A new report directly links the previously rumored Star Wars Battlefront 3 to EA's closure of BioWare, with the publisher evidently prioritizing the sci-fi game with the bigger license and projected audience when assessing its finances.
Bloomberg corroborates much of what we've already heard and inferred. After a Saudi Arabia-led buyout plunged EA $18 billion in debt, it had new owners and even more incentive to cut costs. BioWare, already on the ropes after consecutive lukewarm-at-best releases including open disappointment around 2024's Dragon Age: The Veilguard, would've been among the first studios to catch the eye of a layoff-hungry EA.
The hammer really dropped, the report says, when EA paused to size up the two main sci-fi action games it could choose to invest in for the coming years. Bloomberg reports that both were expected to cost several hundred million dollars to develop.
In one corner, you have Star Wars Battlefront 3, the follow-up to a game that ultimately sold extremely well despite some fierce criticism – and, crucially, a Star Wars game, the likes of which EA loves to sell.
In the other corner, there's Mass Effect 5, the next chapter in an RPG series that hasn't been great for at least a decade, and it would be in the works at a studio that has failed to match its historic heights for – again – at least a decade.
What do you think an especially fiscally conscientious EA would choose?
We know the answer, of course. After repeatedly failing to get the triangular BioWare to fit through the circular hole it imposes on its properties, EA scooped up the studio and fed it into the furnace of Star Wars, reportedly deeming Battlefront 3 the safer bet (and, surely, most likely to support long-tail monetization). And so, a catastrophically mismanaged RPG powerhouse shut down to the dismay of countless game developers and fans.
Pressed on this choice, an EA spokesperson says it "collectively reached this decision following months of planning, review, and analysis, including careful consideration of evolving business conditions, industry dynamics, and our long-term priorities." Which all certainly lines up with the claim here: EA thought this would make it more money.
Bloomberg also reports that EA's Laura Miele, previously chief studio officer and COO and now president of EA's entertainment and central development, has had few opportunities to once again stick up for the publisher's stable of studios under a new leadership push helmed by COO David Tinson and CSO Cam Weber.
A joint statement from Tinson and Weber, in which BioWare's shutdown received one short paragraph, argued EA "should be proud" to stand as "the number one publisher in Western HD gaming."
