Less than a week after BioWare announced it was shutting down, a fan petition asking Electronic Arts to keep Mass Effect alive has gathered more than 240,000 signatures. The #SaveMassEffect petition on Change.org showed 243,827 verified signatures on Tuesday morning, putting it within sight of the 300,000 goal its organizer has set.

The campaign was started on October 21, the same day BioWare confirmed the news that ended the studio’s three decades of work. In a statement posted to its official account, BioWare said it “is closing and early development on the next Mass Effect project is ending.”

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 BioWare (@bioware) October 21, 2026

What the petition is asking for

The petition was created by a Change.org user listed as Joe Smith from Denver, Colorado, and it gives EA two options. The first is a firm commitment to keep making Mass Effect games, which the text says “requires proper funding, adequate staffing, and time allocation” to live up to the standards of the series. The second is to hand the property to someone else. “Alternatively, EA could consider licensing the Mass Effect intellectual property (IP) to another studio that shares the passion and vision to keep it alive and allow it to flourish anew,” the petition reads.

The growth has been fast. In an update on October 24, the organizer thanked supporters for reaching 140,447 signatures and shared a symbol meant to unite the campaign, signing off with a quarian “Keelah se’lai!” for good measure. A second note the same evening asked fans not to pay for Change.org’s promoted placement, pointing out that the money goes to the platform rather than the campaign and suggesting that people give to charity instead.

EA has not changed course

So far there is no sign that the pressure is moving EA. As GamesIndustry.biz noted when the count passed 223,000 on Monday, the publisher has said nothing publicly about the future of BioWare’s biggest franchises beyond confirming that the next Mass Effect is cancelled. The closure arrived less than three months after EA’s sale to a group made up of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake and Affinity Partners was completed on August 4.

According to an internal letter reported by VGC, EA told staff it would keep investing in its sports games, Apex Legends, Battlefield and action adventure work, naming Marvel’s Iron Man and a new Star Wars Jedi entry. Mass Effect was not on that list.

Not the first time fans have rallied

Mass Effect players have a long history of making themselves heard. Back in 2012, unhappy fans shipped 400 cupcakes to BioWare’s Edmonton office in protest of the Mass Effect 3 ending, iced in red, blue and green but all tasting the same. This time the stakes are much higher, because there is no studio left to send anything to.

It is also a sharp turn from where the series stood not long ago. BioWare spent years teasing the next entry, including a mysterious N7 Day teaser in 2023, and that game has now been called off before it was ever properly shown. Petitions rarely bring a cancelled game back on their own, but a quarter of a million signatures in under a week shows that the audience for Commander Shepard’s universe has not gone anywhere, whoever ends up holding the keys to it.

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