Electronic Arts is laying off approximately 400 employees—roughly 3% of its global workforce—while shutting down legendary role-playing game studio BioWare and canceling early development on the next Mass Effect game, according to Variety. The sweeping studio restructuring, detailed in an internal memo on Wednesday, October 21, 2026, includes the permanent closure of BioWare’s Canadian workspace in Edmonton. The cuts mark the publisher's first major operational overhaul since finalizing a $55 billion private-equity buyout in August.

In a Wednesday memo to staff, EA President and Chief Studios Officer Cam Weber and President and Chief Operating Officer David Tinson stated that leadership had spent the past several months evaluating its operations to determine how to lead in the next era of interactive entertainment. Based on EA's last reported headcount of 14,500 employees, the 3% reduction impacts around 400 staffers across the company, including roughly 50 remaining employees at BioWare, according to Video Games Chronicle (VGC), citing Bloomberg.

The End of an Era for BioWare

Founded in 1995 by medical doctors Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk and acquired by EA in 2007, BioWare spent three decades defining the western role-playing game genre. The studio produced critically acclaimed franchises and industry landmarks including Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Dragon Age, and Mass Effect.

"BioWare is a legendary studio that helped define the role-playing genre, and we do not take this decision lightly," Weber and Tinson wrote in the internal announcement, as reported by The Verge. BioWare also confirmed its closure in a public statement posted to social media on Wednesday.

"Now, after more than three decades of shared adventures, BioWare is closing and early development on the next Mass Effect project is ending," the studio wrote. "There is nothing easy about writing those words. Our focus right now is on our incredibly talented team who put their hearts into these games, and supporting one another through this transition."

Despite its storied legacy, the Edmonton developer faced significant commercial and creative hurdles over the past decade. According to The Verge, 2017’s Mass Effect: Andromeda was widely viewed as a misstep for the sci-fi franchise, and the studio's 2019 pivot to live-service multiplayer with the online shooter Anthem failed to gain traction before being shut down. While 2024’s Dragon Age: The Veilguard earned mostly positive critical reviews, EA stated the title failed to meet internal sales expectations, prompting a round of downsizing at BioWare in 2025 that left only a small team working on pre-production for the next Mass Effect, which had originally been announced in 2020.

Private Equity Debt and Cost-Cutting Pressures

The studio closure and workforce reductions arrive just over two months after Electronic Arts transitioned from a publicly traded company to private ownership. On August 4, EA closed an all-cash, $55 billion leveraged buyout backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), Silver Lake, and Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners.

According to Kotaku and VGC, the buyout saddled the publisher with approximately $18 billion in debt, requiring around $1.8 billion per year in interest payments alone. Earlier this year, EA leadership told debt investors that the company would generate $700 million in annual cost savings following the completion of the deal, including $170 million targeted through organizational efficiencies.

Conflicting Reports on 'Star Wars: Battlefront 3'

As EA scales back on single-player RPGs, the company is consolidating its core shooter and action teams. In their Wednesday memo, Weber and Tinson praised the performance of first-person shooter Battlefield 6, calling the launch and live service "a great success." The executives also announced that EA is bringing together its Respawn Entertainment and DICE studios to collaborate on an unannounced future project.

Industry outlets offer differing accounts regarding the identity and status of that collaboration, specifically surrounding a potential Star Wars: Battlefront 3:

  • According to Variety, multiple unnamed sources confirmed that the joint venture between Respawn and DICE is Star Wars: Battlefront 3 for Lucasfilm.
  • Similarly, VICE reported a claim by Bulkhead CEO Joe Brammer that DICE and Respawn were working on Battlefront 3, though VICE cautioned that the claim did not represent official confirmation.
  • Conversely, VGC reported on Tuesday that a trade-magazine rumor column included in an Electronic Gaming Monthly retrospective book claimed Lucasfilm was actively seeking a development partner for a third Battlefront installment. According to that report, no studio had been confirmed, though both EA's DICE and Destiny developer Bungie were reportedly interested in pitching Disney for the project.

The Star Wars: Battlefront series has remained dormant since DICE's Star Wars: Battlefront 2 launched in 2017 to widespread mainstream backlash over aggressive microtransactions—where it was estimated to take around 40 hours of gameplay to earn enough free credits to unlock a single iconic hero like Darth Vader. EA eventually stripped the microtransactions from the game entirely, and the title later experienced a community-driven resurgence in popularity in 2025 across Reddit and TikTok.

What It Means for EA's Upcoming Slate and Players

Beyond the closure of BioWare, the internal restructuring reshapes several major franchises across EA's portfolio. According to the executive memo published by Variety, the publisher is shifting resources toward established live-service games, sports titles, and licensed action-adventure releases:

  • The Sims and Skate: Within its lifestyle category, EA is pausing or canceling development on an unannounced The Sims title codenamed "Project Lotus" (which IGN Portugal and Kotaku described as canceled, while executives termed it paused) in order to prioritize resources on "Project Evergreen." Meanwhile, the team behind skateboarding title Skate. is being reduced to a smaller, more focused group.
  • Action and Shooters: EA plans to invest heavily in Apex Legends over the next several years with new multiplayer gameplay modes, while remaining committed to launching two major licensed action-adventure titles: Marvel’s Iron Man and the next Star Wars Jedi game.
  • EA Sports: The sports division will reveal two new projects in the coming months, including a social-first open-world American football experience codenamed "Project Gridiron." EA Sports is also in pre-production on a revival of the boxing franchise Fight Night following a 15-year hiatus.

What happens to the Mass Effect franchise and TV series?

Early development on the next Mass Effect video game has officially ended alongside the closure of BioWare's Edmonton facility, and EA has not indicated whether another internal studio could revive the property in the future. Meanwhile, the fate of Amazon’s live-action Mass Effect television series remains unclear; The Verge noted that while Amazon's television leadership was previously close to greenlighting the show following requested script rewrites to make it more accessible to non-gamers, neither Amazon nor EA immediately commented on how the studio shutdown affects the adaptation.

How many employees were affected by the BioWare closure?

While EA's broader restructuring eliminates roughly 400 positions (about 3% of its 14,500-person workforce), reporting from VGC and IGN Portugal indicates that approximately 50 staff members remained at BioWare at the time of its closure, following previous layoffs after the launch of Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

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