Electronic Arts is closing BioWare, the studio behind Mass Effect and Dragon Age, and has stopped early development on the next Mass Effect game. BioWare confirmed the closure on Wednesday, October 21, in a statement posted on social media.
The BioWare closure is part of a wider round of cuts at the publisher. According to Bloomberg, which saw an internal letter to staff, EA will eliminate about 400 jobs, or roughly 3% of its workforce. About 50 of those roles are at BioWare. The cuts come two months after EA completed its sale to Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF).
What BioWare said about the closure
BioWare’s statement listed its games by name before delivering the news. “Baldur’s Gate. Neverwinter Nights. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Dragon Age. Mass Effect. Anthem. 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 list places Anthem alongside the studio’s best-known RPGs, even though EA shut the game down earlier this year. It is the only online multiplayer title BioWare named.
The studio added that “there is nothing easy about writing those words.” The studio said its attention is now on its team and on “supporting one another through this transition.” The post ended by thanking players for “being the most meaningful part of our story.”
The staff letter came from EA chief operating officer David Tinson and chief studios officer Cam Weber. According to Bloomberg, the two executives wrote that “over the past several months, we’ve taken a hard look at our business.” Other EA teams are also affected. VGC separately reported that many staff have left Full Circle, the studio developing Skate, as part of the same layoffs.
The debt behind the BioWare closure
EA went private through a $55 billion leveraged buyout led by the PIF. The consortium also included private equity firm Silver Lake and Affinity Partners, the investment firm run by Jared Kushner. The deal was announced in September 2025 and closed this summer.
The buyout was partly financed with borrowed money. As a result, EA now carries around $18 billion in debt and pays roughly $1.8 billion a year in interest alone. Earlier this year, EA told debt investors it planned to cut $700 million in annual costs once the deal closed. That figure included $170 million in what the company called “organizational efficiencies.”
Bloomberg’s figures also give a sense of scale. If 400 jobs equal roughly 3% of staff, EA employs around 13,000 people. BioWare’s 50 roles are a small share of that total. Still, the BioWare closure is the most visible part of the cuts, because it ends a studio rather than trimming one.
The layoffs arrive within EA’s first few months as a private company. Meanwhile, that $700 million savings target remains in place.
Three decades of BioWare RPGs
Doctors Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk founded BioWare in Edmonton, Canada, in 1995. The studio made its name with story-heavy role-playing games, starting with Baldur’s Gate in 1998. Neverwinter Nights and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic followed in the early 2000s.
EA acquired BioWare in 2007, the same year the first Mass Effect launched on Xbox 360. Under EA, the studio completed the original Mass Effect trilogy with Mass Effect 2 in 2010 and Mass Effect 3 in 2012. It also launched the Dragon Age series with Dragon Age: Origins in 2009, followed by Dragon Age II in 2011 and Dragon Age: Inquisition in 2014.
BioWare also ran a studio in Austin, Texas, which launched the online game Star Wars: The Old Republic in 2011. That game moved to an outside developer, Broadsword, in 2023. Muzyka and Zeschuk both left the industry in 2012.
The original trilogy returned in 2021 as Mass Effect Legendary Edition. Meanwhile, the past decade was harder for the studio’s new projects. Mass Effect: Andromeda drew a mixed response in 2017. Anthem, an online shooter released in 2019, fell short of expectations, and EA shut down its servers in January 2026.
BioWare then returned to single-player RPGs with Dragon Age: The Veilguard in October 2024. The game received mostly positive reviews. However, EA later said it reached around 1.5 million players, roughly half of what the company had expected.
The next Mass Effect is cancelled
The next Mass Effect was first teased at The Game Awards in December 2020. Since then, BioWare has shown very little of the game, mostly short teasers released around the series’ annual N7 Day.
Last year, EA reduced BioWare’s headcount and moved some developers to other EA teams. At the time, the publisher said the cuts affected staff who had finished work on The Veilguard, while a core group stayed on Mass Effect. The project’s director also told fans the game was still in development, despite concerns about the pending sale.
The BioWare closure ends that work. BioWare’s statement does not say whether Mass Effect or Dragon Age could continue at another studio. Both series remain EA properties.
Questions about the series had already surfaced in recent months. Last month, a former BioWare developer told VGC that the next Mass Effect could succeed if “people get out of the way” and let the original creators work. Two months ago, a producer said a Dragon Age remaster trilogy was unlikely because nobody who knew the old engine was left at the studio.
Where EA is putting its money after the BioWare closure
The staff letter set out the projects EA plans to keep funding. These include its sports games, Apex Legends and Battlefield. EA also named two action-adventure games in development: the next Star Wars Jedi game from Respawn and Marvel’s Iron Man from Motive.
None of the games on that list is a single-player RPG. With BioWare gone, EA no longer runs a studio dedicated to the genre that produced Mass Effect and Dragon Age.
The BioWare closure leaves about 50 developers out of work. It also leaves the Mass Effect series with no announced game in development.