Key Takeaways:
- EA has officially shut down BioWare, ending over 30 years of RPG legacy.
- The next Mass Effect game has been cancelled — it was still in early development.
- Around 400 jobs are being cut across EA, with roughly 50 of those at BioWare.
- A second Sims project codenamed “Project Lotus” has been paused or cancelled.
- Respawn and DICE are being merged to collaborate on a future project.
- EA Sports is getting two new games: the return of Fight Night and “Project Gridiron.”
- Marvel’s Iron Man and a third Star Wars Jedi game are still in development.
- This is the first major shake-up since a $55 billion Saudi-led consortium took EA private earlier in 2026.
Well, it finally happened. After months of uncertainty, fan speculation, and a high-profile corporate buyout, EA has pulled the trigger on one of the most dramatic restructuring announcements in gaming history. BioWare — the legendary studio that gave us the original Mass Effect trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Baldur’s Gate, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic — is done. It’s over. Closed. And honestly, as someone who grew up with Commander Shepard, this one hurts.
BioWare Is Closing After 30+ Years
On October 21, 2026, EA confirmed in an internal memo — later published publicly — that BioWare’s Edmonton studio is shutting its doors for good. The statement from BioWare itself was brief and devastating: “After more than three decades of shared adventures, BioWare is closing and early development on the next Mass Effect project is ending.”
No transfer to another studio. No acquisition. No “the team lives on” spin. Just a full stop. The next Mass Effect, which was still in very early groundwork stages, is dead alongside the studio. EA’s chiefs Cam Weber (Chief Studios Officer) and David Tinson (COO) signed off on the memo, saying the company took a “hard look” at its business and made the call.
About 50 of BioWare’s remaining staff are directly affected. The studio had already been hollowed out over the past couple of years following the disappointing sales of Dragon Age: The Veilguard in 2024, which failed to hit EA’s targets. That game wasn’t the flop that Anthem was back in 2019, but it wasn’t the comeback hit BioWare needed either.
400 Jobs Gone Across EA
The BioWare closure is just one piece of a much bigger picture. EA is cutting around 400 roles company-wide — that’s roughly 3% of its total workforce. Bloomberg confirmed the numbers, and while that percentage might sound small on paper, 400 people losing their jobs in one announcement is never a small thing, especially when these are developers, QA staff, and creatives who have poured years into these franchises.
The memo frames these cuts in the familiar corporate language of “aligning talent and investments where we see the greatest opportunities,” but let’s be real — this is EA reacting to a couple of years of underperformance and recalibrating after going private in a massive $55 billion deal earlier this summer. That acquisition, led by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund alongside Silver Lake and Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners, was always going to bring changes. We’re now seeing exactly what those changes look like.
What’s Happening With The Sims
The Sims universe is also going through a shake-up. EA had two projects in the pipeline — one codenamed Project Evergreen and another called Project Lotus. The decision has been made to prioritise Evergreen and pause Lotus, with EA saying they want to give the team more time to achieve “the full potential and vision for the game.”
Whether Lotus ever comes back is unclear. Some outlets are calling it a straight cancellation, others are taking EA’s word that it’s a pause. Either way, if you were hyped for a new Sims experience that isn’t Evergreen, you’re going to be waiting a lot longer — or possibly forever.
Skate Is Getting Trimmed Down Too
The early access reboot of Skate (stylised as skate.) has apparently been doing well enough, but EA is still downsizing the studio behind it into a leaner, more focused team. “Had a lot of success” is doing some heavy lifting there — restructuring a team that’s performing well is an interesting move. EA’s logic seems to be about reducing headcount across the board regardless of project health.
Respawn and DICE Are Being Merged
Here’s the one that could actually be exciting, depending on what comes out of it. EA confirmed that Respawn Entertainment and DICE are being brought together to collaborate on a future project. Neither studio is being shut down, but they’re pooling resources and working on something unannounced.
This has people talking. There have been rumblings about a potential Star Wars: Battlefront follow-up, and the Respawn x DICE combo would be a natural fit for that kind of shooter. Respawn obviously knows its way around Star Wars after the Jedi series, and DICE built the original Battlefront reboots. EA isn’t giving anything away yet, but watch this space.
Want to stay on top of gaming hardware news? Check out our coverage of the Steam Deck 2’s leaked AMD specs while the industry keeps shifting.
Iron Man and Star Wars Jedi Are Safe — For Now
Two projects that are keeping their green lights are Marvel’s Iron Man from EA Motive (yes, the one that leaked gameplay footage recently) and the third entry in the Star Wars Jedi series. Both are still on track, though EA is making it clear that going forward they’ll be concentrating on fewer large-scale action-adventure projects at once rather than spreading themselves thin across multiple big-budget titles.
“Every game we build in this space is fully set up for success” — that’s the goal according to the memo. Translation: fewer bets, bigger focus per game.
EA Sports Is Getting Two New Games
The EA Sports machine keeps rolling. The publisher reaffirmed its commitment to EA FC and its sports simulation lineup, and dropped two new announcements in the memo:
- Fight Night is coming back. EA confirmed it’s in pre-production on a revival of the beloved boxing franchise, which has been dormant for about 15 years. The team will be tapping into capabilities from EA’s simulation fighting division.
- Project Gridiron. This is described as a “brand-new, social-first open-world experience” for the American Football team. It sounds like it could be something very different from Madden — think a more accessible, connected, experience rather than a straight sim.
Both titles will be revealed in more detail over the coming months, so we don’t have gameplay or release windows just yet.
Apex Legends and Battlefield Are Still EA’s Pillars
The live service juggernauts aren’t going anywhere. EA re-emphasised its commitment to both Apex Legends and the Battlefield series following what the company is counting as a success with Battlefield 6 (also called Battlefield 2025). These are the games driving consistent revenue, and EA is doubling down on making sure they stay healthy.
If you’ve been keeping up with gaming’s biggest recent moments, there’s plenty more happening in the industry right now beyond just EA’s moves.
The Big Picture: EA Post-Privatisation
All of this has to be seen through the lens of what happened earlier this year. EA going private in a $55 billion deal was massive news, and it was always going to mean changes. New owners with that kind of investment want returns, and that means pruning underperforming studios, narrowing the game portfolio, and doubling down on what actually makes money — sports titles, Apex, Battlefield.
BioWare was always the casualty that fans feared. After Anthem bombed, after Dragon Age: The Veilguard missed targets, and after years of being chipped away at, there just wasn’t enough runway left. EA tried to keep the studio alive with a small team working on early Mass Effect development, but in the end the numbers didn’t add up.
It’s a brutal end to a legendary chapter in gaming history. The studio that once gave us some of the most beloved RPGs ever made is gone, and the games that could have come from it — they’re gone too. What EA is building towards might be commercially smart, but for a huge section of the gaming community, today is just a genuinely sad day.
