BioWare Closure Reportedly Came Down to One Choice: EA Could Afford Battlefront 3 or Mass Effect 5, Not Both

The BioWare closure, according to a new Bloomberg report, was less a verdict on one studio than the result of a budget squeeze. People familiar with EA’s strategy say executives concluded the company could back only one expensive sci-fi blockbuster, and they picked a new Star Wars: Battlefront game over Mass Effect 5.

A $18 billion debt and two expensive bets

The report ties the decision to EA’s finances. The publisher is carrying roughly $18 billion in debt after the $55 billion leveraged buyout led by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. Against that backdrop, the “recent emergence” of a chance to make a third Battlefront game meant EA suddenly had two sci-fi projects on the table. Each was expected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

Battlefront 3 won out because leadership saw it as “a less risky, more predictable bet than a new Mass Effect,” Bloomberg reported. That is notable because, by the report’s account, development on the Star Wars game had not even started. Mass Effect, by contrast, had been in the works for years. IGN says Respawn and DICE are working on Battlefront 3, though little else is known about it.

What EA has said about the BioWare closure

EA has not publicly confirmed the Battlefront trade-off. A spokesperson said the company “collectively reached this decision following months of planning, review, and analysis,” citing “evolving business conditions, industry dynamics, and our long-term priorities.” The statement added that “we ultimately have to make tough decisions to focus our teams on the biggest opportunities for our future.”

That language is broad, and it fits the picture Bloomberg paints of a company reallocating money toward projects it considers safer. Other reported factors point the same way. BioWare’s recent games have a weak commercial record, with Mass Effect: Andromeda, Anthem and Dragon Age: The Veilguard all described as commercial failures. Management ranks were also reportedly reshuffled to include more people from EA Sports, at the expense of voices who championed BioWare. EA bosses are said to have lamented Veilguard’s sales and suggested it might have fared better as a live service game.

What Mass Effect 5 was shaping up to be

The cancelled game, known internally as Mass Effect Universe, was still at an early stage. Bloomberg says around 50 people were working on it after EA had already gutted the studio following Veilguard’s underperformance. An internal trailer made for EA leadership last year has since leaked, and IGN verified it as genuine. It reportedly showed a pre-rendered look at familiar series staples: weapons, powers, alien species, a Mass Effect relay, space travel, a nightclub and a galaxy map aboard the player’s ship.

Details that accompanied the leak describe a game set 600 years after the Reaper war, amid a galactic cold war. The player would be “a cross between John Wick and James Bond,” with “Hitman-style freedom” in how levels are approached. Romance would reportedly not be “sanitised,” and the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies would be connected. How much of that was playable is unclear, though it was clearly far more developed than Battlefront 3.

Layoffs, a petition and a franchise in limbo

The wider fallout is significant. The latest round of cuts reportedly removes about 400 jobs across EA, around 3% of its workforce. BioWare’s Austin studio is said to remain open, supporting other EA games in development. Fans have responded with a petition to save Mass Effect that is nearing 300,000 signatures. There is no evidence EA plans to part with the franchise, even though it now sits dormant. Amazon’s Mass Effect series for Prime Video is reportedly still in development.

BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk, who left in 2012 with fellow co-founder Ray Muzyka, called the buyout “the final nail in the coffin.” He argued that BioWare’s “unusual games that take a long time and they’re complicated” are a harder fit for a company where “it’s easier just to pump out sports games every year.” Taken together with Bloomberg’s account, the BioWare closure looks like a story about risk appetite under heavy debt. EA has chosen a licensed shooter with a mixed but recovering track record over a new entry in one of gaming’s best-loved RPG series.

Battlefront 2 launched in 2017 and initially struggled, partly because of its loot boxes, before years of updates left it in a much better place. EA appears to be betting that history can repeat more reliably than a new Mass Effect could.

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