Morning Save Point: EA Explains BioWare, FFXIV Evercold Delayed, and More

Saturday morning, and the loudest thing in games is a business story: Electronic Arts has explained why it closed BioWare, and the reason is the one fans will argue about for years. The rest of the week is quieter, but there is a free five-hour slice of Crimson Desert, a big free update for World of Horror, and a new date for Final Fantasy XIV.

The big one

Bloomberg reported on October 30 that EA chose Star Wars over Mass Effect while under financial pressure. That is the explanation for the decision we reported on October 22, when EA’s memo to staff said it was closing BioWare and its Edmonton workspace and ending early development on the next Mass Effect game. BioWare’s own goodbye post listed Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Knights of the Old Republic, Dragon Age, Mass Effect and Anthem, and roughly 400 jobs went with it, about 3% of EA’s workforce.

The reason is the part that sticks. “Mass Effect was the riskier bet” is a very different sentence from “the studio was reorganized”, and it points straight at where the money went. EA’s memo puts Respawn and DICE together on an unannounced shooter that Variety’s sources say is Battlefront 3, which EA has not confirmed. A Mass Effect sequel would now have to come from EA’s own plans or a sale of the brand, and EA has not said what it intends to do with the Mass Effect or Dragon Age brands.

For players, the practical effect has not changed. The next Mass Effect is no longer BioWare’s problem, because there is no BioWare. What changed is the reason, and the reason will follow the series for a long time. For example, our October 22 report noted that EA is carrying debt from its $55 billion private-equity buyout, and a publisher priced like that is not going to fund a slow, story-heavy RPG over a licensed shooter with a ready-made audience. That argument will outlast the news cycle.

Also happening

• Crimson Desert is free for five hours on PS5 and Xbox. Pearl Abyss opened a free trial of the base game from October 29 to January 6: PlayStation Plus Premium or Deluxe is required on PS5, any Xbox player can try it, and trial progress carries into the full game (Eurogamer). IGN’s first verdict on the Charting the Unknown DLC praises the seafaring content and the romance options, calls the new story missions retreads of the base game, and reports two hard crashes so far (IGN).
• Final Fantasy XIV: Evercold has a date, and it is February 23, 2027. Square Enix moved its next expansion out of the January 2027 window it announced in April, with early access from February 19 and pre-orders opening November 4. We got there first.
• World of Horror’s biggest free update is live. Version 1.2, “As Below, So Above”, landed on PC and Mac through Steam, GOG and itch.io on October 30 with two new Old Gods, three new playable characters, a Scenario Mode and better Steam Workshop modding. Consoles are slated for 2027 (the developer’s own post).
• Turn 10 is now Playground Games Redmond. The Forza studio has been folded into Playground Games as part of Xbox’s restructuring, and Dan Greenawalt, who spent 27 years at the company and founded Turn 10, is retiring (Eurogamer).
• John Romero’s defunded shooter has a new publisher. Romero confirmed at Gamescom Asia that the project Xbox pulled funding from is alive with a new backer, ten of the old team rehired and the game redesigned for a team of roughly 15 (VGC).

Out today

Saturday is a quiet one for new releases. The week’s headliner was Croc 2: Kingdom of the Gobbos, which launched on PC, Switch and current consoles on October 29, and The Wolf Among Us Remastered, Telltale’s remake of the Fables-inspired noir classic, which unlocked on PC, PS5 and Xbox at the same moment on October 29. Owners of the original digital game can get the remaster for half price until November 12. Next week is the busy stretch: World of Warcraft: Forever on November 4, then The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School, Re-Volt and Where the Seeds Fall on November 5. Our Release Calendar has the dates and unlock times.

Deal of the day

No Man’s Sky is $23.99 on Steam, 60% off through November 9, down from $59.99 (Steam). A 2016 release with more years of updates behind it than most players have days, and a price that makes arguing with yourself pointless. The discount disappears when the timer runs out.

One more thing

Star Trek Online players built a Galaxy-class honor guard for Patrick Stewart. After the actor who played Jean-Luc Picard died this week at 86, players in the MMO gathered at ESD (Earth Spacedock, the game’s hub), at Academy and at Qo’noS, the Klingon homeworld, lit torches in game, and flew about 40 to 50 Galaxy-class ships into formation outside ESD and set off fireworks without anyone organizing it (IGN). Cryptic Studios called him “a knight in the truest sense of the word”, and players are now asking the developer to build Picard’s château as a permanent memorial. If you ever typed “picard” into a chat box, you already know what that place would mean to you.

Edited by Kerwin Stewart, Editor-in-Chief · How we report