Electronic Arts announced last month that it is closing BioWare and cancelling the next Mass Effect, and the fan campaign that followed has now pulled two of the studio's defining figures back into the conversation. BioWare co-founder Trent Oster has spent the past week publicly exploring whether the studio's franchises can be saved, and James Ohlen — the creative director behind Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic — has told him he is in.
Oster, who left BioWare in 2009 and now runs Beamdog in the studio's home city of Edmonton, started laying out his thinking on November 4. "I love seeing all the energy around #SaveMassEffect," he wrote. "I think there is still a great thesis for a well-funded RPG developer who can deliver. Makes me want to get some of the original band back together."
The next day he turned to the money, and he did not sugarcoat it. "The #SaveMassEffect movement makes me wonder if there isn't some other way to build game financing that actually supports a better product instead of undermining it," he wrote, putting a rough ballpark of $200 million or more on the kind of AAA development Mass Effect fans would expect — before arguing that "it can be done well for less than that amount with a disciplined approach and an experienced team."
On November 6 he made his first move. "My first recruit would be James Ohlen," Oster wrote. "Gotta go for the design OG. I know he's cooking hard on his own adventure setting, but I gotta ask. James, you up for a reunion? Hey James, want to #SaveMassEffect?" Ohlen's reply was short: "Of course! A chance to work on Dragon Age again is a dream of mine."
Ohlen's yes carries weight because of what he built at BioWare. Across 22 years at the studio he led design on Baldur's Gate, Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn, Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire and Dragon Age: Origins, and served as game director on Star Wars: The Old Republic. He left BioWare in 2018, later founded Archetype Entertainment under Wizards of the Coast to build the Mass Effect-inspired RPG Exodus, then stepped away from Archetype in January 2026 after a severe case of game development burnout.
The obstacles are considerable, starting with the fact that EA owns the franchises outright. Oster has stressed that securing the rights is essential, because "one without the other is just making EA money," and he has described the goal plainly: "To me, the best possible outcome would be a BioWare with a directive to make the kind of games we became known for and the community still love. No more chasing the business model of the month." Beamdog, a small studio best known for enhanced editions of BioWare's classics, would need major backing to get EA to the table.
Oster is still running the numbers in public. "What are you doing this Saturday?" he wrote at the weekend. "I'm huddled in front of a computer running scenarios in Excel. I just passed rev 30. #SaveMassEffect #SaveDragonAge." He has also welcomed the idea of Canadian government support — when MP Don Davies argued BioWare's staff should be given the first opportunity, and federal support, to buy the studio themselves, Oster replied that "we should have a chat."
None of it amounts to a deal yet, and EA has not commented on the prospect of selling or licensing the franchises. What has changed is that the campaign to save Mass Effect and Dragon Age now has two of the people who created them working on a plan in the open.
Sources: Trent Oster, James Ohlen
