RIP, BioWare October 21, 2026

It is my unfortunate duty to report to all of you that EA’s BioWare studio has just announced that they will be closing.

I first became aware of BioWare leading up to the release of Neverwinter Nights for the PC. At the time, I was not very familiar with Dungeons & Dragons, but I was very interested in playing an immersive RPG designed specifically for the PC. BioWare had already proven themselves to be the gold standard for delivering well-polished RPGs for the western audiences, and I was willing to take the chance on the game after learning about its interesting preorder campaign.

I found Neverwinter Nights to be a very in-depth adaptation of D&D’s Third Edition rules, and the game would spawn many official expansion packs alongside fan-made modules. I was later floored by their console release Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and remember purchasing it day one when the game received a PC release shortly after the Xbox version broke sales records. Shortly after, I picked up an original Xbox console, and replayed the game on that platform. BioWare followed that up with Jade Empire, which I am ashamed to admit is often overlooked in their game release catalog. I found myself enjoying it tremendously when it launched on the Xbox, and later picked up the PC release.

When the successor to the Xbox, the Xbox 360, was being prepped for release BioWare was charged to bring the story-based RPG gameplay they started in KOTOR and later polished in Jade Empire to HD-capable game consoles. That’s when we were all introduced to Mass Effect.

Mass Effect went on to break records for the Xbox 360 console (a difficult feat for a console that had been set up for games like Halo 3). It was later followed by two tremendously successful sequels that were released on multiple platforms. RPG enthusiasts who were more interested in a more classic sword and sorcery RPG would later find a lot to like in the Dragon Age series, but gamers were divisive on later releases of the franchise.

With today’s closure announcment comes the abrupt cancellation of the next Mass Effect game the studio had been reportedly working on. I am truly upset by this news, and wish the best to everyone still involved with the studio.