Petition to Save Mass Effect Dev BioWare to Be Considered by Canada's Government

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by · Push Square

A petition to save BioWare is set to be presented before the Canadian government.

The country's law states that any public petition with at least 500 signatures must be added to the House's agenda — and this fan-driven effort has amassed over 2,300 at the time of writing.

It argues that the Mass Effect and Dragon Age developer is "one of Canada's most important cultural exports to the world in the 21st century, selling tens of millions of units of their video games globally". It's a fair point.

"BioWare has been shuttered by its American parent company Electronic Arts, now owned by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners, and BioWare's closure represents an immense loss to and possibly a targeted attack on Canada's cultural legacy," it rather pointedly continues.

Suggested solutions include providing the company with the "necessary" funding to secure its independence, while also, ideally, recovering IPs like Mass Effect and Dragon Age from EA.

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The petition concludes that the government should move to "protect Canadian businesses and cultural institutions from being dictated by American and foreign corporate interests."

The closing date for signatures is in March next year.

It's obviously a well-meaning petition driven by passionate fans — but as Eurogamer points out, there may not be much that the Canadian government can do, even if it agrees with the intent.

That's because, ultimately, BioWare — shuttered or not — is owned by EA. As are its aforementioned properties. Even if the country could fund some sort of deal, EA would still have to agree to the whole thing.

Still, the fact that this petition will be officially considered is pretty cool. For a long time, BioWare was considered a jewel in Canada's creative output — a bit like how CD Projekt Red has come to be viewed in Poland.

Do you think there's any genuine hope to this? Hop aboard the Normandy in the comments section below.

[source ourcommons.ca, via eurogamer.net]

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About Robert Ramsey

Robert (or Rob if you're lazy) is an assistant editor of Push Square, and has been a fan of PlayStation since the 90s, when Tekken 2 introduced him to the incredible world of video games. He still takes his fighting games seriously, but RPGs are his true passion. The Witcher, Persona, Dragon Quest, Mass Effect, Final Fantasy, Trails, Tales — he's played 'em all. A little too much, some might say.

Comments 3

Make Canada great again 🙌

My delusional mind is hoping that Bioware can be saved last minute 😭

As people have commented many times, Bioware have not made any good games in over a decade. Just let it go.

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