{"id":942117,"date":"2026-10-22T13:38:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T13:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/942117\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T13:38:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T13:38:10","slug":"electronic-arts-shut-downs-edmontons-bioware-amid-broader-layoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/942117\/","title":{"rendered":"Electronic Arts shut downs Edmonton\u2019s BioWare amid broader layoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Game maker Electronic Arts laid off 400 employees, including 50 at BioWare, according to a Bloomberg report.Jae C. Hong\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

Video game publisher Electronic Arts is shutting down the popular and influential game development studio BioWare after more than three decades. The upcoming Mass Effect game, the fifth since 2007, has been cancelled.<\/p>\n

Edmonton-based BioWare announced the closure on social media Wednesday following a report by Bloomberg that also said the company is laying off 400 people, including about 50 at BioWare. <\/p>\n

The Redwood Shores, California-based maker of popular titles like Battlefield and The Sims closed the US$55-billion sale of its business<\/a> to Saudi Arabia\u2019s sovereign wealth fund PIF, investment firm Silver Lake Partners and Affinity Partners, which is run by President Donald Trump\u2019s son-in-law Jared Kushner, in August.<\/p>\n

Representatives for EA did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment on the layoffs. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat generations of BioWare built together is something to celebrate and remember,\u201d the studio said via social media. \u201cThese games became so much more because you played them, debated your choices, fell in love with characters, and made these worlds your own.\u201d <\/p>\n

BioWare built its reputation on immersive role-playing adventures, from sword-and-sorcery fantasies like Baldur\u2019s Gate and Dragon Age to science fiction epics like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect. <\/p>\n

But its effort to branch out into multiplayer shooters, 2019\u2019s Anthem, steered away from the studio\u2019s strength as a creator of compelling single-player narratives. It failed to find the sort of loyal audience that keeps online hits like Fortnite and Overwatch humming.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile the latest installments of its two most popular original franchises \u2013 2017\u2019s Mass Effect: Andromeda and 2024\u2019s Dragon Age: The Veilguard \u2013 met with mixed reviews and disappointed many fans. A new chapter of Mass Effect was in development before BioWare announced its shutdown.<\/p>\n

BioWare was founded in 1995 and acquired by EA in 2007. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Game maker Electronic Arts laid off 400 employees, including 50 at BioWare, according…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":942118,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,23752,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-942117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-edmonton","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=942117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/942118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=942117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=942117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=942117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}