‘Mass Effect’ Fans Crowdfund Billboards Outside EA Offices And The Game Awards In Under 15 Minutes

Fans fighting to keep the Mass Effect franchise alive raised enough money in less than 15 minutes to put billboards outside Electronic Arts’ offices and at this year’s Game Awards, the latest escalation of the #SaveMassEffect campaign following BioWare’s closure.

The campaign comes less than a week after EA shut down the storied Edmonton studio and canceled the next Mass Effect game, a project BioWare first revealed alongside Mass Effect: Legendary Edition on N7 Day in 2020.

BioWare fans Kala Elizabeth, Ariel Aguilar and Mer, members of a subgroup called “We Are Mass Effect,” launched a GoFundMe to cover billboard space in three locations: near EA’s headquarters in Redwood City, Calif., outside the company’s Edmonton office that is closing along with BioWare, and at The Game Awards in Los Angeles. The fundraiser hit its $5,274 goal in under 15 minutes. The organizers arrived at that figure after contacting companies that sell billboard space in each area.

The group has not finalized dates for the displays, though The Game Awards, set for Dec. 10, gives at least one billboard a clear target window. The push follows a billboard the group paid for in New York City’s Times Square earlier this week.

The GoFundMe stopped accepting donations once it reached its goal. The organizers said they hope to send any leftover money to the Game Worker Hardship Fund run by United Videogame Workers-CWA, which supports laid-off game developers. However, the union’s website says it does not currently accept direct donations to the fund. Mer said the group had tried for days to reach the organization and, without a response, closed the fundraiser with little overflow, meaning the money will mostly cover the billboards and GoFundMe fees. If a donation isn’t possible, the organizers plan to find another way to help affected developers.

EA announced on Oct. 21 that it was closing BioWare, the studio behind Baldur’s Gate, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Dragon Age and Mass Effect, as part of roughly 400 layoffs across the company, about 50 of them at BioWare. EA canceled the next Mass Effect, which was in early development, and said the project would not move to another studio.

The closure came about two months after EA completed its $55 billion leveraged buyout led by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which took the publisher private and left it carrying roughly $18 billion in debt.

The billboard drive builds on a Change.org petition urging EA to save the series, which has topped 250,000 signatures. However, the petition has drawn some criticism within the fan community because it suggests handing the franchise to a new studio and doesn’t mention the BioWare employees who lost their jobs.

EA has not said what will become of the Mass Effect or Dragon Age franchises, and no new game in either series is known to be in development.