By now, you've probably heard that BioWare is shutting down. The studio best known for the Mass Effect and Dragon Age franchise, along with Knights of the Old Republic is closing its doors after three decades of signature game development.
BioWare's last game release was Dragon Age: Veilguard in October 2024, but the studio was currently on a new entry in its Mass Effect series. That game has now been canceled.
While BioWare's closure may signal the end of the Mass Effect game franchise, there's still the live-action television series in development at Amazon MGM Studios.
According to IGN, that show remains in develompent with an unnamed source confirming that all the creatives who were attached to the TV project remain onboard.
As of right now, Doug Jung, whose credits include Star Trek Beyond and Mindhunter, attached as showrunner, with F9: The Fast Saga writer Daniel Casey writing and executive producing. The executive producing team also includes Karim Zreik, who worked on Marvel’s Daredevil and Jessica Jones, longtime video game adaptation producer Ari Arad, and BioWare’s Mass Effect executive producer Mike Gamble.
Technically, the Mass Effect series still hasn't been greenlit, but Amazon has approved development, including script work. Earlier this year, there were reports that the series was undergoing rewrites to appeal to appeal to "non-gamers"; however, writer Daniel Casey pushed back, claiming he never received that instruction. The only thing we've heard about premise is that it won't focus on Commander Shepard's origin story for the game and will instead be set after the original trilogy.
As of right now we're looking at a late 2026 start of production and filming, but it's unclear if BioWare's closure will have any impact on the development of the series.
BioWare leaves behind some pretty big shoes to fill. This is the studio that gave us Baldur’s Gate, let us become a Jedi in Knights of the Old Republic, and made assembling a crew in Mass Effect just as much fun as saving the galaxy. Sure, its more recent releases didn’t always live up to that reputation. Andromeda had a rough launch, and Anthem never became the game players hoped it would be. But for anyone who spent hours talking to every companion or agonizing over a dialogue choice, seeing BioWare close is going to sting. There’s a lot of history behind that name.
EA still owns the Mass Effect IP, along with all other BioWare IP, so despite the studio's closure, there's still a chance the publisher could do more with the franchise.