{"id":15732,"date":"2026-10-22T00:40:02","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T21:40:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/?p=15732"},"modified":"2026-10-22T09:04:40","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T05:34:40","slug":"former-bioware-executive-producer-mark-darrah-says-ea-might-be-more-likely-to-sell-ips-like-mass-effect-and-dragon-age-after-studios-closure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/2026\/10\/22\/former-bioware-executive-producer-mark-darrah-says-ea-might-be-more-likely-to-sell-ips-like-mass-effect-and-dragon-age-after-studios-closure\/","title":{"rendered":"Former BioWare Executive Producer Mark Darrah Says EA Might Be &#8216;More Likely&#8217; to Sell IPs Like Mass Effect and Dragon Age After Studio\u2019s Closure"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Mark Darrah, who worked as an Executive Producer at BioWare from 1997\u20132021, shared his thoughts on the studio\u2019s recent closure by EA and what he thinks might happen to its iconic IPs.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">EA announced a major restructuring in a lengthy statement on October 21. Amid some exciting developments for Sims, Fight Night, and Star Wars fans came the devastating news that BioWare \u2014 the studio responsible for beloved series like Mass Effect and Dragon Age \u2014 was being shut down.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">\u201cAs we focus on these larger opportunities, we&#8217;ve had a small team at BioWare working on early-development for Mass Effect. We&#8217;ve made the decision not to move forward with this development, which means we\u2019re closing the studio and our Edmonton workspace. BioWare is a legendary studio that helped define the role-playing genre, and we do not take this decision lightly,\u201d EA\u2019s statement said.<\/p>\n<p><span data-cy=\"slideshow-view-trigger\"><\/p>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-preview\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 slideshow-preview\">\n<h3 class=\"title5 jsx-62124236 jsx-1085005187\" data-cy=\"slideshow-preview-title\">Mass Effect: Commander John Shepard 1:6 Scale Statue &#8211; Photo Gallery<\/h3>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-images-container\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 images-container\"><button type=\"button\" data-cy=\"hero-image\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 hero-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Click through for an exclusive first look at Dark Horse&apos;s Mass Effect: Commander John Shepard 1:6 Scale Statue.\" class=\"progressive-image jsx-2277167929 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/former-bioware-executive-producer-mark-darrah-says-ea-might-be-more-likely-to-sell-ips-like-mass-effect-and-dragon-age-after-studios-closure.gif\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">This news hit the gaming world hard, with fans taking to social media to mourn the developer and send fired staff their well-wishes. But one burning question has risen above the sadness: What does this mean for the future of BioWare\u2019s IPs?<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Some fans have urged EA to sell them off to other companies, with CD Projekt Red being a big favorite due to the two studios\u2019 close relationship over the years. And while nothing is certain, Darrah shared some insight as to what\u2019s possible for BioWare\u2019s creations in the wake of this devastating development \u2014 and it\u2019s cautiously optimistic.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">\u201cRemember BioWare is 100% owned by EA,\u201d he said in a YouTube video. \u201cEA owns all the IPs. They own Dragon Age, they own Mass Effect, they own Jade Empire. That doesn\u2019t change the situation, really, at all. \u2026Now, there\u2019s nobody working on a [BioWare] game, or games, within the EA organization, and chances are there never will be, which might make them more likely to sell off those IPs. But it might also make them more likely to just try to forget that they ever existed and bury them in the vault. <\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">\u201cI think we still are gonna have to wait a little bit before we see if EA has any interest in selling off some of its dormant IPs. Right now, they seem to be in cost control mode. They might start into a revenue-generation mode where selling IPs might be more desirable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">It\u2019s worth mentioning that EA was acquired by a consortium of private investors back in August in a mind-boggling $55 billion deal. As part of this acquisition, the investment group was reportedly banking on the hope that artificial intelligence might help cut costs to help manage its debt. <\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Given the investment group\u2019s massive debt, some fans are curious to know if this means selling off some of BioWare\u2019s beloved IPs to other developers \u2014 or perhaps back to BioWare under a different brand. For now, nothing is certain, other than fans and fellow game developers are equally beside themselves as they grapple with the news that Mass Effect 5 might never get made.<\/p>\n<p><span data-cy=\"poll-view-trigger\"><\/p>\n<section class=\"box-wrapper jsx-2673806401\"><\/section>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n<section class=\"author-sign-off\" data-cy=\"author-sign-off\"><span class=\"stack jsx-59817748 jsx-1927875859\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"rounded jsx-444076027 jsx-1730475047 profile-thumb jsx-2141281959 aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-1-1\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Virginia Glaze Avatar\" class=\"progressive-image profile-thumb-img jsx-249361588 jsx-2338608387 expand\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/former-bioware-executive-producer-mark-darrah-says-ea-might-be-more-likely-to-sell-ips-like-mass-effect-and-dragon-age-after-studios-closure.jpg\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"stack jsx-2509706801 jsx-3630940851\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"interface jsx-1132626198 sign-off-text\">\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\"><em>Virginia (she\/her) is IGN\u2019s News Editor. With ten years of experience reporting on games and entertainment, she\u2019s got a storied background in the fighting game community, influencer news, and viral online trends. Find her on Twitter at <\/em>@TheeMissGlaze<em>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/span><\/section>\n<div class=\"media_block\"><a href=\"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/former-bioware-executive-producer-mark-darrah-says-ea-might-be-more-likely-to-sell-ips-like-mass-effect-and-dragon-age-after-studios-closure-1.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/former-bioware-executive-producer-mark-darrah-says-ea-might-be-more-likely-to-sell-ips-like-mass-effect-and-dragon-age-after-studios-closure-1.jpg\" class=\"media_thumbnail\"><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><a href=\"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/former-bioware-executive-producer-mark-darrah-says-ea-might-be-more-likely-to-sell-ips-like-mass-effect-and-dragon-age-after-studios-closure-1.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/former-bioware-executive-producer-mark-darrah-says-ea-might-be-more-likely-to-sell-ips-like-mass-effect-and-dragon-age-after-studios-closure-1.jpg\" class=\"media_thumbnail\"><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15733,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[50],"class_list":["post-15732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-49","tag-50"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15732"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15734,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15732\/revisions\/15734"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}