Electronic Arts closes BioWare and cancels new Mass Effect game

Electronic Arts closed BioWare and ended the new Mass Effect game on Oct. 22, 2026, amid a fresh round of job cuts.

Electronic Arts laid off around 400 BioWare employees when it closed the studio. The shutdown also dismissed roughly 50 remaining staff members, including cinematic supervisor Tony de Waal. The closure ended Dragon Age and Mass Effect work at BioWare. Mass Effect 5 came off the calendar after five years of secrecy, ending hope for a reunion with the Reaper saga built on Unreal Engine.

Electronic Arts called off the new Mass Effect while it was still in early development, even though BioWare had revealed it six years before. A production director job posting for the new Mass Effect appeared in January 2026, showing the game was still in the pipeline despite little public information. The job posting preceded the studio’s closure and the game’s cancellation. Mass Effect stayed quiet after Andromeda came out in 2017, yet returning to Unreal Engine and linking to the original trilogy raised hopes for a comeback.

Tony de Waal, a cinematic supervisor at BioWare, wrote on LinkedIn that the team was creating a level of autonomy and choice unlike anything another game had matched. He said the team studied Larian and CD Projekt’s most recent games and aimed to push Mass Effect further while remaining faithful to the trilogy. He called the project something special and said the development team was punching above its weight. “where I believe we were making something special: a level of autonomy and choice that no other game has been able to match”, de Waal wrote.

Tony de Waal was one of about 50 remaining BioWare staff members let go when the studio closed. He expressed sadness that players would never see what the team was cooking, and he asked people to remember the developers who stayed until the end. The LinkedIn post disclosed the staff reductions and named de Waal among those leaving.

Catherynne M. Valente and Derek Künsken wrote on social media that they were excited about what BioWare was sketching and building for the Mass Effect game. Their posts lacked the detail of de Waal’s, but they shared his excitement about the studio’s work.

BioWare’s closure arrived just weeks before its annual N7 Day celebrations, when new details on the game were expected. The studio said it was focusing on supporting the talented team through the transition after more than three decades of shared adventures.

BioWare General Manager Gary McKay said in January 2025 that the studio was downsizing and focusing on the new Mass Effect after finishing Dragon Age: The Veilguard in 2024. The announcement followed BioWare’s completion of Dragon Age: The Veilguard in 2024. The downsizing came more than a year before the studio closed.

EA said closing BioWare lines up talent and investments with where the publisher sees the greatest opportunities for players and long-term growth. A $55 billion acquisition led by Saudi Arabia and Jared Kushner’s investment groups made Electronic Arts a private publisher. The deal provided background on EA’s financial situation.

Mass Effect: Andromeda came out in 2017 but did not earn the critical acclaim or universal love of the original Mass Effect trilogy, and its weaker reception fit into BioWare’s uneven recent years before the studio shut down. Anthem did not succeed as a live-service game even though it had some promising ideas; Rock Paper Shotgun said Anthem did not stick the live-service landing. Dragon Age: The Veilguard had a messy development cycle, shifting between multiplayer and single-player to match Electronic Arts management priorities, and one reviewer called it a reluctant RPG but a compelling heartfelt action adventure. Dragon Age: The Veilguard did not sell enough copies to count as a success for Electronic Arts, and weak sales after the troubled development helped make it a final black mark against BioWare.

BioWare’s closure ends any near-term prospect of a new Mass Effect, and selling the rights would not make a new game likely for years, PlayFront said. Electronic Arts still fully owns the Mass Effect, Dragon Age, and Jade Empire franchises.

BioWare veteran Mark Darrah said Electronic Arts might sell the franchise rights to raise new revenue rather than leave them unused, though whether a sale is realistic remains unclear because EA could freeze the names permanently during a realignment, PlayFront said. Darrah expressed cautious optimism. The publisher focuses on established successful brands and strict cost control, making new entries in the series unlikely internally for now. The planned Mass Effect television series is still moving forward as usual, unaffected by BioWare’s closure and the cancellation of the next game.