Prolific and veteran gaming actor Jennifer Hale, who is known for voicing Commander Shepard in the Mass Effect series, has reacted to the closure of BioWare and the cancellation of the next game in the series. After footage of the new project, Mass Effect Universe, was released, Hale said, "It's extraordinary."
She added: "I’m holding hope for magic to happen. This community and you incredible vevs deserve that and more."
A "Save Mass Effect" Change.org petition was launched this week to urge EA to "take decisive action by committing to the continued development of Mass Effect." The petition has more than 65,000 signatures so far.
All of BioWare's new releases in the past decade--Mass Effect: Andromeda, Anthem, and Dragon Age: The Veilguard--were commercial disappointments. Against that backdrop, closing the studio makes a lot of financial sense, but it's upsetting to the millions of Mass Effect fans who adore the franchise and want to see it continue.
Based on insider reporting, the new Mass Effect game would have mixed covert ops with John Wick-inspired action, and that got a lot of people excited about what could have been.
Composer Bear McCreary, who has done work for the God of War and Call of Duty franchises, reacted to BioWare's closure, too. Asked if the laid-off BioWare developers could take what they had and complete the project as a "spiritual successor" via crowdfunding, McCreary said it's a good idea but is probably unrealistic.
"Man, I want to believe. But, I just gotta ask... How many examples are there of this really working in the past? And of those examples, how many were a project as big as Mass Effect?" he said.
Avi Lewis, a Canadian politician, has called on the government to help save BioWare by providing “federal support” to the workers to buy it back.
“This is private equity, this is what it does,” he said. “Buy up businesses, run them into the ground, and rip them apart for short-term profit. The developers at BioWare know how to run the studio. They know how to make the games we all love. They should be given the first opportunity–and the federal support–to buy it and run it themselves.”
The new Mass Effect game was revealed in 2020. Since then, the game remained in “early development” until its cancellation this week.
While the new Mass Effect game is not going ahead, the Mass Effect TV show for Prime Video remains in development.
The closure of BioWare and cancellation of the new Mass Effect game came as part of a wider shakeup at EA following its sale to an investor consortium including Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners. EA cut jobs, canceled games, and scaled back in other ways as part of the shakeup, as the publisher faces a huge debt repayment schedule.