It's an especially sad week for the industry because BioWare revealed yesterday that it's closing down, affecting development on Mass Effect 5 and any other projects the team had underway. In response, one of the central figures at the outfit for several years has put together a reaction video explaining the likelihood that its franchises will move to another studio or publisher.
On YouTube, Mark Darrah, co-director of Dragon Age: Origins and a producer at BioWare for over 20 years, looked at whether EA might sell off the studio's IP since they're now effectively defunct. "There's nobody working on a [Mass Effect or Dragon Age] game or games within the EA organization, and chances are there never will be," he says.
"Which might make them more likely to sell off those IPs," he states. "But it might also make them more likely to try to forget that they ever existed and bury them in the vault."
You might be thinking that Mass Effect and Dragon Age are iconic and beloved, and that Electronic Arts surely knows this and wants to engage those communities. Sadly, corporations rarely think that way, and Darrah's right that neither outcome is inherently more likely than the other right now.
EA is shouldering a $20 billion debt after being acquired by a conglomerate that includes the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund. Shopping around these franchises, and others like Jade Empire, could definitely generate a quick buck. But whether the energy is there for those negotiations is another question, and EA might just prefer not to spend any more money or thought power on BioWare generally.
The last ten years haven't been good for the team, either. Mass Effect: Andromeda got a mixed response, Anthem failed to really find its audience, and Dragon Age: The Veilguard truly ate dirt upon arrival two years ago.
It's all just sad, and reflects the industry's woes as a whole at the minute. I'd like to play a new Mass Effect one day, but I won't be holding my breath.
