EA chose Battlefront over Mass Effect before BioWare closure

Electronic Arts’ decision to close BioWare and cancel its next Mass Effect project was driven in part by executives’ reported choice to prioritize a new Star Wars Battlefront game, according to people familiar with the company’s strategy. The account describes a competition for investment between two science-fiction projects expected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars each. The reported choice came as EA faced financial pressure following a leveraged buyout and reviewed its future projects. Executives viewed a new Battlefront as a less risky and more predictable commercial prospect than continuing work on Mass Effect, the sources said. The precise internal decision process and the projects’ relative development progress were not independently established in the reports. An EA spokesperson said the company reached its decision after months of planning, review and analysis, taking into account business conditions, industry dynamics and long-term priorities. The spokesperson also said EA had to focus teams on its largest opportunities, including new projects across its portfolio. EA’s public explanation did not confirm the specific project trade-off described by the sources....