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# Is BioWare Closing? Yes, and Mass Effect 5 Is Cancelled
- URL: https://averagetechnerds.com/bioware-closing-mass-effect-5-cancelled/
- Published: 2026-10-21T21:05:34.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-21T21:06:48.000Z
- Description: EA is closing BioWare and ending work on the next Mass Effect. What both companies confirmed, what is only reported, and what happens to the series.
- Author: Victor
- Tags: News

BioWare closing is real, and so is the end of the next Mass Effect. On October 21, 2026, EA told its staff and then posted on its own newsroom that it will not move forward with the small team’s early work on the next Mass Effect, and that it is closing the studio and its Edmonton workspace. BioWare said the same on its own blog the same day. The studio that made Baldur’s Gate, Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect and Dragon Age, founded in Edmonton on February 1, 1995, is done. Here’s what the two companies actually said, what’s only been reported, and what nobody has said yet.

Bottom line up front

## So what does this mean for the *Average TechNerd*?

BioWare is closing, and the game people call Mass Effect 5 is cancelled. Both companies confirmed it in writing on October 21, 2026\. EA’s memo says it is “closing the studio and our Edmonton workspace”; BioWare’s blog says “BioWare is closing and early development on the next Mass Effect project is ending.” That’s a closure, with no merger or move, and a cancellation, with no pause.

The job numbers are a different kind of fact. About 400 cuts across EA and about 50 at BioWare come from Bloomberg’s unnamed source, and EA’s memo gives no headcount at all. And EA has said nothing about the Mass Effect or Dragon Age rights, the Legendary Edition that’s still on sale, the Amazon TV series, the Austin office or a closing date. So the series itself isn’t declared dead. The studio is.

At a glance

What happened

EA is closing BioWare and ending early development on the next Mass Effect, confirmed by EA’s newsroom and BioWare’s blog on October 21, 2026

Who said it

EA’s staff memo, signed by Cam Weber and David Tinson, and BioWare’s own “BioWare Update” post

Job cuts

about 400 at EA and about 50 at BioWare, reported by Bloomberg from an unnamed source; EA gave no number

What's closing

the studio and EA’s Edmonton workspace; BioWare Austin isn’t mentioned

The game

EA’s words are “a small team” in “early-development”; “Mass Effect 5” is a fan name, and BioWare said the game was “in development” as recently as November 2025

Still unknown

the Mass Effect and Dragon Age rights, Legendary Edition’s future, the Amazon TV show, the Austin office, a closure date

Still on sale

Mass Effect Legendary Edition and Dragon Age: The Veilguard, both $59.99 on Steam on October 21, 2026

## Is BioWare really closing?

Yes. This isn’t a leak or a rumor. EA published the memo it sent to employees on its [newsroom](https://www.ea.com/news/building-eas-next-chapter?ref=averagetechnerds.com): “We’ve made the decision not to move forward with this development, which means we’re closing the studio and our Edmonton workspace.” The same memo calls BioWare “a legendary studio that helped define the role-playing genre” and says EA does “not take this decision lightly”. BioWare posted its own [statement](https://blog.bioware.com/2026/10/21/bioware-update/?ref=averagetechnerds.com) the same day: “BioWare is closing and early development on the next Mass Effect project is ending.” Its own line on it: “There is nothing easy about writing those words.”

The memo names only Edmonton. BioWare’s [About page](https://www.bioware.com/about/?ref=averagetechnerds.com) still lists Edmonton and Austin, and neither company has said what happens to Austin. EA says it will help affected people look for other roles inside EA. No closing date, no severance details.

BioWare was founded in Edmonton on February 1, 1995 by Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk and Augustine Yip. EA announced it was buying the studio on [October 11, 2007](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/712515/000119312507216933/dex991.htm?ref=averagetechnerds.com) and [closed the deal](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/712515/000119312508003129/d8k.htm?ref=averagetechnerds.com) on January 4, 2008\. The first Mass Effect came out a month after that announcement, published by Microsoft. So EA owned BioWare for a little under nineteen years.

## Is Mass Effect 5 cancelled?

Yes, as far as a game that was never officially named can be cancelled. EA’s memo describes “a small team at BioWare working on early-development for Mass Effect” and says it will “not move forward with this development.” BioWare says development “is ending.” Note the word choice: in the same memo EA says it is “pausing” a Sims project called Project Lotus. For Mass Effect it chose “not move forward”. That’s deliberate.

“Mass Effect 5” is what players call it. EA and BioWare only ever said “the next Mass Effect”. BioWare first mentioned a veteran team in the early stages on [N7 Day 2020](https://blog.bioware.com/2020/11/07/happy-n7-day-4/?ref=averagetechnerds.com), teased it at [The Game Awards](https://blog.bioware.com/2020/12/10/bioware-double-feature-at-the-game-awards/?ref=averagetechnerds.com) in December 2020, and kept teasing it on N7 Days through 2023\. In January 2025, after a restructuring, BioWare said a core team was staying on it. On [N7 Day 2025](https://blog.bioware.com/2025/11/07/n7-day-2025/?ref=averagetechnerds.com), Mike Gamble wrote that “the next Mass Effect game is in development” and that the team was “focused exclusively on Mass Effect”. Eleven months later it was over, still in early development, six years after the first teaser.

