Electronic Arts confirmed on Wednesday that it is shutting down BioWare, the studio behind Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Baldur's Gate and Anthem.

The closure comes as part of a wider restructuring that will cut about 400 jobs, roughly 3% of EA's workforce of about 14,500. Roughly 50 people remained at BioWare at the end, and EA is closing the studio's Edmonton office.

The studio, founded in 1995 and acquired by EA in 2007, had been working on a new Mass Effect title in early development; EA has decided not to move forward with it.

In a farewell social media post, the BioWare team wrote that the studio was 'more than a studio' and thanked players for making its worlds their own.

BioWare helped define the role-playing genre, pioneering choice-driven storytelling with Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, and Knights of the Old Republic, then reaching its commercial peak in the late 2000s and early 2010s with Mass Effect and Dragon Age.

The news is striking because Dragon Age: The Veilguard, the studio's last release, received generally positive reviews from critics — yet Variety and Bloomberg reported last year that EA laid off BioWare staff after it missed sales expectations.

Mashable notes that fans widely regard the studio as inevitable closure territory after years of cutbacks, but a full shutdown, ending the next Mass Effect before it ever had a chance, still reads as the end of an era for RPG fans.

In a memo from chief studios officer Cam Weber and COO David Tinson, EA laid out three priorities: deepen its core, expand its reach, and transform its business. The executives wrote that 'saying no to some things we're passionate about allows us to focus our teams and resources.'

Alongside the closure, EA said Battlefield 6 was 'a great success,' that it will keep investing heavily in Apex Legends, and that upcoming action-adventure launches include Marvel's Iron Man and the next Star Wars Jedi game.

Variety reports that Respawn and DICE will collaborate on a future project that sources say is Star Wars: Battlefront 3 for Lucasfilm. The Sims and Skate. stay as long-term lifestyle bets, with Skate. getting a smaller, more focused team.

The cuts are EA's first major move since going private in August via a $55 billion all-cash buyout led by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund alongside Silver Lake and Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners.

The Los Angeles Times, citing Bloomberg reporting, notes the deal placed around $18 billion in debt on EA's books and that the company told investors earlier this year it planned to save up to $700 million in part by cutting research and development costs.

Against that backdrop, executives said competition is intensifying and growth opportunities lie beyond EA's traditional markets, platforms and business models — framing the studio shutdown as a deliberate portfolio choice rather than a reaction to a single game.

The restructuring reaches deep into EA's other franchises. According to Variety, EA is pausing development on Project Lotus, a Sims project, to prioritize Project Evergreen instead, giving that team more time to realize its vision.

The same memo, as reported by Variety, says EA Sports has two new projects in development — including 'Project Gridiron,' a social-first open-world American football experience — and has entered pre-production to revive the fan-favorite boxing game Fight Night after a 15-year hiatus.

The New York Post adds that eBay announced a separate round of about 1,000 layoffs the same day, underlining a broader wave of tech-sector job cuts this week.

For BioWare's roughly 50 remaining employees, EA says it will support impacted staff in exploring opportunities elsewhere within the company and has committed to treating affected colleagues with care and respect.

Fans are left with a canceled Mass Effect sequel and no clear successor to the studio's choice-driven RPG tradition.

EA plans to discuss the new direction at its next Global Town Hall in November, and executives closed the memo by saying the past several months strengthened their belief in what EA can become.

The franchises endure — Mass Effect and Dragon Age remain available — but the storytellers who made them are gone, and the next chapter in those universes is no longer in development.