Electronic Arts is closing BioWare, the studio behind Mass Effect and Dragon Age, and ending work on the next Mass Effect game, BioWare said on Wednesday, as the publisher cuts about 400 jobs across the company.
The layoffs, about 3 percent of EA’s work force, include roughly 50 people at BioWare, Bloomberg reported, citing a person familiar with the company’s plans. BioWare posted its own announcement on social media minutes after the Bloomberg story ran, Kyle Orland of Ars Technica wrote. “After more than three decades of shared adventures, BioWare is closing and early development on the next Mass Effect project is ending,” the post said.
In a letter to staff, David Tinson, EA’s chief operating officer, and Cam Weber, its chief studios officer, said the company had taken a “hard look” at its operations, Windows Central reported. “Across our portfolio, we’re making deliberate choices to align talent and investments where we see the greatest opportunities for players and long-term growth,” the executives wrote, according to Bloomberg.
Mass Effect wasn’t the only game cut. EA also canceled a planned Sims title code-named Project Lotus to put its effort into another project called Evergreen, Kotaku reported. Skate will keep going with a smaller team.
The company said it would keep investing in its sports games, the shooter Apex Legends, the next Star Wars Jedi game and a Marvel Iron Man game. Battlefield continues too. Respawn and DICE are working together on a new project, which Windows Central said was rumored to be another Star Wars: Battlefront.
The cuts come two months after EA went private in a $55 billion leveraged buyout led by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, with the investment firm Silver Lake and Affinity Partners, the fund of President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. The deal, struck last year, was finalized in August and left about $18 billion in debt on EA’s books. Kotaku reported that EA had promised investors $700 million in yearly savings. Windows Central said the directive was to cut up to $700 million in research and development costs.
When the deal was announced, analysts told Ars Technica to expect “layoffs, studio closures, and [selling] of IP” as the company put “a bigger focus on live services, more focus on annual sports franchises, [and] microtransactions” to raise profits.
BioWare was founded in 1995 in Edmonton, Alberta, and made its name with role-playing games including Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. EA bought it in 2007, before Mass Effect or Dragon Age existed. John Riccitiello, EA’s chief executive at the time, called it one of “the most respected studios in the industry” and said the purchase would “drive long-term value for our shareholders.” EA no longer has public shareholders.
The studio’s recent record was rough. Anthem, a live-service game released in 2019, flopped. Dragon Age: The Veilguard went back to single-player storytelling, but EA said its sales fell short of expectations, and layoffs followed. Jason Schreier of Bloomberg had reported earlier that BioWare was down to fewer than 100 workers, from more than 200 two years before.
By November 2025, Mike Gamble, an executive producer, said the studio was working only on the next Mass Effect. That game was first announced in 2020 and never got a release date, GameSpot noted in its coverage of the closure.
BioWare’s farewell post ran through its catalog, from Baldur’s Gate to Knights of the Old Republic. “These games became so much more because you played them,” it said.