## Why is EA closing BioWare?

EA’s memo frames it as a choice about where to put its money: Battlefield, Apex Legends, Marvel’s Iron Man, the next Star Wars Jedi game, a joint Respawn and DICE project, a Fight Night revival and something called Project Gridiron. A small team on an early Mass Effect didn’t make the list. That’s EA’s stated reason, and it gave no other.

The context around it is public. Dragon Age: The Veilguard came out on October 31, 2024, and EA told investors in [January 2025](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/712515/000071251525000007/exhibit991pressrelease2025.htm?ref=averagetechnerds.com) that it “engaged approximately 1.5 million players during the quarter, down nearly 50% from the company’s expectations”. Engaged players isn’t unit sales, since EA Play Pro counts, but a miss of that size is a miss. A week later BioWare [restructured](https://blog.bioware.com/2025/01/29/bioware-studio-update/?ref=averagetechnerds.com) around a core Mass Effect team and moved “many” people to other EA studios. Bloomberg reported at the time that the studio had gone from over 200 people two years earlier to fewer than 100\. Then EA itself was bought: a $55 billion all-cash deal by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake and Affinity Partners, announced September 29, 2025 and [closed August 4, 2026](https://www.ea.com/news/ea-announces-completion-of-acquisition?ref=averagetechnerds.com). VGC and Polygon report that the buyout left EA with about $18 billion in debt, roughly $1.8 billion a year in interest, and a plan told to debt investors for $700 million in annual cost cuts. No primary document for those figures is public, so take them as reported. BioWare’s closure came eleven weeks after the deal closed.

## How many people lose their jobs?

Reported rather than announced: about 400 across EA, roughly 3% of its staff, with about 50 of them at BioWare. Those numbers come from Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, citing a person familiar with the plans, and Schreier [added](https://bsky.app/profile/jasonschreier.bsky.social/post/3myfoqt4cy22n?ref=averagetechnerds.com) that around 50 staff had been working on the new Mass Effect. EA’s memo contains no headcount. If EA confirms a figure on the record, that’s the one to use.

For scale, BioWare cut [about 50 roles](https://blog.bioware.com/2023/08/23/an-update-on-the-state-of-bioware/?ref=averagetechnerds.com) in August 2023, when it put Mike Gamble in charge of Mass Effect pre-production, and lost many more in the January 2025 move.

## What happens to Mass Effect, Legendary Edition and the TV show?

That’s still open, because EA hasn’t said. Not a word in the memo about the Mass Effect or Dragon Age rights: no sale, no license, no shelving, no mention. Mass Effect Legendary Edition, the 2021 remaster of the trilogy, and The Veilguard were both still $59.99 on Steam on October 21, 2026, and BioWare’s site still has its buy buttons up. Asked about the Amazon series, an EA spokesperson told [The Verge](https://www.theverge.com/games/1015647/ea-is-shutting-down-bioware?ref=averagetechnerds.com): “Nothing to share on that at this point.” BioWare’s own last update on the show, in November 2025, said the writers room was “going strong”, set after the original trilogy and separate from Shepard’s story, and that Amazon had asked for rewrites, per earlier reports. Whether any of that survives the studio is an open question.

![A scene from Mass Effect Legendary Edition: the Reaper Sovereign attacking the Citadel](https://storage.ghost.io/c/b3/23/b323103c-90c0-46a8-9230-7d317a5ebaf3/content/images/2026/10/mass-effect-le-sovereign.jpg)

Mass Effect Legendary Edition, the 2021 remaster that is still on sale. Image: EA

So the honest state of the series is this: the studio is closed, the next game is cancelled, and the rights sit with EA, which has said nothing about them.

## My take

Mass Effect is one of my favorite series of all time, which is a little unusual for me. I’m an RPG gamer, and Mass Effect plays more like a shooter than the RPGs I usually play, a shooter with action-adventure elements. But what draws me to RPGs is the story. I’m a sucker for a great storyline, and RPGs just naturally build around one. Other games have them too, and those have become core franchises for me. Mass Effect is one of them. I’ve been looking forward to a Mass Effect 5, and maybe a return of Commander Shepard, ever since BioWare teased the next game in 2020\. I literally left a YouTube comment about hoping for a Mass Effect 5 three days ago. So this news is a blow to anyone who was holding out hope, me included. Needless to say, it’s disappointing. There’s still a chance someone picks up the team, or that EA lets someone else make Mass Effect. But that’s a Hail Mary, not something to count on. If you want to hold on to it as hope, though, it’s there.

Which Mass Effect was yours, and were you still waiting on the next one?

Based on EA’s newsroom post of October 21, 2026, BioWare’s blog posts from November 2020 to October 2026, BioWare’s About page, EA’s SEC filings of October 2007, January 2008 and January 2025, EA’s August 2026 acquisition announcement, Steam’s store data for Legendary Edition and The Veilguard, The Verge’s report with EA’s statement on the TV series, Jason Schreier’s Bloomberg report as cited by Gematsu, The Verge, Polygon and the Edmonton Journal, and VGC’s and Polygon’s reporting on EA’s debt and cost plans, as of October 21, 2026\. Reported figures are labelled as such and may change.