BioWare is Gone

…and it's not coming back.

EA announced they would be closing the BioWare Studio for good on October 21, 2026. For some, this news didn't come as a shock. After the last three games published from the once beloved studio fell well short of their goals both financially and critically, many fans worried about the future of their favorite IPs.

Before their decline, BioWare was a studio that produced some of my favorite games of all time with the Mass Effect series and Dragon Age: Origins. However, many of the people who made those memorable games have long since moved on to other game development projects. BioWare hadn't been the same studio ever since the failure of Anthem, a live service game that I struggle to believe anyone asked for. Further games developed by the company experienced mismanagement of funds and time, ultimately leading to incomplete games in both the Mass Effect and Dragon Age franchises which were panned by critics and fans. Star Wars: The Old Republic, a MMORPG developed by BioWare, was shifted to Broadsword Online Games in 2023, and has now outlived its original development studio. The acquisition of EA by foreign investors underscored fears that BioWare would shutter its doors, and the self-fulfilling prophecy unfortunately came true. 

When the trailer for Mass Effect 5 was leaked and later confirmed to be real, I went back and forth on whether or not I should watch it. Part of me didn’t want to long for something I’d never be able to experience while the other half was interested in seeing what the studio had been working on. When I watched the trailer, I was surprised to find a different take on the universe with spy thriller themes. A trailer doesn't mean anything concrete about a game, however, as there have been plenty of bad games which had good trailers. Still, the trailer felt in universe and exciting with new and familiar faces.

It wasn't until I listened to the recordings of Austin Wintory, a composer who was in talks with developing Mass Effect 5’s score, that the loss of BioWare finally hit me. And it hit me hard. With his first track “Legacy of Shepard”, I could hear all the passion of someone who loved the Mass Effect series and wanted to pay tribute to everything that came before while still taking the franchise in a new direction musically. Listening to these tracks makes me think of everything that could have been with a new chapter in this universe. I mourn for that game. I mourn for what could have happened if a struggling studio could have gotten back on their feet and made a game no one was expecting but fans could enjoy.

Recently, I played Gears of War: E-Day which has easily become my favorite Gears of War game. It showed me that the best is still yet to come with a franchise no matter how much space, time, or changes behind the scenes happen with a studio between releases. You don’t necessarily need to rely solely on the original developers/creators of a franchise in order to create a satisfying new entry.

Nostalgia is a funny thing. I now feel equally silly for missing something that might have never existed in the first place. There is no proof that an intriguing trailer could have followed through with any of its potential. There is nothing concrete about musical tracks which were made out of context. We have no idea what the actual narrative of Mass Effect 5 could have been and how all these disparate pieces could have come together. It’s what might have been that hurts the most. 

While we may never see Mass Effect 5, there’s a possibility of playing spiritual successors to the Mass Effect franchise coming in the form of games like Exodus, a sci-fi RPG which has former BioWare developers on its team.

The developers at BioWare created some of my most cherished games, and those moments spent immersed in those worlds are memories I’ll never forget. Despite the loss of BioWare, we still have the original games they produced and can always go back to those worlds whenever we want.

While BioWare’s closing isn’t the outcoming fans would have wanted, perhaps it’s important to focus on the journey we all shared with these games rather than linger on what could have been.