years. The studio announced it on October 21, 2026, and said early development on the next Mass Effect project is ending with it. The closure is part of a round of cuts at publisher Electronic Arts that Bloomberg puts at about 400 jobs.
What BioWare said
In a statement on social media, BioWare called itself "more than a studio" and "a home for storytellers, developers, and the players who brought our worlds to life." It listed Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Dragon Age, Mass Effect and Anthem, and wrote: "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."
The statement gives no numbers and no dates for the shutdown.
The wider cuts
Bloomberg reported, as relayed by GamesIndustry.biz, that EA is cutting roughly 3% of its staff, about 400 people, and that around 50 of them work at BioWare. It cites a staff letter from EA chief operating officer David Tinson and chief studios officer Cam Weber, which says the company has "taken a hard look at our business" over the past several months. The letter reportedly names the cancelled projects: the next Mass Effect game, which was in early development, and a planned Sims game code-named Project Lotus.
The same letter, according to Bloomberg, says EA will keep working on Apex Legends, Battlefield, the next Star Wars Jedi game and a new Iron Man game, and will keep developing Skate with a smaller team. EA has not said where the other 350 or so job cuts fall. Eurogamer reports, citing an anonymous source and posts on LinkedIn, that staff at Maxis, Ripple Effect, EA Motive, Full Circle and Respawn are also affected. That is not confirmed by EA.
Why now
The closure comes less than three months after EA completed its acquisition by PIF, Silver Lake and Affinity Partners on August 4, 2026. Bloomberg also reports that BioWare's most recent game, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, missed sales expectations, which led EA to cut the studio's staff the year before.
What comes next
The Mass Effect trilogy and its remaster, Mass Effect Legendary Edition, remain on sale; nothing in BioWare's statement or the reported letter changes that. Whether EA keeps the Mass Effect and Dragon Age rights for new games elsewhere in the company, or moves them, has not been said. For now, the first confirmed fact is the end of BioWare as a studio, and the next is EA's own account of where the rest of the cuts land.
Platforms: PCPlayStationXbox
Games: Mass Effect