Electronic Arts is cutting about 400 jobs, closing the historical BioWare studio, and cancelling the next installment in the Mass Effect franchise, reported on October 21, 2026. The restructuring impacts roughly three percent of the company’s global workforce. The cuts follow a 55 billion dollar acquisition of the publisher by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, alongside Affinity Partners.
Studio Closure Affects Mass Effect and Edmonton Operations
The closure of BioWare directly affects roughly 50 remaining professionals at the Edmonton-based studio, according to a source. The studio’s early-stage development of the next Mass Effect project has stopped completely. David Tinson, Chief Operations Officer, and Cam Weber, President of EA Entertainment and Technology, addressed the cuts in a joint memo, stating the changes align company resources with long-term growth opportunities.
Source material also reported that the studio’s recent struggles included the commercial performance of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, which reached 1.5 million copies sold globally. That followed previous missteps with Mass Effect: Andromeda in 2017 and Anthem in 2019.
Broader Cuts Span Skate and The Sims Projects
Alongside the BioWare shutdown, EA is reducing the team size for its upcoming skate. title, Eurogamer reported. The publisher also halted development on an unannounced The Sims project, shifting focus entirely to Project Evergreen, according to source material. The company decided to stop development on Project Lotus to focus all efforts on Project Evergreen.
Other major titles continue forward without disruption. Eurogamer noted that the upcoming Iron Man game from Motive and the third Star Wars Jedi title remain in active development. Respawn Entertainment and DICE are collaborating on a new project, while EA Sports prepares new entries for Fight Night and Project Gridiron. The publisher also reinforced its work on Apex Legends and the Battlefield series.
Debt from Saudi Acquisition Pressures Project Funding
The corporate downsizing traces back to the massive debt burden assumed during EA’s acquisition by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, Silver Lake, and Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners, source material reported. The transaction loaded between 18 and 20 billion dollars of debt onto EA’s balance sheet, increasing pressure to fund only high-return projects. The transaction was orchestrated by the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia in a consortium with venture capital manager Silver Lake and Jared Kushner’s investment fund.
Mark Darrah, a former executive producer at BioWare who worked at the studio from 1997 to 2021, addressed the fate of the studio’s dormant intellectual properties in a YouTube video. Darrah noted that because EA owns 100 percent of the properties like Mass Effect and Dragon Age, the publisher might eventually choose to sell the dormant franchises to generate revenue or leave them shelved under current cost-cutting measures.
Despite the cancellation of the video game project, Amazon MGM Studios’ television adaptation of Mass Effect remains in active development at Prime Video. Creators attached to the television project, including showrunner Doug Jung and writer Daniel Casey, remain onboard for the series, which previously targeted the fourth quarter of 2026 for the start of production. Internal sources from Prime Video confirmed that the television series remains in development at Amazon MGM Studios, and all creatives involved in the television project remain aboard so far. The production team also included Jessica Jones executive producer Karim Zreik, BioWare’s Mass Effect head Mike Gamble, and former Marvel Studios head Ari Arad. The Mass Effect TV series previously had a production start date projected for the fourth quarter of 2026, but remains without a release date at this time.
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