It’s been a little over a week since Electronic Arts canceled the upcoming Mass Effect game and shut down BioWare. We’re still feeling the shockwaves of the closure, but we’re also slowly but surely learning more about why EA made the decision.
According to Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, it was a financial decision. EA would have two major games based on sci-fi IPs in development, each costing hundreds of millions of dollars to make. Rather than investing in both of them, the company made a business decision to invest in the Star Wars IP rather than Mass Effect.
“As they reviewed EA’s portfolio for the next few years, the company’s executives found themselves with two sci-fi action games that were each projected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars: Star Wars Battlefront III and the next Mass Effect title. They chose to invest in Star Wars and shut down BioWare as a result.”
Schreier also adds that development on Star Wars Battlefront III hasn’t even begun yet (and still has not at the time of writing), but EA also views it as the less risky option. While Mass Effect may be lauded as one of the best sci-fi games of all time, its most recent release, Mass Effect: Andromeda, was not well received, and it’s been well over a decade since the conclusion of the original trilogy.
There’s also the fact that since the release of Mass Effect 3 in 2012, BioWare hasn’t had the best track record. Aside from Andromeda, 2019’s Anthem, a live-service game that has since shut down, completely flopped critically and commercially. 2024’s Dragon Age: The Veilguard, which fared better with critics, was also a commercial failure.
A spokesperson for EA told Bloomberg that the publisher “collectively reached this decision following months of planning, review, and analysis, including careful consideration of evolving business conditions, industry dynamics, and our long-term priorities.” They added that while this wasn’t an easy decision for them, the company can now focus its teams on “the biggest opportunities for our future, including investing in new projects across our portfolio.”
Despite BioWare’s history with Star Wars, EA is moving on from the legendary studio
To be fair, Star Wars is one of the biggest IPs in the world, but BioWare was a studio that had plenty of experience developing games in that universe. They developed 2003’s Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, considered one of the best RPGs of all time. BioWare’s Austin studio also developed Star Wars: The Old Republic, an MMO sequel to the Knights of the Old Republic franchise, from 2011 through 2023. EA made the decision in 2023 to transfer development to Broadsword Online Games, with BioWare’s Austin office ironically shifting its focus away from Star Wars and instead to the Mass Effect and Dragon Age franchises.
There’s also the fact that former BioWare developers, led by Casey Hudson, are working on a spiritual successor to Knights of the Old Republic called Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic. It begs the question: why would EA not allow those experienced with Star Wars to cook?
Well, it’s speculation time. After the acquisition of Electronic Arts, led by the Saudi investment fund, was completed, BioWare became a bit of an elephant in the room. How would BioWare’s inclusive internal beliefs factor into decisions made by EA’s new owners? I’m not saying BioWare’s inclusivity and diversity are why the studio was shut down, but it’s something everyone felt was coming after the deal was finalized earlier this year.
As it stands, EA is focusing on what they see as “sure things,” such as sports games and Star Wars. Unfortunately, it means that other sci-fi franchises, no matter how iconic and beloved, don’t have a home at the new Electronic Arts.
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