--- title: "EA closes BioWare in Edmonton after 31 years and cancels the next Mass Effect game" url: https://badiyaa.com/ea-closes-bioware-mass-effect-cancelled/ published: 2026-10-22T10:35:27+01:00 modified: 2026-10-22T09:59:31+01:00 section: Gaming publisher: Badiyaa --- # EA closes BioWare in Edmonton after 31 years and cancels the next Mass Effect game A memo from EA's studio and operations chiefs says the Edmonton office will close too; reports put EA-wide job cuts at about 400, roughly 50 of them at BioWare. Electronic Arts is shutting BioWare, the Edmonton, Alberta, studio behind Mass Effect and Dragon Age, and ending work on the next Mass Effect game. The decision was set out on Wednesday, October 21, in a memo to EA staff from Cam Weber, the publisher’s chief studios officer, and David Tinson, its chief operating officer, which EA also posted on its own newsroom. The memo spends one paragraph on the studio. “We’ve made the decision not to move forward with this development, which means we’re closing the studio and our Edmonton workspace,” the two executives wrote, referring to “a small team at BioWare” that had been in early development on a new Mass Effect. They added: “BioWare is a legendary studio that helped define the role-playing genre, and we do not take this decision lightly.” BioWare confirmed it in a post on X the same day: “BioWare is closing and early development on the next Mass Effect project is ending.” The studio added: “There is nothing easy about writing those words.” ## How many jobs EA’s memo gives no headcount. Reports published after it went out put the company-wide cuts at about 400 jobs, roughly 3% of EA’s staff, with around 50 of those at BioWare. That small BioWare figure reflects how far the studio had already shrunk: after EA restructured it in January 2025, it was down to fewer than 100 people, from more than 200 two years earlier, with many developers moved permanently to other EA teams. In a layoff of this kind, the publisher ends the roles and the employees can apply for other internal openings. EA says it will “support impacted employees in exploring other opportunities within EA.” It has not published severance terms or a date for the Edmonton office to close. ## What else EA changed BioWare was the biggest name in a wider reshuffle. EA says Respawn and DICE will team up on a new shooter project, that Marvel’s Iron Man and the next Star Wars Jedi game remain on track, and that it is pausing “Project Lotus,” a Sims project, to concentrate on “Project Evergreen.” The skate. team is being cut to a smaller group. The memo arrives about two months after EA completed a $55 billion buyout led by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, a deal that took the publisher private in August. ## What happens to Mass Effect and Dragon Age Closing a studio does not end the games it made. Electronic Arts owns the Mass Effect and Dragon Age names and could, in principle, give them to another internal team, license them out or leave them dormant. So far it has said nothing about either series beyond stopping this Mass Effect project. A Mass Effect television series was confirmed by Amazon MGM Studios in November 2024; neither company has said whether the closure changes those plans. ## BioWare, 1995 to 2026 The studio’s 31 years read as a run of hits, then a long slide. - **1995:** Three newly graduated University of Alberta medical doctors, Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk and Augustine Yip, incorporate BioWare on February 1 with $300,000 of their own money. - **1998 to 2003:** Baldur’s Gate sells more than two million copies, Baldur’s Gate II matches it, and Neverwinter Nights and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic follow. - **2007:** EA buys BioWare’s parent, VG Holding, for $775 million. The first Mass Effect arrives the same year. - **2009 to 2012:** Dragon Age: Origins, Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age II, the online game Star Wars: The Old Republic and Mass Effect 3, whose disputed ending led to a free “Extended Cut.” Muzyka and Zeschuk retire in September 2012. - **2014 to 2019:** Dragon Age: Inquisition, then Mass Effect: Andromeda in 2017, which sold below its predecessors, and Anthem in 2019, an online shooter far from the studio’s single-player roots. - **2023 to 2025:** About 50 jobs go in August 2023. Dragon Age: The Veilguard launches on October 31, 2024, for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and Windows PCs; EA later says it reached about 1.5 million players, nearly 50% short of its forecast. - **2026:** EA closes the studio on October 21. Since 2019, BioWare had worked from three floors of the EPCOR Tower in downtown Edmonton, a move it announced that September. Weber and Tinson told staff they would talk through the changes at EA’s next Global Town Hall, scheduled for November. ## Further reading - [Wikipedia: BioWare](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BioWare) - [Wikipedia: Dragon Age: The Veilguard](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_Age:_The_Veilguard) *Image: WinterE229 WinterforceMedia, CC0 via Wikimedia Commons* *This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by our Editorial Desk. [How we work](https://badiyaa.com/editorial-policy/).*