I recall very few moments from 15 years ago. Among them was when I got my hands on Mass Effect 2, the game slowly taking over the world since its release in 2010. It was a renaissance fueled by BioWare, and I remember the grind I went through to master the original Mass Effect to prepare for its even bigger hit sequel.
Somewhere after Horizon while playing Mass Effect 2, with Commander Shepard (infiltrator-calss, obviously) assembling a crew to confront the Collectors, I was greeted with a dilemma: do I even know the people I was asking to follow me? I did not expect such depth from an intergalactic shooter game. Games in the 2010s were a different breed. Shoddy graphics when you compare them with the Cyberpunks and the Uncharteds of today, but they made you really work for it.
This is also what makes the news of BioWare’s closure difficult to process. EA is shutting the studio and cancelling its next Mass Effect game, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday. About 400 jobs will be cut across EA, including roughly 50 at BioWare, Bloomberg reported, citing a person familiar with the plans.
EA subsequently published its staff message. “We’ve made the decision not to move forward with this development, which means we’re closing the studio and our Edmonton workspace.”
EA’s $55 billion leveraged buyout, completed in August, revealed around $18 billion of debt on its books. The company, which invited the ire of many a gamer over the years for its “microtransaction”-led strategy, had a few things going for it, one being housing BioWare, the maker of Mass Effect. When EA recently outlined plans to save up to $700 million, gamers did not expect the guillotine to fall on the neck of BioWare.
“I can’t believe they are shutting BioWare. Why couldn’t they support it and instead axe the rest of EA Sports not working on FC series? Or even DICE? Why do good single-player games have to suffer for eSports to get ahead?” said a distraught 32-year-old gamer from Pune, Rangan R.
Despite what gamers remember, thanks to selective nostalgia, BioWare has not really impressed in recent years.
Mass Effect 2 won BAFTA’s Best Game award in 2011 and holds a Metacritic critics’ score of 96. Anthem, by contrast, scored 59 on PC. But its true test came from a game that did so well recently—Dragon Age: The Veilguard earned 82 on PlayStation 5—but missed the massive sales expectations that EA set.
However, gamers are of the opinion that these do not warrant BioWare being shut down. Their distrust of EA predates Dragon Age and Anthem.
Back in 2017, backlash over potential paid advantages in Star Wars Battlefront II prompted EA to suspend in-game purchases before launch. The publisher acknowledged that it had misjudged the design. “Funny how EA always misjudges microtransactions and in-game purchases in large story-driven titles,” chimed in 27-year-old gamer from Kochi, Laya M.
EA still backs sports games, Apex Legends and selected action-adventure projects. But for those of us who found BioWare through Shepard’s crew, the loss is a much more profound one. It is truly the end of an era in gaming.
