Mass Effect’s N7 Day Follows EA Shutting Down BioWare and Canceling Its Next Game, but Fans’ Petition Will Force the Canadian Government to Respond

Today is N7 Day, the annual day that celebrates BioWare's Mass Effect franchise. This year, though, it might very well be the saddest N7 Day to date, given that the studio was just shut down by Electronic Arts and its new Mass Effect Universe game was canceled as part of that process, with the publisher choosing to fund Star Wars Battlefront 3 instead.

As someone once said in a beloved movie trilogy, though, there is still hope. Global fans have been pouring their love through the Change.org petition, which is now closing in on 310K signatures, but it is a smaller petition that might carry the greatest potential to save the studio.

BioWare is a Canadian studio headquartered in Edmonton, Alberta. Back in 2018, its original founders, the doctors Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka, were even awarded the Order of Canada, one of the country's highest honors, for the developer's revolutionary impact on videogames. As you might recall, New Democratic Party leader Avi Lewis had publicly called for the government to save the historic developer; now, following petition e-7898, initiated by citizen Brendan Routh and now carrying over 4800 signatures, the government will indeed have to give an official response.

In Canada, once an electronic petition has at least 500 valid signatures from citizens or residents, it becomes certified, and the petitioner's Member of Parliament can then present it to the government. Unsurprisingly, the Member of Parliament championing this cause is Don Davies of Lewis's New Democratic Party, who wrote on BlueSky:

BioWare’s US parent company, EA, has decided to close the studio. These publishers buy developers, run them into the ground, and rip them apart for profit. There's a pattern of US companies buying Canadian businesses and shutting them down, costing Canadians their jobs. The developers at BioWare know how to run their studio. They know how to make the games that fans love. They should be given the first opportunity – and the federal support – to buy it and run it themselves. If you agree, sign the petition!

The petition itself asks the following:

- Provide BioWare with the capital necessary to secure independence of themselves and their intellectual property from Electronic Arts and resume business as an independent, Canadian company;

- Protect Canadian businesses and cultural institutions from being dictated by American and foreign corporate interests; and

- Champion the values of inclusivity, tolerance, democracy, justice, and civil rights at the centre of Canada's national identity by preserving BioWare's invaluable contribution to the global entertainment industry.

Of course, there's no guarantee the government will accept it, given the amount of funding it would require. Still, the hope is alive, and that's enough for now.

As a side note, Deadline reported two days ago that a video documentary of BioWare's final days, called Massive Effect: The Bioware Story, is being produced by filmmakers Shane Fennessey and Adam Scorgie and will air on Canada's Super Channel. The timing was fortuitous: the crew began filming the documentary two years ago and continued up until the news of the closure, thus capturing that crucial and sad moment from the inside.

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