BioWare is closing down and Mass Effect 5 is cancelled, months after Saudi Arabia's $55bn EA buyout

After over three decades of iconic RPGs, developer BioWare is closing down and its in-development Mass Effect game is no more. The move comes just months after corporate owner EA was bought out by a group of investment firms for $55 billion.

"For more than 30 years, BioWare has been more than a studio. It has been a home for storytellers, developers, and the players who brought our worlds to life," the role-playing powerhouse wrote on social media this evening before listing some of its greatest hits - Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Dragon Age, Mass Effect and Anthem.

"Now, after more than three decades of shared adventures, BioWare is closing and early development on the next Mass Effect project is ending. There is nothing easy about writing those words. Our focus right now is on our incredibly talented team who put their hearts into these games, and supporting one another through this transition.

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What generations of BioWare built together is something to celebrate and remember. These games became so much more because you played them, debated your choices, fell in love with the characters, and made these worlds your own. From all of us at BioWare, thank you for being the most meaningful part of our story," the statement continued.

Layoffs at BioWare were expected following EA's acquisition this summer - which saw investment firm Silver Lake, private equity group Affinity Partners (led by Jared Kushner, Donald Trump's son-in-law) and Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund group together and raise $55 billion to buy the publisher. A full studio closure this soon is a surprise, to put it lightly.

A Bloomberg report also claims EA is planning to cut roughly 400 jobs across the company, or around 3% of its total workforce. "Across our portfolio, we're making deliberate choices to align talent and investments where we see the greatest opportunities for players and long-term growth," CEO David Tinson and CSO Cam Weber said in a letter to staff seen by Bloomberg.

BioWare itself has been in rough waters these past few years. The studio's live-service experiment Anthem quickly fell from the sky, and its most recent game, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, failed to meet EA's internal sales expectations, leading to another round of layoffs at the developer. Here's hoping the impacted devs can land on their feet soon.

The next Mass Effect game - dubbed Mass Effect 5 by some fans - was seemingly not ready to go into full production. Last we heard, BioWare was trying to reassure folks the game was still definitely in development.