Hero image: Mass Effect Legendary Edition. Image: BioWare
EA says it is closing BioWare, the studio behind Mass Effect and Dragon Age, along with its Edmonton workspace. The decision comes in a memo to staff that EA published on its news site on 21 October.
The memo says a small BioWare team had been working on early development for Mass Effect. In its words, “We’ve made the decision not to move forward with this development, which means we’re closing the studio and our Edmonton workspace.” It adds that “BioWare is a legendary studio that helped define the role-playing genre, and we do not take this decision lightly.”
The memo gives no figure for how many jobs are affected, and no date for the closure. It does say EA will support impacted employees in exploring other opportunities within EA, and that the company will discuss its direction at its next Global Town Hall in November.
BioWare is one part of a wider reset. The memo, signed “Cam & David”, sets three priorities — Deepen Our Core, Expand Our Reach and Transform Our Business — and then goes franchise by franchise.
In shooters, EA calls Battlefield 6 “a great success” and says it will bring its Respawn and DICE studios together on a future project. It also says it is continuing to invest heavily in Apex over the next few years, with new multiplayer modes. We covered the latest Apex Legends ranked changes and the Battlefield 6 Season 5 roadmap this week.
In action-adventure, the memo names two launches still to come, Marvel’s Iron Man and the next Star Wars Jedi game. After those, EA says it will concentrate on “fewer simultaneous, large-scale projects”.
For EA Sports, the memo says the company is investing in the FC franchise and has two new projects in development, “Project Gridiron” and a pre-production return of Fight Night. In its Lifestyle group, it is prioritising “Project Evergreen” for The Sims, pausing “Project Lotus”, and making changes to the skate. studio to build a “more focused, smaller team”.
The memo does not mention Australia, and it does not say what happens to BioWare’s existing games or to their online services.