Standing knee-deep in the Babine River in northern British Columbia, fishing for steelhead, Greg Zeschuk was entirely detached from the gaming world when the studio he helped build came to an end. It was only later Wednesday, upon returning to a lodge with sporadic cell service and a flurry of text messages, that he discovered BioWare had been shut down.
Electronic Arts announced on October 21 that it was closing the legendary role-playing game developer and ending early development on the next installment in the Mass Effect franchise. The decision resulted in about 50 layoffs at the studio, forming part of roughly 400 total job cuts across EA, arriving just 78 days after a $55 billion leveraged buyout led by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
“I got like ten texts,” Zeschuk recalled. “I came off the river and got to my little room and opened my phone, and it’s like, ‘I’m so sorry to hear about BioWare.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh sh*t.'”
By the time he flew home to Edmonton that Friday, Zeschuk had already processed the news. Having retired from the industry 13 years prior in 2013 alongside co-founder Ray Muzyka to pursue other ventures—including his current craft beer enterprise, Blind Enthusiasm Brewing Company—Zeschuk said he grieved the loss of original studio independence long ago. He noted that leaving a company permanently requires breaking emotional attachments to avoid second-guessing.
Even so, the closure struck a heavy chord for him, particularly regarding Edmonton. BioWare had served as a beacon of possibility in a region historically unfamiliar with major video game development. “I’m not saying it doesn’t hurt and doesn’t suck. And I think it’s kind of sad,” Zeschuk said. “It’s actually, in some ways, saddest for the city of Edmonton, because we were kind of this beacon of hope and excitement and possibility.”
Reflecting on the studio’s acquisition by EA in 2007, Zeschuk defended the sale, stating there was no coercion and that the studio was in solid financial shape at the time, driven partly by the need to secure funding for the Star Wars project in Austin. He previously described weathering EA’s vigorous corporate structure as a testament to the maturity and strength of BioWare’s core team. While EA gave the studio several opportunities after the founders’ departure—culminating in Dragon Age: The Veilguard—Zeschuk believes the massive $55 billion leveraged buyout in August was the definitive turning point.
“I think it was the final nail in the coffin,” Zeschuk said. “I think that was the crux of it in a sense. Once again it’s a completely different company now.” He suspects the new corporate priorities favor reliable annual sports titles and franchises like Battlefield over complex, time-intensive role-playing games.
Other industry veterans reacted with sharper anger. Warren Spector, designer behind Deus Ex and System Shock, called the closure “utter bulls**t” in a social media post, arguing that executives should lose their jobs instead of developers. While understanding that frustration, Zeschuk maintained that his emotional separation keeps him out of the fray, though he sharply criticized how modern corporate leadership views game creation.
“There’s this weird belief that you can just kind of recreate great games with random people and AI,” Zeschuk said. “It doesn’t work.” He added that business-side executives “never really come from the development track” and lack fundamental comprehension of how games are actually built from start to finish.
Despite his lingering affection as a player—citing titles like Nioh and Elden Ring among his current favorites—Zeschuk dismissed any notion of stepping back into the industry or attempting to reclaim the BioWare name and Mass Effect rights. Having built a boutique brewing operation that now ships internationally to the U.S., Europe, Japan, and soon China, he considers that chapter firmly closed.
