{"id":896955,"date":"2026-10-28T00:54:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T00:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/896955\/"},"modified":"2026-10-28T00:54:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T00:54:08","slug":"it-took-mass-effect-fans-less-than-15-minutes-to-crowdfund-billboards-outside-eas-offices-and-the-game-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/896955\/","title":{"rendered":"It Took Mass Effect Fans Less Than 15 Minutes To Crowdfund Billboards Outside EA’s Offices And The Game Awards"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the #SaveMassEffect<\/a> campaign continues following the closure of BioWare, members of the \u201cWe Are Mass Effect\u201d subgroup have started making their voices heard in places beyond the internet. Yesterday, the group paid for a billboard in New York City\u2019s Times Square<\/a>, but now it\u2019s got its eyes set on things a little closer to home for publisher Electronic Arts: the company\u2019s own offices.<\/p>\n

BioWare fans Kala Elizabeth, Ariel Aguilar, and Mer set up a GoFundMe<\/a> campaign for fans to help with the costs of paying for billboards outside of EA\u2019s Redwood City headquarters, the company\u2019s Edmonton office that is being shuttered after the closure of BioWare, and this year\u2019s Game Awards in Los Angeles in December. The GoFundMe reached its $5274 goal in less than 15 minutes. The number comes from estimated costs after the group reached out to companies that allow people to pay for billboard space in the respective areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no words,\u201d Mer tells Kotaku. \u201cAnd we\u2019re already brainstorming even more ways to keep this momentum going! More to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mer says that the group will finalize dates for these billboards after figuring out the logistics. The Game Awards is set to take place on December 10, so at least one of these displays has a specific window it\u2019s aiming for.<\/p>\n

The GoFundMe is no longer collecting donations after reaching its goal, with the group hoping to donate all excess proceeds to the Game Worker Hardship Fund<\/a> organized by United Videogame Workers-CWA, which supports laid-off game developers. The trio has reached out to the organization as per the instructions on its website and is waiting to see if this is possible.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAs of right now, our intention is for any funds raised beyond our goal to be donated to the Game Workers\u2019 Hardship Fund,\u201d Mer tells Kotaku. \u201cWe\u2019ve been trying to get in touch with them for days to see if this is an option. Since we haven\u2019t heard back, we closed the petition when we hit our goal, with little overflow. The funds will go to cover the billboards and the GoFundMe fees.\u201d<\/p>\n

The trouble is, according to UVW-CWA\u2019s official website, there isn\u2019t a current way to donate directly to the fund, but the organization is \u201clooking into options\u201d on how to make this possible in the future. If the excess cash can\u2019t be donated to the Hardship Fund, the group intends to find another way to use the money to help affected developers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not currently have a way to donate directly to the hardship fund,\u201d the website reads. \u201cWe are looking into options and will provide an update when we have more information on that. In the future, if direct donations are made available they will be set up through a donation page on Action Network.\u201d<\/p>\n

All of this follows the launch of a Change<\/a> petition that has surpassed a quarter of a million signatures urging EA to \u201csave\u201d the Mass Effect series. The petition has generated some conflict among fans, however, as it suggests that the series be handed to a new studio and makes no mention of how the BioWare employees who lost their jobs might be involved, which hasn\u2019t sat well with some members of the community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the #SaveMassEffect campaign continues following the closure of BioWare, members of the \u201cWe Are Mass Effect\u201d subgroup…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":896956,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[375994,375995,74],"class_list":["post-896955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-mass-effect-5","tag-mass-effect-universe","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=896955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/896956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=896955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=896955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=896955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}