EA Reportedly Shuts BioWare to Fund a Star Wars: Battlefront Sequel
The move, as reported, would redirect money away from a Mass Effect project toward a licensed shooter, reversing EA's earlier stance on licensed games.
Bloomberg reports that Electronic Arts shut down BioWare to redirect resources toward a new Star Wars: Battlefront title and away from the in-development Mass Effect project. The sources say EA would not spend hundreds of millions of dollars on both games together, and judged the Battlefront game the less risky bet. The report ties the decision to roughly $18 billion of debt from the leveraged buyout, which EA must pay down from operating profit. It also says executive Laura Miele, a supporter of BioWare, was sidelined. The move reverses EA's stated move away from licensed games, though the company is still developing an Iron Man game.
Why it matters
The report suggests that debt from the leveraged buyout is shaping which projects EA funds. Readers following the industry can see the pressure a heavily indebted publisher faces when choosing between a riskier original franchise and a licensed title it judges safer. The report also indicates that a supporter of BioWare inside the company lost influence, which points to where decisions about the studio's future were made. Because the account rests on sources cited by Bloomberg, it is a reported decision rather than an official announcement.
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