New Mass Effect Cancelled So EA Can Focus on Star Wars Battlefront 3

The next Mass Effect game was cancelled and BioWare shut down because publisher EA wished to focus on a new Star Wars: Battlefront title instead of bringing both to market.

That is according to a new Bloomberg report from journalist Jason Schreier, who explains the situation EA was facing a few months ago.

As the publisher was reviewing its upcoming portfolio, executives "found themselves with two sci-fi action games that were each projected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars: Star Wars Battlefront III and the next Mass Effect title". As a result, they decided to go with the Star Wars game because it was seen as a "less risky, more predictable bet".

Schreier says Star Wars Battlefront 3 hasn't even entered development yet at EA DICE and Respawn Entertainment, yet the publisher still opted to go with it over Mass Effect.

There were other factors at play in relation to the closure, like the reception of BioWare's more recent games (Mass Effect Andromeda and ANTHEM), and the disappointing sales of Dragon Age: The Veilguard. The latter resulted in EA heavily cutting the RPG developer's workforce, and when it was closed last week, just 50 employees remained at the studio.