EA is closing BioWare, the studio behind Mass Effect and Dragon Age, as part of a studio restructuring that cuts about 3% of its global workforce. The company has also stopped development of a new Mass Effect game, which TheGamer describes as a cancellation. It’s the first big move EA has made since the Saudi-led buyout closed, a deal we covered when EA became Saudi-owned, with $20bn of debt attached.
What EA announced
According to Variety, the changes were laid out in a Wednesday memo to staff from Cam Weber, EA’s president and chief studios officer, and David Tinson, president and COO. BioWare shuts down after EA decided against continuing work on the new Mass Effect, and the company will also close the studio’s Edmonton office in Canada. “BioWare is a legendary studio that helped define the role-playing genre, and we do not take this decision lightly,” the executives wrote.
The headcount maths comes from EA’s last reported workforce of 14,500. Variety and Mezha both put the cut at around 400 people, which matches the figure in Bloomberg’s headline on the story. Mezha reports that EA says it will help affected employees explore other roles within the company, though neither report details how many of the roughly 400 will be offered one.
Where the work goes
BioWare’s closure sits alongside a reshuffle elsewhere in EA’s studio lineup. Variety reports that Respawn and DICE will team up on Star Wars: Battlefront 3, which suggests EA is concentrating its shooter talent on a licensed franchise rather than spreading it across smaller bets. Skate. gets a “more focused, smaller team”, in the executives’ words, aimed at delivering a clear roadmap for its community. Mezha adds that Project Lotus, a Sims project, is paused.
Weber and Tinson framed the overhaul as the result of a months-long review. In the memo text that Variety quotes, they wrote: “Over the past several months, we’ve taken a hard look at our business.” That review landed within months of EA going private, which is why Variety calls it the company’s first major move under the new ownership.
How BioWare got here
The closure ends a long contraction. Back in January 2025, VGC reported that BioWare had shrunk from more than 200 people two years earlier to fewer than 100, after staff were moved to other EA teams. At the time, a small team of veterans was still working on the next Mass Effect, and BioWare’s general manager Gary McKay said the game didn’t need support from the full studio. PC Gamer reported that month that some senior Dragon Age and Mass Effect developers had been laid off.
Destructoid notes that the announcement came without warning, and that the studio’s most recent game, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, launched in 2024. We’ll update this piece when EA or Bloomberg add detail on the job cuts, what happens to the two franchises, and when Star Wars: Battlefront 3 might surface. For context on the ownership change behind all this, see our earlier report on the EU clearing the Saudi PIF takeover.
What happens to the new Mass Effect game?
Variety and Mezha report that EA decided not to continue early development of it, and that decision is the reason BioWare is closing. TheGamer calls it a cancellation. There’s no word yet on whether another EA studio will pick the franchise up.
How many people lose their jobs?
About 3% of EA’s workforce, which comes to around 400 people against the 14,500 headcount EA last reported. Variety and Mezha arrived at that estimate, since the executives’ memo didn’t give a figure, and some affected staff may be offered other roles inside EA.
Is the closure linked to EA’s new owners?
Variety’s quotes from the memo attribute the changes to a review of the business and how EA operates. Variety describes this as EA’s first major move since it went private this summer, but the sources we could access don’t say whether the owners drove the decision.
