EA Reportedly Shut Down BioWare Due to Debt and Choosing Battlefront Over Mass Effect - News
by William D'Angelo , posted 4 hours ago / 515 Views
Electronic Arts recently announced it would be shutting down Dragon Age and Mass Effect developer BioWare.
Bloomberg having spoken with people familiar with the reason why says this was due to the amount of debt the publisher is dealing with following its $55 billion leveraged buyout that was led by Saudi Arabia's investment fund. EA is dealing with $18 billion in debt.
EA reviewed its portfolio and had two science-fiction projects that would cost several hundred million dollars - the next Mass Effect game and Star Wars Battlefront III. The company chose to invest in Star Wars.
Development on Star Wars Battlefront III has not started yet, but EA executives saw it as less of a risk and more predictable than a new Mass Effect.
Bloomberg added other factors include BioWare's last few games having not been received well, including 2017's Mass Effect: Andromeda, 2019's Anthem, and 2024's Dragon Age: The Veilguard, which missed sales expectations by 50 percent.
BioWare had already been hit with layoffs and only had 50 people left working at the studio when it was shut down.
An EA spokesperson on the closure of BioWare said the company "collectively reached this decision following months of planning, review, and analysis, including careful consideration of evolving business conditions, industry dynamics, and our long-term priorities."
"While this is never easy, we ultimately have to make tough decisions to focus our teams on the biggest opportunities for our future, including investing in new projects across our portfolio."
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can follow the author on Bluesky.
