EA is shutting down BioWare. Mass Effect 4 has been cancelled. Two sentences I didn’t think I would ever have to write. And yet, here we are. It’s a sad day. A sad day for anyone who loves video games. BioWare were (oof, even writing “were” hurts, man) the makers of some of my favourite games of all time. The Mass Effect trilogy and KOTOR are all in my top 20, and I can’t wait to start my journey into Dragon Age, because I know I’m going to love those games as well. To see such a legendary studio get axed, after 30 years and countless critical and commercial successes, by the hands of EA, no less, is tragic.

If we’re being completely honest, however, the writing has been on the wall for some time. Culture war BS aside, Dragon Age: The Veilguard wasn’t particularly well-received by either critics or fans due to it lacking the immersive world-building, well-written characters, and interesting moral choices of the prior entries in the series. Mass Effect: Andromeda, though over-hated, in my opinion, had many of the same issues, leading to lackluster reviews and sales. And then, of course, there’s Anthem. The less said about that the better. It seems, over the years, BioWare had lost its identity somewhat. A studio once known for making some of the most captivating, cinematic, and groundbreaking RPGs, became something more tepid and generic.

Much of this was due to mismanagement on EA’s part after their acquisition, as the publisher pushed BioWare to chase trends instead of doing what they did best. The blame isn’t solely on them, though, as many developers working felt they weren’t getting enough support from BioWare executives during the development of Andromeda, either. At the end of the day, irrespective of which way you want to point the finger, the fact remains that BioWare is shutting down and 400 people are losing their jobs, and that sucks.

Here’s hoping the crew land on their feet, and that Mass Effect and Dragon Age aren’t stuck in licensing hell moving forward. In the meantime, at least we have games like Exodus — being made by former BioWare developers — to look forward to. It’s always a sad day whenever layoffs and closures happen in the games industry, but this one…this one hurts, ya’ll.