EA closed BioWare and cancelled the next Mass Effect largely because it preferred to spend its money on a new Star Wars Battlefront, according to a report by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier. The claim rests on unnamed sources, and EA has not confirmed it.
EA announced the studio’s closure last week. The reporting says executives were reviewing their slate while carrying roughly $18 billion in debt from the Saudi-backed buyout, and found two sci-fi action games that would each cost hundreds of millions of dollars: the Mass Effect project, reportedly titled Mass Effect Universe, and Battlefront 3.
A game that hadn’t started beating one in development
According to a Wccftech write-up of the newsletter, Battlefront 3 has not entered development yet. The chance came from recent talks with Lucasfilm. Mass Effect was in relatively early development with about 50 people at BioWare, and finishing it would have meant a bigger team or outside help. Variety reported last week that DICE and Respawn will work together on an unannounced project, which is believed to be the Star Wars game.
In the Bloomberg report as relayed by VGC, Schreier calls the investment choice the biggest factor, not the only one. The team’s recent record, including Dragon Age: The Veilguard missing expectations, also counted against it, and an executive reshuffle reportedly cost BioWare an internal advocate. About 350 more jobs were cut elsewhere at EA.
None of this is official. Amazon’s Mass Effect TV adaptation is still going ahead, and a fan petition to save the studio has passed 285,000 signatures.
