Saving Mass Effect Could Cost More Than $200 Million, Says BioWare Co-Founder

Anyone who wants to buy Mass Effect from Electronic Arts and finish what BioWare began may need a very deep pocket. According to a co-founder of the studio, the cost of rescuing the series could top $200 million, or roughly £150 million.

The comment shows how hard it is to revive a franchise that sits with a publisher rather than with the people who created it. BioWare has been part of EA since 2007, and the Mass Effect intellectual property belongs to EA. Anyone trying to continue the story outside the company would first have to negotiate for the rights, then pay for development from the ground up. That second step is where the money goes. A story-driven action RPG with the scale of the original trilogy is expensive to make, and budgets for major releases have climbed sharply over the past decade.

The figure is an estimate, not a reported offer or a deal in progress. The source does not break down how the number was reached, and it does not say whether any buyer has approached EA. Still, it gives fans who have floated ideas about crowdfunding or a buyout a sense of the scale involved.

For now, the series remains in EA's hands, and the company has not signaled any plan to sell it. Fans who want to see the story continue will have to wait for whatever BioWare and EA decide to do next, or hope that the price of getting involved in the series becomes a little more manageable.