BioWare is closing, and the next Mass Effect has been cancelled

If you were waiting for the next Mass Effect, that project is ending. EA announced on 21 October that it will close BioWare and its Edmonton workspace, alongside the decision to stop early development on the game. BioWare confirmed both points in its own farewell message.

There is no new release date to wait for. This is the end of the project the studio was developing.

What EA has confirmed

In its announcement to employees, EA describes a small BioWare team working on Mass Effect in early development. The publisher has decided against continuing that work and says it is closing the studio.

EA places the decision within a wider change in its portfolio, with fewer large action-adventure projects running at the same time. It says it will support affected employees in exploring other opportunities within the company. Neither statement establishes an exact number of affected jobs, so we are not attaching one to the closure.

BioWare's farewell

The studio's own post looks back on more than three decades of making games, from Baldur's Gate and Knights of the Old Republic to Dragon Age and Mass Effect. It puts the immediate focus on the team and supporting one another through the transition.

The studio is leaving behind series built around companions and player choices. Its farewell is addressed to the people who played, debated and made those worlds their own.

What this means for Mass Effect

The concrete consequence is that the next Mass Effect project is no longer moving forward. The announcements do not set out a replacement project or a new developer for it.

They also do not settle every future use of the Mass Effect or Dragon Age names. A studio closure and the cancellation of this project are confirmed; a permanent end to either franchise is a separate claim that these statements do not establish.

For now, the next Mass Effect project has ended in early development, and BioWare is closing.