Electronic Arts shut downs Edmonton’s BioWare amid broader layoffs

Video game publisher Electronic Arts is shutting down the popular and influential game development studio BioWare after more than three decades. The upcoming Mass Effect game, the fifth since 2007, has been cancelled.

Edmonton-based BioWare announced the closure on social media Wednesday following a report by Bloomberg that also said the company is laying off 400 people, including about 50 at BioWare.

The Redwood Shores, California-based maker of popular titles like Battlefield and The Sims closed the US$55-billion sale of its business to Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund PIF, investment firm Silver Lake Partners and Affinity Partners, which is run by President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, in August.

Representatives for EA did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment on the layoffs.

“What generations of BioWare built together is something to celebrate and remember,” the studio said via social media. “These games became so much more because you played them, debated your choices, fell in love with characters, and made these worlds your own.”

BioWare built its reputation on immersive role-playing adventures, from sword-and-sorcery fantasies like Baldur’s Gate and Dragon Age to science fiction epics like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect.

But its effort to branch out into multiplayer shooters, 2019’s Anthem, steered away from the studio’s strength as a creator of compelling single-player narratives. It failed to find the sort of loyal audience that keeps online hits like Fortnite and Overwatch humming.

Meanwhile the latest installments of its two most popular original franchises – 2017’s Mass Effect: Andromeda and 2024’s Dragon Age: The Veilguard – met with mixed reviews and disappointed many fans. A new chapter of Mass Effect was in development before BioWare announced its shutdown.

BioWare was founded in 1995 and acquired by EA in 2007.