BioWare, the storied studio behind "Mass Effect," "Dragon Age" and "Baldur's Gate," is shutting down for good, Electronic Arts confirmed Wednesday, as the publisher cancels the next Mass Effect game and lays off roughly 400 employees.

The closure was first reported by Bloomberg before BioWare confirmed it directly in a statement posted to social media. "Now, after more than three decades of shared adventures, BioWare is closing," the studio wrote, adding that "early development on the next Mass Effect project is ending," according to Kotaku's report. A Mass Effect television adaptation reportedly in development elsewhere is not affected by the shutdown.

Part of a broader cost-cutting purge

The studio's closure is part of a wider restructuring at EA following the company's roughly $55 billion take-private buyout, backed by a Saudi Arabian sovereign fund working with Affinity Partners. EA took on about $18 billion in debt as part of that deal, and the company's board has promised investors $700 million in annual cost savings — cuts that are now landing squarely on BioWare.

Beyond BioWare, an internal letter to staff said EA is also cancelling an in-development Sims project code-named "Project Lotus" in favor of a different Sims initiative, code-named "Evergreen." The company says it will instead concentrate resources on its sports franchises, "Apex Legends," and its Marvel and Star Wars game projects.

AFTER MORE THAN THREE DECADES OF SHARED ADVENTURES

Founded in 1995, BioWare built a reputation as one of gaming's premier role-playing studios, but its recent history has been rocky. The ill-fated "Anthem" was widely seen as a commercial and critical failure, and this year's "Dragon Age: The Veilguard" sold around 1.5 million copies — roughly half of what EA had projected internally.

Reaction from the gaming industry was swift and largely critical of EA's pattern of shuttering studios it has acquired. Fans and former developers flooded social media with tributes to BioWare's two-decade run of acclaimed role-playing games, even as some longtime critics argued the closure had been avoidable had EA invested differently in the studio's recent projects.

The shutdown marks the end of an era for a studio that helped define the modern role-playing game genre, from "Knights of the Old Republic" to the original "Mass Effect" trilogy, widely regarded as a high point of narrative-driven science fiction gaming. For a generation of players, BioWare's branching-dialogue systems and character-driven storytelling set a template still emulated across the industry.

It remains unclear how severance will be handled for the roughly 400 affected employees, or whether any staff will be absorbed into other EA studios. The company has not said whether any Mass Effect assets will be revived in the future.