Five days after EA closed BioWare and cancelled the next Mass Effect, a fan petition is closing in on 200,000 signatures and a group of fans says it has bought a billboard to take the fight to EA's HQ.
A #SaveMassEffect petition started hours after EA closed BioWare on 21 Oct had 191,518 signatures when we checked on 26 Oct, against a 200K goal.
It asks EA to properly fund Mass Effect, or license the IP to a studio that wants it.
Lore creator Kala Elizabeth and @WeAreMassEffect say they've bought a billboard aimed at EA. Location, cost and timing haven't been revealed.
A claim that BioWare devs tried to buy the studio is unverified. Windows Central's sources say Xbox won't bid.
Our take: the petition won't sway EA's owners, but it puts a price tag on Mass Effect for anyone who might buy or license it.
EA killed BioWare five days ago, and Mass Effect fans aren’t going quietly. A #SaveMassEffect petition started just hours after the closure has rocketed to more than 190,000 signatures, and a group of fans says it has now bought a billboard to put the message right outside EA’s front door.
The Change.org petition went up on the evening of 21 October (US time), the same day EA confirmed it was closing BioWare and ending development on the next Mass Effect. Windows Central reported it passing 170,000 on Saturday. When we checked on Monday, it was on 191,518, closing in on its 200,000 goal, with nearly 178,000 of those signatures coming in the past week alone.
The ask is simple. EA should either:
Credit to the organiser on one front: they’ve asked supporters not to pay for Change.org’s promoted-petition upsell and to give that money to charity instead. They’ve also adopted “Keelah se’lai” as the campaign’s rallying cry, which is either heartwarming or devastating depending on how well you remember Rannoch.
The billboard idea came from Mass Effect lore creator Kala Elizabeth (@kalaelizabeth), who floated a fundraiser on 23 October to pay for a billboard near EA’s Redwood City HQ, both to spread #SaveMassEffect and to try to save BioWare itself. Windows Central says the billboard and other plans are being run by her and the @WeAreMassEffect team, and are completely separate from the petition.
On Sunday she posted that the group had “just bought our first billboard”:
What we don’t know yet: where the billboard is, how big it is, what it cost, how much the fundraiser has raised or when it goes up. Right now it’s an announcement, not a photo. She’s also said there’s “a plan with multiple things for next week”. With N7 Day on 7 November, we wouldn’t bet against the timing being deliberate.
Grief brings out the rumour mill. Treat all of these carefully:
Mass Effect fans have form. In 2012, the Retake Mass Effect campaign over Mass Effect 3’s ending raised tens of thousands of dollars for the Child’s Play charity, sent BioWare hundreds of cupcakes and also tried to fund a billboard. BioWare responded with the free Extended Cut DLC that year. That was asking a working studio to tweak a finished game, though. This time the studio is gone, and the people who would make the game are being laid off. #SaveAnthem is the less cheery precedent: EA killed Anthem’s overhaul in 2021 anyway.
Let’s be real: a petition isn’t bringing BioWare back. EA’s new owners are sitting on around US$18 billion of buyout debt and a promise to find hundreds of millions in savings a year. A Change.org page isn’t changing that spreadsheet. EA didn’t close BioWare because it forgot fans liked Mass Effect. It closed it because a slow, expensive single-player RPG doesn’t fit a company now built around sports, Battlefield and paying off loans.
But that’s exactly why this campaign matters, just not for the reason on the tin. 190,000 signatures in five days, a 33-million-view farewell post and fans buying billboards is a price tag. It tells anyone with a chequebook, whether that’s Microsoft, CD Projekt, Sony, Tencent or a crew of ex-BioWare devs with a backer, that this IP still has a massive, loyal audience. The realistic win isn’t EA changing its mind. It’s EA selling or licensing Mass Effect to someone who’ll actually make it. And EA’s owners love selling assets. So sign it, share it and make some noise on N7 Day. Just don’t hand Change.org your money.
Signed it yet? And who would you trust with Mass Effect? Tell us in the comments, or bring your best Shepard speech to the GetRekt Discord.
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