Electronic Arts to cut 400 jobs and shut down Mass Effect studio BioWare

Electronic Arts will close BioWare, the studio behind Mass Effect and Dragon Age, and cut about 400 jobs, roughly 3% of staff, Bloomberg reported. The next Mass Effect game and a planned Sims project are cancelled. EA went private in a $55B buyout in August.

Electronic Arts will shut down BioWare, the studio behind the Mass Effect and Dragon Age games, and cut about 400 jobs, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday. The next Mass Effect game, which was in early development, has been cancelled.

The cuts amount to about 3% of EA’s staff, including around 50 people at BioWare, a person familiar with the plans told Bloomberg. “There is nothing easy about writing those words,” BioWare said in a statement posted online, GamesRadar reported.

The layoffs come two months after EA went private in a $55B buyout led by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. The deal put around $18B in debt on EA’s books, Bloomberg said. EA had told investors it planned to save up to $700M, partly by cutting research and development costs.

“Over the past several months, we’ve taken a hard look at our business,” chief operating officer David Tinson and chief studios officer Cam Weber wrote to staff, according to Bloomberg.

EA will keep investing in its sports games, the shooter Apex Legends, the next Star Wars Jedi game and a new Iron Man game. Its Respawn and DICE studios will work together on a new project, likely another Star Wars: Battlefront game, Bloomberg said.

EA also cancelled a Sims game code-named Project Lotus and will shrink the team behind its skateboarding game, skate.

BioWare, founded in 1995 and bought by EA in 2007, made hits such as Mass Effect 2. But recent games, including Anthem and Dragon Age: The Veilguard, disappointed. EA cut the studio’s staff sharply last year after Veilguard missed sales targets.

PIF already owns Savvy Games, and has reportedly weighed merging it with EA. Other big publishers are cutting back too: in June, three Xbox studios were negotiating to spin off rather than close.