EA reportedly shuts down BioWare to invest in the development of Star Wars Battlefront III instead of the next Mass Effect

Electronic Arts shut down legendary RPG studio BioWare last week, ending development on an untitled fifth Mass Effect game. Since then, we’ve seen what appears to be a leaked trailer for the game, suggesting it might have been called Mass Effect Universe, and heard a glimpse of what Grammy-winning composer Austin Wintory was planning for the beloved sci-fi RPG series. Over the past week, fans across the Internet have tried to understand how a publisher could decide to shut down a studio as prolific as BioWare, but according to a new Bloomberg Reportthe answer is Star Wars.

More precisely, Bloomberg writes that, having had the opportunity to develop Star Wars Battlefront III with Disney, the publisher, which went private last year after a $55 billion acquisition, chose to invest its money in that project instead of BioWare’s in-development Mass Effect sequel. The publication writes that EA looked at its portfolio for the coming years and decided to pursue two massive investments in science fiction: Star Wars Battlefront III or BioWare’s upcoming Mass Effect. Even if Mass Effect was well advanced in its development and even if the third part of Battlefront has not even entered development yet, EA chose to continue with the latter. And so BioWare was shut down and development of Mass Effect ended, however Bloomberg sources say there are also other, less important reasons why the studio was closed.

These other factors include the poor reception of 2017’s Mass Effect: Andromeda, the failure of 2019’s Anthem, and 2024’s Dragon Age: The Veilguard, which, despite positive critical reception, apparently missed EA’s sales expectations by 50%.

There’s also the uncomfortable reality that BioWare created positive progressive games for the LGBTQIA+ community, but was a studio within a publishing house now partially owned by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, a government fund in a country where same-sex activities, including marriage, are criminalized, sometimes punishable by death; these harsh laws extend to other facets of the LGBTQIA+ community. Another investment partner in this EA acquisition is Affinity Partners, a Miami-based investment firm founded and led by former White House senior advisor Jared Kushner, who is the son-in-law of President Donald Trump, a political figure who imposes discriminatory laws against the LGBTQIA+ community, particularly the 1% of transgender Americans; Trump is also known for mocking this community in various ways. No official statement indicates that BioWare shut down due to its progressive leanings, but one has to wonder if that was a factor, especially after reports that BioWare removed diversity from demos to avoid negative feedback from EA (thanks, Kotaku).

When BioWare closed its doors last week, only 50 employees remained, all working on the upcoming Mass Effect, after years of layoffs at the studio.

A Mass Effect TV series is still in the works at Amazon, although EA appears to have hung up Commander Shepard’s video game suit for good.

(Source: Bloomberg)