BioWare, Edmonton studio behind Mass Effect, shuts down

BioWare, the Edmonton video game studio behind Mass Effect, Dragon Age and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, is shutting down after 31 years, the studio announced Wednesday.

“After more than three decades of shared adventures, BioWare is closing and early development on the next Mass Effect project is ending,” the studio said in an online announcement, according to CTV News. The fifth Mass Effect game, which was in early development, has been cancelled, The Canadian Press reported.

The closure is part of wider cuts at parent company Electronic Arts. Bloomberg reported that EA is laying off about 400 people, including about 50 at BioWare, according to The Canadian Press. EA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the layoffs, the news agency said.

“What generations of BioWare built together is something to celebrate and remember,” the studio said on 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 was founded in Edmonton in 1995 and was bought by EA in 2007. It was Alberta’s only AAA video game studio, CTV News reported, and at its peak employed hundreds of people. The company also once ran offices in Montreal, Austin, Texas, and the San Francisco area.

EA itself changed hands in August, when the California-based publisher of Battlefield and The Sims closed the US$55-billion sale of its business to a group that includes Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake Partners and Affinity Partners, the firm run by Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, The Canadian Press reported.

The news landed hard in Edmonton. Edmonton Mayor Andrew Knack told CTV News the decision was made by the parent company, not the city. “This has nothing to do with Edmonton; this has to do with their corporate company making that decision,” Knack said. “The video game industry is what it is today because of BioWare, and you can never replace them.”

Travis Gibson, a vice-chair of the industry group Digital Alberta, called the closure “a tremendous loss” and “a gut punch.” He said Digital Alberta is ready to help affected workers find new jobs in the industry or start their own studios.

BioWare co-founder Trent Oster, now chief executive of Edmonton studio Beamdog, told CTV News he believes about 40 employees were left at BioWare at the end, mostly working on the cancelled Mass Effect project. “Having (BioWare) shut down, it’s a seismic blow to the local industry,” Oster said, adding that many of the developers will probably have to leave Edmonton to find work. He left the company in 2009 and said EA “wasn’t a good fit” for a studio built on long, uncertain development cycles.

BioWare built its name on story-driven role-playing games, from Baldur’s Gate and Dragon Age to Mass Effect. Its 2019 multiplayer shooter Anthem failed to find a lasting audience, and the most recent entries in its two flagship series, Mass Effect: Andromeda in 2017 and Dragon Age: The Veilguard in 2024, drew mixed reviews, The Canadian Press reported.

Edmonton still has a number of independent studios, several founded or staffed by former BioWare developers, including Beamdog, Studio Reset and Arcanaut Studios, CTV News reported.

Workers who lose their jobs in the closure can check what they may be entitled to in our guide to EI benefits in 2026.

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Sources: The Canadian Press, CTV News Edmonton.