On October 21, the gaming industry was rocked by the announcement that Electronic Arts (EA) would be shuttering BioWare, the legendary RPG developer responsible for some of the most influential titles in the history of the medium. The closure, which marks the end of a 30-year operational history for the studio, has sent shockwaves through the community, particularly regarding the future of the company’s most anticipated project: the next installment in the Mass Effect franchise. With the studio’s doors effectively closed, the next chapter of the spacefaring epic is now trapped in what many are calling "EA IP purgatory."
However, in the week following the announcement, a devoted legion of fans has mobilized to ensure the project does not simply vanish into corporate obscurity. The social media campaign, appropriately dubbed #SaveMassEffect, has gained significant traction, moving from a niche internet hashtag to a high-profile movement. While the prospects of reviving a project caught in the gears of a corporate shutdown are admittedly slim, there is a distinct historical precedent for this type of fan-led intervention—most notably the successful campaign to save the sci-fi television series The Expanse.
The Mass Effect series has weathered a turbulent decade. In the early 2010s, the original trilogy cemented itself as a cornerstone of science fiction gaming, earning acclaim for its intricate world-building, high-stakes player choice, and a cast of characters that became cultural touchstones. The 2017 spinoff, Mass Effect: Andromeda, provided a more polarizing experience; while players were generally receptive to its gameplay systems, the narrative and character writing failed to capture the same magic as the original trilogy. Following that release, EA effectively placed the franchise on ice, leaving fans waiting years for any sign of a return to the Milky Way.
Hope was rekindled in 2020 when BioWare officially confirmed that a new entry in the series was in active development. Throughout the subsequent years, intermittent teases kept the community engaged, with early promotional materials suggesting the game would serve as a bridge between the original trilogy and the events of Andromeda. Following the announcement of BioWare’s closure, a trailer for the project, titled Mass Effect: Universe, leaked online, offering a tantalizing glimpse at a radical, gritty evolution for the series. Set 600 years after the original trilogy, sources familiar with the production described the project as "James Bond meets John Wick in space," a concept that resonated deeply with fans. Seeing this footage emerge only hours after the news of the studio’s closure served to heighten the sense of loss and frustration within the community.
This situation bears a striking resemblance to the trajectory of The Expanse, the critically lauded science fiction television series based on the novels by James S.A. Corey. The Expanse was praised for its grounded, realistic approach to space travel and its focus on the volatile political tensions between interplanetary factions, a departure from the more fantasy-leaning tropes found in other major space operas. When SyFy canceled the series in 2018 after three seasons, the outcry was immediate.
The #SaveTheExpanse campaign was a masterclass in organized fandom, involving not just casual viewers but also prominent figures in science and literature, including George R.R. Martin. The intensity of the movement was enough to capture the attention of Amazon, which picked up the series for three additional seasons on Prime Video. The franchise has since expanded, with Telltale Games releasing a prequel title in 2023 and Owlcat Games currently developing The Expanse: Osiris Reborn, an ambitious third-person action RPG slated for 2026.
The #SaveMassEffect campaign has mirrored this momentum. Over the past weekend, the movement saw a surge of support, with notable figures like Jennifer Hale and Mark Meer—the iconic voices behind the female and male versions of Commander Shepard—publicly endorsing the petition. The developers at Owlcat Games have also lent their support, explicitly referencing their own history with The Expanse as a beacon of hope for what a unified fan base can achieve. The campaign has even extended into the physical world, with billboards appearing in New York City’s Times Square. As of this writing, the #SaveMassEffect petition has garnered over 200,000 signatures, significantly outpacing the final count of 138,420 signatures achieved by the #SaveTheExpanse campaign.
While the passion is evident, the practical realities of game development differ significantly from television production. Nevertheless, analysts have begun to "run the numbers" on what it might take to bring Mass Effect: Universe to fruition. Based on industry data from platforms like Glassdoor, the average developer salary in Edmonton, Alberta—the former home of BioWare—is approximately $70,000 CAD (roughly $49,857 USD). With reports suggesting that BioWare employed about 50 people at the time of the closure and that the project was aiming for a 2028 release, the remaining development overhead could theoretically sit in the neighborhood of $5 million.
To put that figure in perspective, it is roughly equivalent to the cost of producing a single episode of The Expanse during its tenure on the SyFy network. While the costs for the later Amazon-produced seasons of The Expanse were never made public, the visual jump in quality suggested a much higher budget, indicating that a project of this scale is not entirely outside the realm of possibility for a major distributor.
However, the primary hurdle remains the intellectual property rights. Unlike The Expanse, where Amazon held the necessary streaming rights to step in, the rights to Mass Effect are currently locked behind EA’s corporate walls. If the publisher has no desire to license or sell the IP, the fan movement faces a formidable barrier. Yet, the situation is not entirely without nuance. It has been confirmed that an Amazon-produced television series based on the Mass Effect universe is still in development, suggesting that the company is at least interested in the franchise’s multimedia potential. Whether that interest extends to the resurrection of a canceled video game project remains the central question that fans are now hoping to answer.
