Video game publisher Electronic Arts is shutting down the popular and influential game development studio BioWare after more than three decades. The upcoming “Mass Effect” game, the fifth since 2007, has been canceled.
BioWare announced the closure on social media Wednesday following a report by Bloomberg that also said the company is laying off 400 people, including about 50 at BioWare.
The Redwood Shores, California-based maker of popular titles like “Battlefield” and “The Sims” closed the $55 billion sale of its business to Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund PIF, investment firm Silver Lake Partners and Affinity Partners, which is run by President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Representatives for EA did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment on the layoffs.
“What generations of BioWare built together is something to celebrate and remember,” the studio said via social media. “These games became so much more because you played them, debated your choices, fell in love with characters, and made these worlds your own.”
BioWare built its reputation on immersive role-playing adventures, from sword-and-sorcery fantasies like “Baldur’s Gate” and “Dragon Age” to science fiction epics like “Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic” and “Mass Effect.”
But its effort to branch out into multiplayer shooters, 2019’s “Anthem,” steered away from the studio’s strength as a creator of compelling single-player narratives. It failed to find the sort of loyal audience that keeps online hits like “Fortnite” and “Overwatch” humming.
Meanwhile the latest installments of its two most popular original franchises — 2017’s “Mass Effect: Andromeda” and 2024’s “Dragon Age: The Veilguard” — met with mixed reviews and disappointed many fans. A new chapter of “Mass Effect” was in development before BioWare announced its shutdown.
BioWare, based in Canada, was founded in 1995 and acquired by EA in 2007.
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Associated Press Writer Lou Kesten in Washington contributed.
FILE - The logo for Electronic Arts is displayed during the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles on June 12, 2013. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
PARIS (AP) — French authorities in multiple cities banned protests planned across the country on Thursday after a weekend of clashes and widespread looting in France's most violent unrest in years.
The turmoil in Paris and other French cities has prompted a strong security response from the government. Night curfews have been implemented in some areas of the French capital, as well as in other cities where calm has been restored.
Demonstrations planned Thursday in Paris, Lyon, Lille and Grenoble were banned, a move seen by some as an infringement on French people’s right to protest.
But high school and university student groups say they will continue to mobilize, even though the autumn school break started this week.
The Paris police prefecture said the ban was necessary given the risk of street violence that erupted over the weekend, when groups of masked youth clashed with police forces, looted shops and torched cars.
The ban in Paris will last until 8 p.m. local time and apply to areas including the Elysée presidential palace, both houses of parliament, and the city's main train stations. Areas in downtown Paris which were severely hit by the looting are also covered.
Thursday's planned protests were seen as a prelude to Saturday's big demonstration, when activists from the “ yellow vest ” movement, whose demonstrations over fuel prices shook France in 2018 and 2019, are expected to join.
Some of those protests, including marches in Lyon, will also be banned, local authorities said.
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, who met union representatives on Wednesday, said a “massive” security operation was planned for Saturday to prevent a repeat of the violence by small groups of rioters that had exposed shortcomings in security measures.
Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron held a meeting Thursday morning with intelligence services, Lecornu and ministers to obtain a detailed account of what went wrong on the weekend and review preparations for upcoming protests.
Union representatives said their meeting with Lecornu did not result in concrete proposals. They are now focusing on another big day of action scheduled on Nov. 5, and called on private and public sector employees to join.
The demonstrations first erupted last month in a high school in Creteil, southeast of Paris, over a lack of staff. From there, class strikes, blockades and demonstrations spread to other Paris suburbs and then nationwide, even in smaller towns.
High school students have raised concerns about underfunded schools, dilapidated facilities and staff shortages, particularly in lower-income neighborhoods. Some also called for a reform of the university admissions system, seen by many as complex and unfair.
With the government unable to respond to students' demands, the school demonstrations and blockades have morphed into larger protests over soaring living costs, just months before next year's presidential election to choose Macron's successor.
A woman walks past a building with graffiti that reads "The ultra-rich against everyone" and "No justice, no peace. RIP El Hacen" after the weekend protests over the cost of living turned into rioting and looting across France, in Paris, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Teresa Suarez)
A man walks past a burned-out structure next to the inscription in a wall ¨Power = Pedophilia¨ after the weekend protests over the cost of living turned into rioting and looting across France, in Paris, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Teresa Suarez)
People walk past La Barrique bistrot damaged after the weekend protests over the cost of living turned into rioting and looting across France, in Paris, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Teresa Suarez)
View of charred objects from a newsstand after the weekend protests over the cost of living turned into rioting and looting across France, in Paris, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Teresa Suarez)
People watch and take photos of cleanup efforts after weekend protests over the cost of living turned into rioting and looting across France, in Paris, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Teresa Suarez)
