Mass Effect 5 Cancelled So EA Could Make Star Wars Battlefront 3

Electronic Arts cancelled Mass Effect 5 and closed BioWare because it chose to fund Star Wars: Battlefront 3 instead, Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier reported on October 30. According to people familiar with the decision, EA did not want to pay hundreds of millions of dollars for two big sci-fi action games at once, and the Star Wars shooter won.

EA announced the closure on October 21 in a company-wide memo, saying “a small team at BioWare” had been in early development on Mass Effect and that it would not move forward with the project. That memo, which we covered when EA shut down BioWare, gave no reason beyond focusing on “fewer simultaneous, large-scale projects.”

Why Mass Effect 5 Lost to Star Wars: Battlefront 3

EA recently got the chance to make a third Star Wars: Battlefront game with Lucasfilm, Schreier wrote in his Bloomberg newsletter. Executives reportedly saw a Battlefront sequel as a less risky, more predictable bet than a new Mass Effect, and EA has long been more comfortable with shooters than with role-playing games. Battlefront 3 has not even started development yet.

Money is the other half of the story. EA went private in a roughly $55 billion deal led by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake and Affinity Partners, which closed in August and was announced with about $20 billion in debt financing. Schreier explained the link on X:

What you have to understand is that because of EA’s new massive debt load, predictability is more important than ever. EA needs predictable annual cash flow to service its debt. So a Battlefront 3 that hits its deadlines is more valuable than a Mass Effect that will likely be delayed multiple times.

— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) October 30, 2026

The Road to BioWare’s Closure

The Star Wars decision was the final blow, but BioWare had been shrinking for years. Mass Effect: Andromeda (2017) was poorly received, Anthem (2019) failed as a live service game, and Dragon Age: The Veilguard reportedly fell about 50% short of EA’s sales expectations. By the time the studio closed, only around 50 people were left.

Bloomberg also pointed to corporate politics. Laura Miele, the senior EA executive who had long backed BioWare, was reportedly sidelined as EA Sports veterans David Tinson and Cam Weber were promoted. An EA spokesperson told reporters the company reached the decision “following months of planning, review, and analysis.”

What It Means for Players

For fans, the news ends hopes raised in late 2025, when BioWare confirmed a new Mass Effect was in the works. The series itself still belongs to EA, so it could return under another studio one day, but there is no such plan.

Star Wars fans, meanwhile, should not expect Battlefront 3 soon. With development not yet started, a release is likely years away. The nearer-term Star Wars game from EA is the next Star Wars Jedi title, which EA still lists among its two big upcoming action launches alongside Marvel’s Iron Man. For more on EA’s licensed plans, see our look at whether a new Star Wars game is on the way.

EA has not commented publicly on Bloomberg’s report about Star Wars: Battlefront 3.