PATCH NOTES 5.11.2026 – Following developer BioWare's closure under EA, a fan-made petition to "#SaveMassEffect" is gaining momentum. Its ultimate goal – encouraging EA to either resume development on now-canceled Mass Effect 5 or sell the IP to another studio – is a tough sell, especially given the publisher's track record. But the petition's popularity has opened an exciting new door for the RPG franchise: the opportunity for rebirth.
What's going on in gaming this week?
- After Mass Effect 5's cancelation, a Bioware co-founder is so touched by the #SaveMassEffect movement that he wants to reconnect with OG members of the dev team.
- CD Projekt Red keeps adding to its host of RPG experts, with ex-Kingdom Come: Deliverance devs added to its star-studded roster.
Why is this happening now?
- One of the petition's goals is to get EA to sell Mass Effect to a studio like CDPR, which continues to prove itself a home for RPG specialists.
- Hope has been rekindled for original BioWare and Mass Effect writers to band together once more, keeping a candle lit for the series' resurgence someday.
- Industry trends mean an eventual reboot cannot be discounted – even if #SaveMassEffect's demands aren't immediately met.
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Meta Shift
- #SaveMassEffect's power is in what the petition represents, as long as fans can play the waiting game.
The news of BioWare's shuttering and the subsequent cancelation of Mass Effect 5 Universe was a bitter pill to swallow. So much so, many RPG fans refused.
#SaveMassEffect, a petition to rescue the canned franchise from EA's video game graveyard, has over 300,000 signatures on Change.org at the time of writing. These are promising numbers, but what hope does the petition have of actually meeting its goals?
The chances of EA selling or licensing Mass Effect to another developer or publisher are extremely slim. EA's habit of sitting on its sunsetted franchises has been widely reported over the years, so I wouldn't hold my breath. Fans are eyeballing studios like Larian and CD Projekt Red for the task all the same, though each studio is hard at work on their own RPGs.
But this might not be the end of Mass Effect, because games get rebooted all the time. Look at how Xbox is reviving Fable under Playground Games after original developer Lionheart shut down in 2016. Or how Larian Studios was chosen to develop Baldur's Gate 3, the first two games having been developed by BioWare in partnership with lapsed license-holders Interplay. EA even brought Dead Space out of a 10-year dormancy to remake the first game in the trilogy. #SaveMassEffect shows that there is still overwhelming passion and desire for a continuation of the RPG series – we just might need to be patient.
Patch Notes summary
Two weeks later, the buzz around #SaveMassEffect is still resounding. There's no telling if EA will reconsider its actions or acknowledge the petition at all, but whether or not it succeeds is beside the point. Its popularity speaks to the unified strength of players' voices in showing discontentment with corporate moves in an industry that continues to be rife with layoffs, studio shutdowns, and cancelations, as well as how important this franchise is to so many.
If it inspires even one handful of BioWare devs not to give up hope, which seems to be the case for its co-founder, it might be enough to keep Mass Effect's spirit alive long enough to see it resurrected sometime in the future. Even if, like Baldur's Gate, it might take a decade or two.
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