EA shut down BioWare on October 21, laid off roughly 400 people, and cancelled the Mass Effect game in early development. Five days later, a fan petition passed 200,000 signatures. The letter to staff, signed by EA COO David Tinson and chief studios officer Cam Weber, reads like any corporate reset: "over the past several months, we've taken a hard look at our business." The numbers underneath are not vague. About 400 roles are gone — roughly 3 percent of the workforce — and about 50 of those sit at BioWare, per a person familiar with the plans cited by Gematsu. What follows sorts what EA closed, how players responded, who else is cutting, and whether a petition can save an IP.
一、What the staff letter actually closed
BioWare is not being "restructured" or "folded into another team." It is closed, and the Edmonton workspace goes with it. That is a strange sentence to write about the studio behind Mass Effect, Dragon Age and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.
The project losses are just as blunt. The next Mass Effect was in early development at BioWare and is now cancelled. Announced back in 2020, it was the entire basis of the studio's comeback story.
二、It was not only Mass Effect
The same round of decisions cancelled a Sims project codenamed Project Lotus. A separate project, Project Evergreen, continues. The free-to-play skate. survives, but with a smaller team.
The list of what EA says it will keep investing in is more revealing than the list of what it cut: EA SPORTS and the FC franchise, Apex Legends, the next Star Wars Jedi game, and a new Marvel's Iron Man title. Every one of those is either an already-validated revenue line or a licensed blockbuster IP.
Why Project Evergreen survived
EA has never described what Project Evergreen is. But against the cut list, the filter looks less like reputation and more like a two-year test: can this become predictable cash flow? Ugly criterion. Also the whole logic of this round.
三、 200,000 signatures and a billboard in Times Square
The fan response moved faster than the press release cycle.
On October 23, IGN reported the Change.org petition at 75,000 signatures, with commenters already calling for an EA boycott. By October 26, VGC, Insider Gaming and Push Square all had it past 200,000; Rock Paper Shotgun, writing that day, saw roughly 220,000.
The campaign went offline too. PC Gamer reported on October 26 that a fan group paid for a Times Square billboard promoting the petition, and GamesRadar confirmed both actors who voiced Commander Shepard have publicly backed it.
The petition never mentions BioWare
Rock Paper Shotgun read the Change.org text line by line: the word "BioWare" does not appear in it. The closest it gets is a reference to "recent revelations" that have "cast a shadow" over the series' future.
The asks are narrower than "reopen the studio." Either EA commits proper funding, staffing and time to continue Mass Effect — or it licenses the IP to another studio that will "allow it to flourish anew."
Owlcat, the studio behind The Expanse: Osiris Reborn, shared the petition on social media. That share matters more than the signature count: it means a credible third party is actually volunteering.
四、Three studios cut staff in ten days
Zoom out and BioWare stops looking like a single accident.
On October 26, Sucker Punch Productions — the Sony studio behind Ghost of Tsushima and Ghost of Yotei — laid off 26 of fewer than 200 staff, per an Aftermath report relayed by Gematsu. Same day, Warhammer developer Auroch Digital cut about 25 percent. Arkane Studios, on Microsoft's divest list since July, was given until November 13 to find a buyer; Microsoft has since extended that by a month, per Le Monde and PC Gamer.
Three studios, three situations, one shared feature: the cuts landed between projects, not after a project failed. That is what makes this 2026 wave different from the last one.
五、The counter-argument: a petition cannot fix a balance sheet
Worth saying plainly: 200,000 signatures carry far less weight in a board decision than on social media.
Rock Paper Shotgun quoted a former Mass Effect developer's assessment: EA "never actually sells anything" — it shuts things down and sits on the licenses. If that holds, the licensing ask is the hardest one in the petition to fulfil.
There is a capital-side variable too. The same report notes EA's new owners are betting on generative AI cost-cutting to repay a loan of roughly $20 billion — a claim from reporting, not from EA. Inside that framework, BioWare was not collateral damage. It was underwritten.
六、My read: EA is no longer selling games, it is selling certainty
I do not think EA hates BioWare. It has simply stopped believing in "four years and an uncertain return."
What stings is the timing. The sequel was announced six years ago, and what fans waited for was never a build — it was the sentence "we are still making it." That sentence is gone, replaced by two words: strategic focus.
The public value of this mess is that it exposes how the industry prices things. IP is an asset. A studio is a cost. Players are traffic. No petition, however moving, gets a row on that spreadsheet.
For ongoing coverage of publisher moves and release calendars, GameHub's news desk tracks this daily; we will keep following who buys Arkane and where BioWare's staff land.
Is a new Mass Effect still possible after BioWare's closure?
A: Possible, but not inside EA's internal studios. The early-stage project was cancelled, leaving licensing as the only route; studios such as Owlcat have backed the petition, but as of October 26 there was no signed deal.
How many people did EA lay off?
A: About 400, roughly 3 percent of its workforce, with approximately 50 at BioWare, per a person familiar with the plans cited by Gematsu on October 21, 2026. Edmonton closed too.
Do fan petitions actually change anything?
A: Rarely for a cancelled project, sometimes for IP ownership. Signatures went from 75,000 to over 200,000 in five days and paid for a Times Square billboard, which proves real demand; but EA has historically sat on licenses rather than sell them, so indefinite shelving is the likelier outcome.
How is this different from the last round of layoffs?
A: The previous wave mostly followed project failures. This one landed between projects: on October 26 alone, Sucker Punch cut 26 people and Auroch Digital cut about 25 percent, both while staffing up for what comes next.