Mass Effect 5 Is Gone Forever as EA Shuts Down BioWare

How are you feeling about the news that EA has shut down BioWare? If you're a Mass Effect fan, it probably stings. The studio behind the beloved sci-fi RPG series is gone, and with it, the promised Mass Effect 5 that was supposed to bring the magic back after Andromeda.

The next Mass Effect game was announced back in 2020, and since then, BioWare had been pretty quiet—only popping up occasionally to reassure fans it was still in development. We got a teaser showing what looked like an older Asari (possibly Liara) climbing snowy ruins, and some concept art featuring a grizzled Krogan leading a squad in a civil war. It looked cool. It felt like a return to form. But now, that game will never exist.

For longtime fans, this one hurts. IGN's Jackie Thomas, who's been playing Mass Effect for nearly 20 years, put it perfectly: "We'll never know whether or not Mass Effect 5 would have been good." And that uncertainty is the worst part. After the rocky launch of Mass Effect Andromeda and the disappointments of Anthem and Dragon Age: The Veilguard's shift to action, hopes were high that Mass Effect 5 could redeem the series. But now we're left wondering what could have been.

Mass Effect has always been a comfort game for many—a universe you can lose yourself in for hundreds of hours. The original trilogy still holds up, and the thought of revisiting Liara as an Asari Matriarch or diving into a Krogan civil war was enough to get anyone excited. But EA's decision to close BioWare means those stories will never be told.

There is some hope on the horizon, though. Casey Hudson, the original Mass Effect director, has a new studio working on Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic, and there are other Mass Effect-like games in the pipeline, like The Expanse: Osiris Reborn and Exodus (which even has Mass Effect alumni working on it). But as Jackie notes, "they're simply not Mass Effect." No matter how good they are, they won't replace hunting Keepers in the Citadel or fighting a Reaper skeleton inside a black hole.

At least we'll always have the original trilogy. No amount of EA mismanagement can take that away. But the loss of Mass Effect 5 is a bitter pill to swallow. What do you think? Will you be replaying the original games in solidarity?