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Video game publisher Electronic Arts is shutting down the popular Edmonton-based game development studio BioWare after more than three decades.
BioWare announced the closure on social media Wednesday following a report by Bloomberg that also said the company is laying off 400 people, including about 50 at BioWare.
It also confirmed the upcoming Mass Effect game, the fifth in a series since 2007, has been cancelled.
BioWare was founded in 1995 and acquired by Electronic Arts (EA) in 2007.
“It’s a pretty sad day,” BioWare co-founder Trent Oster told CBC Radio. “I mean, 30 plus years ago we built something I think was pretty awesome. And it’s pretty sad to see the end of the dream.”
The Redwood Shores, California-based maker of popular titles like Battlefield and The Sims closed the $55 billion US sale of its business to Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund PIF, investment firm Silver Lake Partners and Affinity Partners, which is run by U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Representatives for EA did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment on the layoffs.
“What generations of BioWare built together is something to celebrate and remember,” the studio said via social media. “These games became so much more because you played them, debated your choices, fell in love with characters, and made these worlds your own.”
BioWare built its reputation on immersive role-playing adventures, from sword-and-sorcery fantasies like Baldur’s Gate and Dragon Age to science fiction epics like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect.
Oster, who is now the CEO of gaming company Beamdog, said back in its early days, BioWare was a magical place to be.
“We went from a bunch of clueless kids trying to make a game just for the hell of it to literally being the best in the world at what we did,” he said. “During the time I was there, it went from six people to 420, and it was just a massive growth. Honestly, it was an amazing experience.”
But the company’s later effort to branch out into multiplayer shooters, 2019’s Anthem, steered away from the studio’s strength as a creator of compelling single-player narratives. It failed to find the sort of loyal audience that keeps online hits like Fortnite and Overwatch popular.
Meanwhile the latest installments of BioWare’s two most popular original franchises — 2017’s Mass Effect: Andromeda and 2024’s Dragon Age: The Veilguard — met with mixed reviews and disappointed many fans.
A new chapter of Mass Effect was in development before BioWare announced its shutdown.
