The closure of video game studio BioWare, which made headlines for dabbling in wokeness while publishing cult hits, has drawn mixed reactions online – with ex-employees and some gamers decrying the shutdown and conservative voices saying the company had it coming.
Canada-based BioWare was shut down Wednesday as its parent company, gaming giant Electronic Arts, slashed 400 jobs in a cost-saving bid. The move came before BioWare released the latest installment in its hit “Mass Effect” series, which was almost six years in the making.
“One of the greatest privileges and glorious challenges of my life,” said Catherynne Valente, who spent three years herself working on the latest version of the fantasy role-playing game.
A laid-off executive producer from the studio, Michael Gamble, said he could “scroll for hours and continue reading the words of support for the studio, the legacy, and the impact that BioWare has had on you. It means so much to us.”
The first edition of “Mass Effect” came out in 2007 and received critical praise for being the first game to pull off “digital acting,” according to a New York Times review that year. The game also featured a bisexual alien that could have sex with a male or female human, at players’ behest — drawing jeers from some commenters.
“I fell in love with stories and characters, made lifelong friends, and learned about my sexuality along the way,” said Allegra Clark, a voiceover actor who ended up voicing a BioWare character.
“This is f–king devastating,” she said of the layoffs.
“Mass Effect” drew controversy from the start. In a 2007 Fox News segment, one commenter said for kids, the “sexuality has a desensitizing effect.”
“It’s the side of an alien boob. It has excellent artificial intelligence. You can fall in love playing this game,” another guest snapped back.
Nearly 20 years later, some gamers think the 30-year-old studio went “too woke.”
BioWare “earned this by insisting on making woke trash,” conservative commenter Auron MacIntyre wrote on X.
He previously decried news Amazon MGM Studios was making a TV series based on the game.
IGN reported that the show is still being developed despite BioWare’s closure.
The 50-hour long games in its series drew notice for story lines that were intended to be inclusive. Many players thought sequels didn’t live up to the original, though.
“A game industry that cannot figure out how make a sequel to the literal best game of all time is a game industry that is fundamentally broken,” said Brianna Wu, a game developer and transgender activist who ran for Congress in Massachusetts back in 2018.
She griped on X that no one is willing to take the risk on huge budgets for ambitious games these days.
While the gaming industry brought in around $200 billion in revenue in 2025 — up 4.6% from the year before — recent months have seen a slew of developer layoffs.
Microsoft’s Xbox announced 3,200 job cuts over the summer. RedLynx, the developer of a popular pirate game, cut 70 jobs earlier this month, according to IGN.
“The industry doesn’t exist. There is nowhere for them to go,” Kate Welch, a Seattle-based game developer, said on Instagram of the laid-off BioWare workers.
Electronic Arts is known for titles like the “Battlefield,” “The Sims,” “Madden NFL,” and “Dead Space” franchises.
The Jared Kushner-led Affinity Partners, private equity firm Silver Lake, and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund bought the company for a whopping $55 billion over the summer.
“Over the past several months, we’ve taken a hard look at our business, how we operate, and what it will take to lead in this next era of interactive entertainment,” Cam Weber, president and chief studios officer, and David Tinson, president and COO, said in a memo announcing the layoffs.