Tech

EA Shuts BioWare After $55 Billion Buyout: The Numbers Behind the Closure

Electronic Arts is closing BioWare and cutting about 400 jobs, its first major restructuring since a $55 billion take-private loaded the company with roughly $18 billion to $20 billion in new debt. Here is what the numbers show.

Oct 27, 2026 - 16:19

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Electronic Arts is closing BioWare, the Edmonton, Alberta, studio behind Mass Effect and Dragon Age, and ending early development of the next Mass Effect game. The decision was announced on Oct. 21, 2026, in an internal memo that EA published on its news site. It is the publisher's first major restructuring since a consortium of investors took it private in August.

The memo came from Cam Weber, EA's president and chief studios officer, and David Tinson, its president and chief operating officer. EA did not give a headcount figure. Bloomberg News reported that about 400 jobs would be cut, roughly 3% of EA's staff, including about 50 at BioWare, citing a person familiar with the plans. Variety noted that EA last reported about 14,500 employees.

What EA confirmed

The memo said a "small team at BioWare" had been working on early development of a new Mass Effect. "We've made the decision not to move forward with this development, which means we're closing the studio and our Edmonton workspace," Weber and Tinson wrote. BioWare confirmed the closure the same day on its blog: "BioWare is closing and early development on the next Mass Effect project is ending."

Elsewhere, the memo pauses a Sims project ("Project Lotus"), shrinks the skate. studio, narrows action-adventure work to "fewer simultaneous, large-scale projects" while keeping Marvel's Iron Man and the next Star Wars Jedi game, and says EA Sports "continues to operate from a position of strength," with a football project called "Project Gridiron" and a Fight Night revival in pre-production.

EA said it would help affected employees "explore other opportunities within EA." It said it would discuss the changes further at a Global Town Hall in November.

The buyout and the debt

The restructuring follows the largest take-private deal on record. EA announced on Sept. 29, 2025, that a consortium of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), Silver Lake and Affinity Partners would buy it. Stockholders approved the deal on Dec. 22, 2025, and it closed on Aug. 4, 2026. Shareholders received $210 in cash per share, and EA's stock was delisted from Nasdaq. The deal valued EA at an enterprise value of about $55 billion.

The purchase was financed largely with debt. Davis Polk, which advised the lenders, described a financing package of about $20 billion. It included $6.125 billion and â‚¬1.725 billion term loan B facilities, a $3.25 billion term loan A, a $500 million revolver, and three bond issues: $2.875 billion of 7.25% secured notes and â‚¬1.08 billion of 6.25% secured notes due 2033, plus $2.5 billion of 8.75% unsecured notes due 2034.

Kirkland & Ellis, which advised the buyers, put the debt raised at $18.5 billion. Bloomberg described it as roughly $18 billion.

The interest on the fixed-rate notes alone comes to about $500 million a year at their stated coupons, before any interest on the term loans. That is iShook Finance's calculation from the published rates. For comparison, EA reported GAAP net income of $887 million for its last fiscal year as a public company.

A record year before the cuts

The closure does not come at a time of falling sales. EA's last annual results as a public company were released on May 5, 2026, and cover the fiscal year ended March 31, 2026. EA reported record net bookings of $8.026 billion, up 9% from $7.355 billion; net revenue of $7.531 billion, up 1%; and operating cash flow of $2.553 billion, up 23%. EA credited Battlefield 6, which it called the best-performing Battlefield in a fiscal year. It also cited growth in its football games and double-digit bookings growth for Apex Legends.

Profit fell even as sales grew. GAAP operating income dropped to $1.162 billion from $1.520 billion, and the GAAP operating margin narrowed to 15.4% from 20.4%. Research and development spending rose to $2.828 billion from $2.569 billion. EA also booked $131 million in acquisition-related expenses for the year.

EA's previous round of cuts shows up in its filings. The company recorded about $62 million in restructuring and related charges in fiscal 2025 and none in fiscal 2026. EA has not said what the October restructuring will cost. Because it went private, EA has moved to end its SEC reporting obligations, so investors may never see a public figure.

How BioWare's recent games performed

BioWare's last two releases set up the closure. EA said in January 2025 that Dragon Age: The Veilguard "engaged approximately 1.5 million players" in the quarter after its Oct. 31, 2024, launch, "down nearly 50%" from the company's expectations. EA blamed the game, along with EA Sports FC 25, for cutting its fiscal 2025 net bookings forecast to $7.0 billion to $7.15 billion, down from $7.5 billion to $7.8 billion. EA counted players rather than copies sold, and the 1.5 million figure included people who played through its EA Play Pro subscription.

Anthem, BioWare's 2019 online shooter, never recovered from a weak launch. EA stopped active development in February 2021 and switched off the servers on Jan. 12, 2026. Because the game required those servers, it can no longer be played. EA never published sales figures for Anthem.

The economics of the cuts

Measured against EA's budget, the roughly 50 BioWare jobs are small: EA spent about $2.8 billion on research and development last fiscal year. The larger financial decision is the cancelled Mass Effect project, since big role-playing games take years to build and, as The Veilguard showed, can miss forecasts badly.

The memo directs investment toward EA Sports, Battlefield and Apex Legends, franchises that earn money year-round through live services; live services and other revenue made up $5.383 billion of EA's $7.531 billion in fiscal 2026 net revenue.

The reported 400 layoffs equal about 2.8% of the 14,500 employees EA last reported, in line with Bloomberg's "about 3%."