Electronic Arts shuts down BioWare and cancels the next MASS EFFECT game

In news that is not entirely unexpected, but the timing certainly is, Electronic Arts is to shut down BioWare, the legendary RPG studio behind some of the greatest games in history, including Baldur's Gate, Baldur's Gate II, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect and Dragon Age: Origins, along with their respective sequels. The fifth Mass Effect game, in development at the studio since at least 2020, has been cancelled.BioWare was founded in Edmonton, Canada in 1995 by Ray Muzyka, Greg Zechuk and Augustine Yip. Their first game, Shattered Steel, was a mech combat title, published by Interplay Entertainment in 1996. Their second title was planned to be a fantasy roleplaying game with the working title Battleground: Infinity, using impressive new tech that was quickly dubbed the Infinity Engine. Interplay, impressed by a demo, suggested merging the game with their own Dungeons & Dragons video game licence. The resulting game, Baldur's Gate, was released in late 1998 and was…