Electronic Arts is making big cuts, including laying off staff and shutting down storied developer BioWare, the studio behind the Mass Effect and Dragon Age franchises. The closure of BioWare means that the next Mass Effect game, which was announced in 2020, has been canceled. In a letter to staff on Wednesday, EA chief operating officer David Tinson and chief studios officer Cam Weber told employees that executives have "taken a hard look at our business" and will focus on proven hits, including Apex Legends, Battlefield, and sports games like Madden, Bloomberg reports.
According to Bloomberg, around 400 EA employees are being laid off, including about 50 at BioWare. EA plans to continue developing a new Star Wars Jedi title, Marvel's Iron Man, and what sounds like a new Star Wars Battlefront game, with Respawn and DICE co-developing the new Star Wars shooter. EA is also reportedly canceled a Sims game codenamed Project Lotus and will focus on a different project in the franchise codenamed Project Evergreen, according to Bloomberg.
Official BioWare social media accounts confirmed the news publicly. "For more than 30 years, BioWare has been more than a studio. It has been a home for storytellers, developers, and the players who brought our worlds to life," the developer said in a statement.
"Now, after more than three decades of shared adventures, BioWare is closing and early development on the next Mass Effect project is ending." The cancellation of Mass Effect comes as little surprise, given the pace of development on that sci-fi game, which was said to be in early development. BioWare's last major release, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, missed sales expectations. The most recent new Mass Effect game was 2017's Mass Effect: Andromeda.
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