It's a grim week for developers and fans, with EA announcing that it is shutting down Mass Effect and Dragon Age studio BioWare. EA said that after deciding not to pursue development on a new Mass Effect, it would shut down the studio as part of company-wide restructuring plans that will result in roughly 400 employees being let go. But should EA sit on the IP that BioWare was responsible for and let it gather dust? Former BioWare executive producer Mark Darrah has suggested they could go up for sale as it works off some of its $55 billion debt.
"Remember BioWare, 100% owned by EA," Darrah said on his YouTube channel. “EA owns all the IP. They own Dragon Age, they own Mass Effect, they own Jade Empire. That doesn’t change the situation. Now, here’s nobody working on a game, or games, within the EA organization, and chances are there never will be, which might make them more likely to sell off those IP. But it might also make them more likely to just try to forget that they ever existed and bury them in the vault. I think we still are going to have to wait a little bit before we see if EA has any interest in selling off some of its dormant IP. Right now, they seem to be in cost-control mode. They might start into a revenue-generation mode where selling IP might be more desirable."
Earlier this year, former Dragon Age lead writer David Gaider also spoke about the franchise and said he believed it was dead after the poor commercial performance of Dragon Age: The Veilguard. BioWare's last game failed to meet EA's expectations, and mass layoffs at BioWare eventually left only a core team to focus on the next Mass Effect game. While EA doesn't have anyone internally to work on a game based on a BioWare IP, that doesn't mean it can't look outward to find a studio to handle work on a new Mass Effect or Jade Empire--if it chooses to.
For example, Konami has successfully resurrected its Silent Hill series in recent years, teaming up with developers like Bloober Team, Screen Burn, and NeoBards Entertainment to produce several critically acclaimed games in the IP. Following the success of Bit Reactor's Star Wars Zero Company and Fuse Games’ Star Wars: Galactic Racer, Lucasfilm Games says it wants to be more flexible in choosing who it partners with, and fans can expect some surprises in the future.
Beyond the sad news about BioWare, EA also announced that work on the new Sims game has been paused, the team behind the new Skate game is being downsized, and a "social-first open-world” football game is in development.