Electronic Arts is building its next chapter and so, Bioware has shut down. The Canadian studio that was born 30 years ago and helped define the Western role with sagas such as ‘Baldur’s Gate’, ‘Star Wars: Knights of the Last Republic’, ‘Dragon Age’ and ‘Mass Effect’, has closed its doors as part of a deep restructuring at EA, the parent company, with around 40 jobs.
The decision comes two-and-a-half months after the company was taken over by a consortium led by Saudi sovereign wealth funds. And although it was expected, it’s no longer sad news.
what happened. If you grew up with any of BioWare’s titles, this news hit you like a truck this Wednesday, October 21st afternoon. Cam Weber (EA President and Chief Studio Officer) and David Tinson (President and Chief Operating Officer) sent a letter to employees announcing the closing of one of BioWare’s last remaining studios, Edmonton.
They admit that this is a legendary studio and they didn’t take the decision lightly, but there was a small team (about 50 developers) still working on the early stages of a new ‘Mass Effect’ and now, EA has decided not to move forward. As we said, this is part of a plan to lay off 400 workers, about 3% of EA’s workforce, according to Bloomberg, although this has not been confirmed by the company.
BioWare’s Farewell Tweet
priority. What they mentioned is that this restructuring, like the Xbox ‘reset’, is part of a plan to focus teams and budgets on three priorities:
- Strengthen your core franchises.
- Reach more markets and platforms.
- Create new forms of relationship with sports fans.
Following the path of pasta. You can imagine what they have in mind at Sagas: Games as a Service. EA described ‘Battlefield 6’ as a “huge success” (which did not spare the studio from layoffs in March of this year) and DICE, the developer in charge of the story, will continue on that path. Also, the Swedish studio is responsible for the company’s technology, the Frostbite engine on which ‘Battlefield’, ‘Battlefront’ or ‘fifa’ ‘FC’.
EA Sports FC is the great pillar of the company and indeed, within the new plan, EA Sports is very committed to the games. This is something that suits its new owners, the Saudis, who see no ideological friction in the sports title. In fact, they are said to be preparing the return of an open world American football game and boxing ‘fight night’ like EA Sports FC 27.
On the other hand, there are ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Iron Man’ projects in the air, licenses agreed with Disney which are being developed by Respawn and Motive respectively. The studio is also responsible for ‘Apex Legends’, which EA is committed to for years to come.
felt bad. Back to Bioware, and like I said, the closure is not unexpected at all. Although it has been a benchmark for two decades, the studio’s last great success came with ‘Dragon Age Inquisition’ in 2014, with over 12 million copies sold and becoming Game of the Year.
Since then, things have gone pretty gray with a ‘Mass Effect Andromeda’ that was very broken and for which sales figures were never released, a ‘Musical’ that was a big hit in terms of sales, and a ‘Dragon Age the Velgard’ that was well received by critics, but which was played by 50% fewer users than expected.
Behind the scenes we have to talk about the problems with the Frostbite engine (made for shooters, not games made by Bioware) which caused them to lose a lot of resources, but also the chaotic situation in the management of both the game and the studio, and a gauntlet has been launched in 2020 in the form of that new ‘Mass Effect’, which only six years later we know is the first stage of production.
EA purchases… and loans. And let’s talk about the Saudis. In September 2025, EA announced that it would be acquired by a consortium formed by the Saudi sovereign fund PIF, manager Silver Lake and Affinity Partners, an investment firm of Donald Trump’s son-in-law. The amount would be $55,000 million and the operation was closed on August 4, 2026, when EA went public.
What’s going on? Well, such huge purchases are… rare. It was financed with about $36 billion in capital from investors and a $20 billion loan pledged by JPMorgan, of which $18 billion was expected to be disbursed in the short term. This left EA with a debt of 20 billion.
And if the question is how is it possible for the acquired company to acquire debt that it has to repay, because, explained Quartz, the debt goes on the acquired company’s balance sheet in such purchases. Come on, Electronic Arts has to make a lot of money back and it doesn’t make that money selling games, so it has to leave the ballast. In this case, the onus is on the studios and their employees.
Human rights issue. With the closure of Bioware, not only is a legendary studio lost and employees out on the streets at one of the worst moments in the industry, but the question is what will happen to the intellectual properties that the studio once held. It’s hard for current electronic arts to continue exploiting sagas that can bring so much joy in other hands. And then there’s the Amazon series, which should go ahead.
The problem with BioWare is that the studio has historically been committed to inclusivity and LGBTQ+ content. Something that, for whatever reason, doesn’t fit the ideals of the new owners. In Saudi Arabia, same-sex relationships are illegal (as is feminism or atheism) and indeed, when the purchase was announced, some EA employees expressed that they did not feel comfortable.
In short, another sad day for video games to see a company that was born to research medical simulations… turn into one of the most respected and influential video game companies in the industry. Now we just have to see what happens with Maxis, who are creating a new ‘The Sims’ game, with an inclusive story and one of the most diverse audiences since its inception.
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