Last week’s announcement that EA was shutting down game developer BioWare and scrapping the newest “Mass Effect” game upset much of the fanbase. Now, the apparent reason why has been revealed.
Bloomberg reports that the decision to close BioWare was mainly due to EA pursuing the opportunity to make a new “Star Wars Battlefront” game.
Citing sources, they say EA executives were looking at the company’s portfolio for the next few years and very conscious of the $18 billion of debt they’ve been saddled with following the company’s acquisition by Saudi Arabia’s investment fund.
They had two sci-fi action games planned, each of which was set to cost hundreds of millions of dollars to create – “Mass Effect Universe” and “Star Wars Battlefront 3”. They chose the latter, believing that a new ‘Battlefront’ game was more likely to be a success than a new “Mass Effect”.
While it’s certainly not the only reason for the developer’s closure – poor reviews for recent titles and corporate politics among other things – it is said to be one of the “main” ones.
This follows on from reports last week that studios DICE and Respawn are working together on a ‘future project’ believed to be “Star Wars: Battlefront 3”.
EA said of its decision to close BioWare thay they had “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,”
