Electronic Arts sent staff a studio-restructuring memo on Wednesday, 21 October 2026. It is signed by Cam Weber, president and chief studios officer, and David Tinson, president and COO. Variety published it the same day and treated it as the publisher's first large move since leaving the public markets in the summer. The text is about concentrating the slate. It does not announce that the company is disappearing.

Weber and Tinson write that the industry has changed, that players have more choices, and that studios need to sit behind fewer large projects. The layoffs, Variety calculates, cover about 3 percent of the global workforce. EA last reported 14,500 employees, so roughly 400 jobs. That number is not in the memo. It is a press estimate, not an official headcount filing.

The hardest line in the document is BioWare. A small team was in early development on a new Mass Effect. The company has decided not to continue that work, to close the studio and to shut the Edmonton workspace. Weber and Tinson call BioWare a legendary studio that helped define role-playing games, and they say they do not take the decision lightly. That is the closure of a Canadian studio. It is not the liquidation of Electronic Arts.

On the same 21 October, the BioWare team posted on its own blog. The note lists Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Knights of the Old Republic, Dragon Age, Mass Effect and Anthem. After more than three decades, it says, the studio is closing and early development on the next Mass Effect is ending. The message thanks players. It does not say the Mass Effect franchise has been sold, and it is not a verdict on games already released.

On shooters, the memo praises the Battlefield 6 launch and says Respawn and DICE will collaborate on a future project without naming it. Variety, citing multiple sources, identifies that project as Star Wars: Battlefront 3 for Lucasfilm. Until EA confirms it in public, that remains a press attribution, not an official title. The company also says it will keep investing in Apex Legends, with new multiplayer modes.

In action-adventure, Weber and Tinson keep Marvel's Iron Man and the next Star Wars Jedi on the list. At EA Sports they describe Project Gridiron, a social, open-world American football experiment, and pre-production on a Fight Night return. At The Sims, priority shifts to Project Evergreen, and Project Lotus is paused. At skate., the team is being made smaller and more focused, not struck from the slate.

For people who lose their roles, the memo promises support to look for other jobs inside EA and a Global Town Hall in November. Variety notes that the $55 billion take-private with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake and Affinity Partners closed on 4 August. Wednesday's restructuring is an internal portfolio announcement. It is not a winding-up of the publisher.

Image: King of Hearts, Electronic Arts headquarters in Redwood Shores, Redwood City, California, 7 May 2011, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons; the campus in 2011, not the Wednesday memo.

Sources consulted: Electronic Arts Laying Off 3% of Employees in Studios Restructuring - Variety, 21 October 2026; Building EA Next Chapter - Electronic Arts, 21 October 2026.