BioWare's closure has whipped up a proper storm online, to put it mildly. Ever since the news was made official, theories have been piling up to explain the decision. Some see it as the fallout from an alleged woke drift in its recent output, others accuse Electronic Arts' new owners, among them Saudi sovereign wealth fund PIF, of wanting to get rid of a studio deemed too progressive. But according to Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier, the reality is far more pragmatic and, above all, tied to a financial decision. Electronic Arts simply chose to back a new Star Wars Battlefront over the next Mass Effect.
In his investigation published on 30 October, Jason Schreier explains that Electronic Arts' executives had to choose between two particularly costly sci-fi projects, each of which had already swallowed several hundred million dollars in development. On one side, the new Mass Effect instalment from BioWare; on the other, Star Wars Battlefront 3. After weighing up the prospects of its catalogue for the coming years, management reportedly concluded that the Star Wars game was the less risky and more profitable investment. The call went against Mass Effect, and BioWare's closure followed in short order. The most startling part of the story is that Star Wars Battlefront 3 hadn't even entered development, whereas Mass Effect 5 already has several years of production behind it. EA still preferred to bet on that licence, seen as the safer bet, rather than fund another space RPG. It's not an entirely surprising choice given the publisher's history, having always been more comfortable with action games and shooters than with sprawling RPGs. Players have been calling for the return of Star Wars Battlefront for years, and some even piled back into Battlefront 2 en masse to prove there was still an audience for it.
Another bit of gossip claims that a flag resembling the LGBT community's was pulled from a presentation to avoid ruffling the feathers of the new Saudi-affiliated leadership.
That said, the decision comes after several difficult years for BioWare. Mass Effect Andromeda and Anthem were commercial flops, while Dragon Age The Veilguard failed to hit the sales targets set by Electronic Arts. Headcount had already been slashed before the closure, to the point that only around fifty people remained at the studio when it shut its doors. The change of leadership at Electronic Arts is also said to have tipped the scales, with several executives historically sympathetic to BioWare replaced by bosses drawn from the EA Sports side of the business.
As for Mass Effect 5, another report pointed to a story set 600 years in the future, with a new main character and a significant role for Liara T'Soni, one of the original trilogy's most familiar faces. Development had reportedly even made progress on Unreal Engine after the Frostbite engine was dropped, but the presentations put to the new owners apparently failed to convince them to keep investing. Another bit of gossip claims that a flag resembling the LGBT community's was pulled from a presentation to avoid ruffling the feathers of the new Saudi-affiliated leadership. The journalist behind that claim did, however, reportedly clarify that the decision came from second-guessing how executives might react, rather than any desire to strip the game of its inclusive elements.
In the meantime, Mass Effect fans are trying to make themselves heard with the #SaveMassEffect campaign. A petition has been launched and has passed 200,000 signatures so far, and billboards have even been funded in Times Square urging EA to preserve the franchise. But going by the information published by Jason Schreier, the problem goes well beyond the ideological squabbles that have taken over social media. This was a purely financial call, and at times like these, yelling on social media gets you nowhere. RIP Mass Effect.
