BioWare is closing, and the next Mass Effect game is cancelled.
The legendary RPG studio was founded in 1995 by doctors Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk and Augustine Yip, and was responsible for a number of classics, including the original Baldur’s Gate games, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and more recently, the Dragon Age and Mass Effect series.
https://t.co/TicSujMWpsOctober 21, 2026
“What generations of BioWare built together is something to celebrate and remember,” said the studio in a statement published on social media. “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.”
After establishing itself in the PC gaming canon in the ’90s and early 2000s, BioWare was acquired by Electronic Arts in 2007, and became a mainstream RPG powerhouse with the release of the Mass Effect trilogy and first Dragon Age games.
A 2017 follow-up to the Mass Effect trilogy, Andromeda, wasn’t as well-received as the first three games and the studio’s detour into live service shooters, Anthem, failed to catch on. Anthem is widely considered one of the great management blunders of the live service gold rush, and its servers were finally shut down for good earlier this year. BioWare’s most recent game, 2024’s Dragon Age: The Veilguard, “underperformed,” according to EA.
Last year, it was announced that EA would be acquired by a consortium made up of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and investment firms Silver Lake and Affinity Partners, the latter of which is owned by Jared Kushner, son-in-law of US president Donald Trump. The acquisition was finalized this August.
When the deal was announced, some employees and outside observers were not confident that BioWare would have a future following the acquisition, with one employee saying last year that it felt like “a matter of time” before the axe fell.
The next Mass Effect game was first teased in 2020, and was expected to bring back characters from the original trilogy. In 2025, BioWare said that “a core team at BioWare” was working on the game after layoffs at the studio.
Alongside the BioWare closure, EA is laying off around 400 people across the company, according to Bloomberg.
In a letter shared with employees and published on EA’s website, the company said that “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.”
The letter was signed by EA chief studios officer Cam Weber, who until recently headed up EA Sports, and EA COO David Tinson.



