Plan to Save BioWare and Mass Effect Proposed by Canadian Politician

The game industry is still reeling from the announcement that EA and its new private equity investors shut down the legendary BioWare. The studio was one of the medium's most renowned developers, known for Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire, and more. Shortly after the news came out, a former BioWare developer reportedly leaked a trailer for the unreleased Mass Effect Universe, which rubbed salt in the wound.

Is there any hope of BioWare being revived?

While Mass Effect may be dead, a Canadian politician has an idea to bring back the Edmonton-based studio. "This is private equity, this is what it does. Buy up businesses, run them into the ground, and rip them apart for short-term profit," Avi Lewis, the leader of Canada’s New Democratic Party (NDP), wrote on X in response to the news.

"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. And if we want to avoid the Mass Effect effect in Canada, we should be keeping private equity out, not welcoming it in."

From his comment, Lewis seems to support the Canadian government helping BioWare employees purchase the studio back from EA, returning the company to independence for the first time in almost 20 years. Although Lewis’ party doesn’t have enough seats in the House of Commons to make this happen unilaterally, it will be interesting to see if his remarks go anywhere.

Lewis wasn’t the only Canadian politician to comment on the studio’s closure. Eleanor Olszewski, the member of parliament (MP) for the Edmonton Centre district, also expressed disappointment that such a prominent Canadian developer was being shut down. “BioWare has showcased Edmonton’s creativity and talent on the world stage since 1995,” she wrote on X. “The closing of Alberta’s most prominent video game developer is disappointing, and our government will be there to work with partners to support home grown talent here in Edmonton and to ensure Canada has a strong digital sector.”

While it may seem like a long shot that anything will come of these comments, political commentator and historian Christo Aivalis weighed in on the situation, saying that “people are scoffing at this, but direct government involvement in the film industry has played a masterful role in Canadians projects succeeded. Without government intervention, Heated Rivalry doesn’t happen.”

Admittedly, even if the Canadian government revived the studio, EA has been whittling away at BioWare for years now, with many of its former employees already elsewhere. The publisher shut down BioWare Montreal after Mass Effect Andromeda missed sales targets. 20% of BioWare’s staff was cut in 2023, with another massive wave of layoffs over the next two years following Dragon Age: The Veilguard missing EA’s internal projections. But even if BioWare wasn’t what it once was, the team could still have put something compelling together with Mass Effect 5. It also certainly would have helped if EA hadn’t reportedly pushed the studio more and more toward live-service nonsense.