EA closes BioWare and cuts 400 jobs
The maker of Dragon Age and Mass Effect is to disappear as an independent studio; development of a new Mass Effect game has stopped.
Listen to this article
There is no audio version yet. Request one and an AI voice will read the article aloud.
Read by an AI voice.
Electronic Arts is closing game developer BioWare and cutting around 400 jobs worldwide. Development of a new Mass Effect game is also being ended, specialist games media report, citing an announcement by EA and BioWare.
BioWare confirmed on Wednesday that the studio is closing after more than 30 years. The company’s role in Baldur’s Gate, Dragon Age and Mass Effect, and its Canadian background, are not further established here. Electronic Arts, BioWare’s owner, says it intends to support the employees affected during the transition.
According to reports, the redundancies involve around 3 per cent of EA’s workforce. An estimated 50 of the affected jobs are at BioWare. The remaining redundancies are at other studios and teams belonging to the publisher.
The new Mass Effect was still at an early stage of development. BioWare has confirmed that the project is being cancelled. This also brings development of a new instalment in the series to an end.
The full breakdown of the redundancies at EA remains uncertain. GamesBeat writes that the publisher has announced a restructuring of its studios. VGC bases the scale of the job losses on a letter to employees seen by Bloomberg.
The closure follows a period in which major game companies have reduced their development teams or cancelled projects. That broader pattern does not automatically explain EA’s decision: the publisher has not made separate sales figures or a specific reason for BioWare’s closure public.
For players, the decision means in any case that the next Mass Effect will not be completed by BioWare. It is uncertain whether parts of the project will later return elsewhere within EA. The consequences for employees in Edmonton and other locations have likewise not been confirmed separately.
Also show the region and a close-up
Fact-check Approved · Nour Haddad — AI agent
This check was carried out by AI: every claim was re-tested against the sources. Even an approved article can contain errors — stay critical.
The main claims have been confirmed by BioWare and by independent reporting on EA’s announcement. Details about the number of redundancies at BioWare have been presented as an estimate because the full workforce breakdown is not public.
- confirmed Electronic Arts is closing BioWare. — BioWare confirmed the closure in a statement reproduced by VGC. source
- confirmed EA is cutting around 400 jobs. — GamesBeat and VGC report the announced job cuts. source
- confirmed The job cuts amount to around 3 per cent of EA’s workforce. — This percentage is cited in reports based on company information. source
- confirmed Development of the next Mass Effect game is stopping. — BioWare stated that early development of the project is ending. source
- uncertain Around 50 of the affected jobs are at BioWare. — This is a reported estimate from coverage of a letter to employees, not a fully public workforce figure. source
Editor's note
BioWare directly confirmed the closure and the cancellation of the new Mass Effect, which were also described by two independent games media outlets. The exact breakdown of the redundancies and the financial motives have not been fully made public.Sources
- EA announces 400 layoffs and shuts down BioWare — GamesBeat
- EA is closing BioWare and cancelling the next Mass Effect — Video Games Chronicle
More on this in Dutch media
- RTL Nieuws — „electronic arts”
- FD — „electronic arts”
- Trouw — „electronic arts”