Facing financial pressure, the video-game publisher chose ‘Star Wars’ over ‘Mass Effect’
Schreier adds on Bluesky:
Why did EA shut down BioWare? Twitter thinks the studio failed because it was too woke. BlueSky thinks Saudi Arabia killed the studio for being too gay. The real reason? Star Wars
Jason Schreier is usually spot on but this time I am calling BS. EA was bought out by The Saudi Wealth Fund to continue its game-washing its reputation, and Jared Kushner’s firm, and several right leaning investors, and one of the first things they asked BioWare to do was remove a Pride Flag from a game for a franchise that is famously LGBTQ+ Friendly that does not expose that content unless you seek it out, and they refused. Then shortly before their game was to be announced and the teaser trailer which was finished was to be dropped, the game was cancelled and the studio closed.
Long before that happened, a studio that’s supposed to be able to output a AAA game was cut down to 50 people from more than 200 after The Veilguard. The writing was really already on the wall. Also, that trailer was not meant for us; it was for EA. It was only shown to us by a former employee since it’s cancelled anyway.