Mass Effect fans are calling for a boycott of all EA products and services in protest of the company closing down BioWare and canceling the next Mass Effect game.
It’s a rough time for Mass Effect fans. On October 21, EA announced its plans to shut down BioWare, a 30-year-old studio that spearheaded RPGs in the West with titles like Dragon Age, Jade Empire, Baldur’s Gate, and of course, Mass Effect.
Players were eagerly awaiting news of the next game in BioWare’s beloved sci-fi franchise — but EA shut that down, too, revealing in a statement that the project was officially canceled.
In the two days since then, fans of BioWare and the Mass Effect series have gathered together to call for action, begging EA to at least sell off BioWare’s IP to other studios rather than letting them languish. In fact, tensions have become so strained that players are now calling for an outright boycott of EA’s products and services until something is done.
On Reddit, several threads are rallying Mass Effect fans to gather under the hashtag #savemasseffect, urging players to take action and make their voices heard.
“WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING! Guys we have to start something here and cry out loud enough that this game can be saved. Either EA making it or selling it off. We have to do it now before the noise on this game quiets down and it becomes another cancelled series, never to return,” one Redditor wrote. “I suggest we start a movement, and message the hell out of EA asking for some kind of outcome that gets this game finished. THIS GAME FINISHED.”
“Mass Effect is one of the better RPGs out today,” another fan wrote in a post titled ‘EA Boycott!’ “...Unless they sell Mass Effect to another studio or bring it back. I will never buy another EA product ever. They are already not one of my favorite studios. No more Respawn Entertainment, DICE, Motive Studios, Criterion Games, Maxis, Full Circle, Cliffhanger Games, or any EA Sports.
“I hope I'm not alone in this. We need to stand up and make our voices heard. I posted on everything I can. We can't let Mass Effect die so easily. Private investors need to realize how badly EA screwed up.”
These calls for a boycott coincide with a fanmade petition urging EA to either sell off the IPs to other developers or hand development of Mass Effect 5 to a different studio. At the time of writing, this petition has garnered over 76,500 signatures and counting as more fans and friends of the industry pile in.
Mass Effect 5 — which was reportedly expected to be called Mass Effect Universe — seems to have already been a good way into its development cycle, judging by a full-length trailer that was leaked online yesterday. This trailer rubbed even more salt in the wound for players, many of whom believed this game would be everything fans had been asking for and more.
Industry vets and even voice actors from the Mass Effect games are speaking out in hopes of somehow, some way, getting this game on shelves. But according to industry analysts and former BioWare bosses, it’s not likely that EA will listen to fans’ demands.