The legendary studio has been shut down just months after EA was acquired by a private equity consortium.

Video game publisher Electronic Arts is closing the venerable studio BioWare, maker of legendary series like Mass Effect and Dragon Age, it announced on Wednesday.

Recent years have seen record layoffs across the gaming industry as companies scaled back expansion during the COVID-19 pandemic, disrupting tens of thousands of careers and closing many studios. The shuttering of BioWare is a symbolic and substantial blow, presumably ending multiple fervently adored game series and carrying implications for the industry at large. The closure reportedly involves around 400 layoffs, about 50 of which were at BioWare, according to Bloomberg.

EA confirmed in a blog post Wednesday that the closure of BioWare accompanies the choice to stop development on the next game in the Mass Effect series, which BioWare first teased on Nov. 7, 2020 — otherwise known as N7 Day to fans, an in-universe reference that has become an annual day to share appreciation for the sci-fi roleplaying series.

It hasn’t been lost on fans that the shuttering of the 31-year-old studio comes just weeks before N7 Day, and social media has been awash with mourning for the many franchises that came out of BioWare.

The studio made a name for itself with Baldur’s Gate in 1998, its sequel Baldur’s Gate 2 and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic before branching into original game series with Jade Empire in 2005, the first Mass Effect in 2007 and Dragon Age: Origins in 2009.

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