Electronic Arts is closing BioWare, the studio behind Mass Effect and Dragon Age, after more than 30 years, and early development on the next Mass Effect project is ending, according to GamesIndustry.biz.

The studio announced the news in a statement on social media, the trade outlet reports. Bloomberg, as cited by GamesIndustry.biz, says EA will cut about 400 jobs, roughly 3 percent of its staff, including around 50 at BioWare. The Bloomberg figures are attributed to a person familiar with the company's plans. The report was published on Oct 21.

What the announcement covers

Three points are confirmed. BioWare is closing. Early development on the next Mass Effect has ended. The announcement came from the studio itself, through a social media statement quoted by the trade outlet. Those three points answer the first question a Mass Effect or Dragon Age player is likely to ask: the studio is going away, and so is the work in progress on its signature science-fiction series.

A studio closure is not the same as a single game cancellation. It ends the team as an internal developer, while the publisher normally keeps the intellectual property and can reassign or stop projects.

"Early development" is a stage, not a status report. In game production it generally covers concept work, prototyping and pre-production before a project enters full production with a full team. The report does not say how far the project had progressed or whether it had reached a playable state.

Why the split matters

The BioWare share is small next to the publisher-wide total, so the closure is one part of a wider reduction at EA, not the whole of it. Most of the affected jobs are outside BioWare. The distinction matters for readers: the closure should not be read as a shutdown of that size.

GamesIndustry.biz also does not publish the full text of the studio's social media statement in the excerpt reviewed here, which limits what can be quoted.

Why a 30-year studio closing draws attention

BioWare is one of the studios that defined the modern Western role-playing game. Mass Effect and Dragon Age are its best-known series, and both have audiences that have followed them across console generations. A closure ends the studio as an internal EA developer and raises immediate questions about the unfinished Mass Effect project. The studio's name is attached to both series, which is why the closure is also a franchise story.

The timing sharpens those questions. A project in early development has no release date, no public trailer and, in this case, no announced replacement team, so players have nothing concrete to track. The next official update from EA or BioWare will carry more weight than any interpretation of the closure statement.

For players, the practical question is whether the next game arrives in any form. For workers, it is what happens to their jobs and their notice period. Both groups are reading the same statement for reasons that barely overlap.

What is still unknown

Three questions remain open. The first is whether the next Mass Effect is cancelled outright, paused or reassigned to another team inside EA. The second is what severance and timing apply to the roughly 50 BioWare staff affected, and how many of those roles were on the Mass Effect project. The third is what happens to other BioWare projects, including whether the Dragon Age franchise continues and whether EA keeps the studio's name.

What to watch next

EA's own channels are the next place to confirm the numbers, because a company statement would move the job figures from attributed reporting to confirmed fact. BioWare's social accounts are the place to watch for the studio's own wording on timing and severance. Trade press coverage will show whether the next Mass Effect is reassigned, paused or cancelled.

Until then, the open question is what survives the closure besides the franchises' names.