Photo: WinterE229 (WinterforceMedia) / Wikimedia Commons (CC0), cropped
A BioWare shut down is underway after more than 30 years, its parent company confirmed this week. On October 21, 2026, Electronic Arts (EA) said it is closing the studio behind Mass Effect and Dragon Age, along with its office in Edmonton, Canada, and ending early development on the next Mass Effect game.
The studio said goodbye in a short post: “Now, after more than three decades of shared adventures, BioWare is closing and early development on the next Mass Effect project is ending.”
For many longtime fans, it was the end of a long slide. For others, it closed an argument that started in 2024 with the studio’s last game, Dragon Age: The Veilguard.
What EA Said
EA explained the cuts in a memo to employees, posted on its website as “Building EA’s Next Chapter.” After its upcoming Marvel’s Iron Man and next Star Wars Jedi games, EA wrote, “we will concentrate our efforts on fewer simultaneous, large-scale projects, ensuring that every game we build in this space is fully set up for success.”
Then came BioWare: “As we focus on these larger opportunities, we’ve had a small team at BioWare working on early-development for Mass Effect. We’ve made the decision not to move forward with this development, which means we’re closing the studio and our Edmonton workspace. BioWare is a legendary studio that helped define the role-playing genre, and we do not take this decision lightly.”
BioWare wasn’t the only cut. The same memo paused “Project Lotus,” a new game in The Sims series, and said the team behind Skate will become “a more focused, smaller team.”
Why Did BioWare Shut Down?
EA’s stated reason is focus. The memo says nothing about the content of BioWare’s games.
EA will cut around 400 jobs, about 3% of its staff, Bloomberg reported. Variety called the restructuring EA’s “first major move since going private this summer.” On August 4, EA announced that its sale to a group of investors (Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, or PIF, plus Silver Lake and Affinity Partners) had closed. Bloomberg calls the $55 billion deal a leveraged buyout led by the Saudi fund and says it placed around $18 billion in debt on EA’s books.
EA’s numbers tell part of the story. In a January 22, 2025 SEC filing, EA said Dragon Age “engaged approximately 1.5 million players during the quarter, down nearly 50% from the company’s expectations.” CEO Andrew Wilson said in the same filing: “Dragon Age and EA SPORTS FC 25 underperformed our net bookings expectations.” On EA’s next earnings call, on February 4, 2025, its chief financial officer said in prepared remarks that Dragon Age: The Veilguard “underperformed, highlighting the competitive dynamics of the single-player RPG market,” as Game Developer reported.
The Veilguard Debate
Some critics of the game point to its politics. EA’s public explanations have pointed to the market instead.
The flashpoint was a scene with the companion Taash. Forbes contributor Erik Kain, in a column headlined “Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s Clumsy, Preachy Political Messaging Does More Harm Than Good,” described it this way: one character misgenders another, then does a set of push-ups and lectures the others on how to apologize properly. Kain predicted the scene “will undoubtedly turn many gamers off entirely, not necessarily because they’re unsympathetic to trans rights, but because they’re tired of being preached at.” He still recommended the game.
Players piled on. Within days of launch, the game’s Metacritic user score fell to 3.3, with more than 1,700 negative reviews, many calling its dialogue “woke,” Game Rant reported.
The other side of the debate says that was a pile-on, not a verdict. The same Game Rant report noted an 84 critic score and a “Mostly Positive” rating from users on Steam, and said many negative reviewers likely hadn’t played the game.
Both camps agree on one thing: Veilguard didn’t save BioWare.
A Long Slide
Founded in 1995 by three doctors, BioWare helped set a template for modern role-playing games, the Washington Post notes. Its 2014 hit Dragon Age: Inquisition sold more than 12 million copies. After that, the Post writes, came the “poorly received” multiplayer game Anthem and then Veilguard, which “reportedly failed to meet sales goals.”
The Choice Is Yours
EA says BioWare closed because the company wants fewer, bigger bets. Its critics say the studio started lecturing the fans who made it famous. Either way, the people who decide what succeeds are the ones holding the wallet.
Want to see which companies have earned a D or F on our woke scorecard? See the Boycott List.
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