Following the shutdown of BioWare and the cancellation of Mass Effect 5, the community isn’t giving up—now even with a neon sign in New York’s Times Square.
Just last week, Electronic Arts sent shockwaves through the role-playing game world: The legendary studio BioWare is closing, and the next Mass Effect 5—announced back in 2020—is being scrapped as well. While much of the industry is still mourning the end of an era, the community is going on the offensive—and pulling out all the stops under the banner “Save Mass Effect.”
What began as an online petition has grown within a few days into a full-fledged campaign that can now even be seen on one of the most expensive advertising spaces in the world.
Over 226,000 Signatures for a Future with or without EA
It all started with a petition on Change.org launched by user Joe Smith. Over the past weekend alone, the numbers skyrocketed: As of now, there are already over 244,000 signatures—and the trend continues to rise.
The demand to Electronic Arts: The publisher should make a binding commitment to the continued development of the series, including adequate funding, sufficient staff, and enough development time to meet the brand’s usual standards. The petition states:
“The decline in allocated resources and Electronic Arts’ unclear development plans threaten to bring this popular series to a standstill and jeopardize its incredible legacy.”
If EA itself is no longer interested in continuing the sci-fi universe centered on the Normandy, the company should simply license the brand to an external studio that can do the franchise justice.
From Times Square to EA’s Doorstep
But it doesn’t stop at mere clicks in the browser: The fan group “We Are Mass Effect” and content creator Kala Elizabeth teamed up and, without further ado, launched a digital billboard right in the middle of New York’s Times Square yesterday, Monday. Throughout the day, a 15-second clip played once an hour, drawing passersby’s attention to the hashtag “SaveMassEffect”:
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The display also prominently featured the words “Keelah Si’yah”: In the Mass Effect universe, this is the name of the Quarian ark ship intended to safely transport various species to the Andromeda Galaxy—figuratively speaking, the phrase means something like “By the homeworld I will one day see.”
And that’s said to have been just the beginning: In an email to Eurogamer, co-organizer Mer Mora explained via email that several other campaigns are already in the works for the rest of the year:
“Aside from the Times Square billboard, we have a few other initiatives in the pipeline. An advertising truck near EA’s headquarters in Redwood City and in Edmonton, a mobile billboard for N7 Day, and another in LA for The Game Awards. All of them will carry a message in support of SaveMassEffect.”
Surplus Funds Go to Laid-Off Developers
The entire protest is to be funded entirely out of the fans’ own pockets. Due to the large number of supporters who want to contribute financially, the group is currently setting up a GoFundMe campaign.
Heartwarming: If more money is raised than is needed for the billboards and trucks, the surplus will go to a good cause within the industry. Every additional dollar will be donated to the “Game Workers’ Hardship Fund” to help laid-off developers in the U.S. and Canada.
Whether Electronic Arts will actually be swayed by neon signs and petitions is, of course, another matter entirely. Just last week, the publisher made it clear in a letter to the staff where the company is headed in the future: Investments will focus primarily on sports games, Apex Legends, Battlefield, and action-adventure titles such as the next Star Wars Jedi and Marvel’s Iron Man.
