Both Commander Shepards Back a 200,000-Signature Plea to Save Mass Effect

The #SaveMassEffect petition asks EA to keep funding the series or license it to another studio after BioWare's closure.

Jennifer Hale voiced Commander Shepard through the first three Mass Effect games, and over the weekend she posted a video asking fans to imagine rescuing the series themselves. "I like to think about a world where the fans come together to create a Kickstarter," she said in the video, IGN reported. In her version, investors and a game company sign on next.

Fans are already trying the first step. The #SaveMassEffect petition on Change.org has passed 200,000 signatures, Video Games Chronicle reported Monday. That's five days after EA said it was closing BioWare, the Edmonton studio behind the series, and ending work on the next Mass Effect. When tbreak checked Monday, the page showed 210,934 verified signatures.

Read it closely and it isn't a campaign to save BioWare. A Change.org user named Joe Smith started the petition Wednesday, the same day EA made its announcement, and it doesn't ask EA to reverse the closure, PC Gamer noted. It asks EA to give Mass Effect real money, enough people and time. If EA won't, it asks EA to license the series to a studio that will.

Fans have reason to feel burned. The next Mass Effect was first announced in 2020. When EA shrank BioWare last year, the series' director told fans the game was still in development, tbreak recalled. PC Gamer noted the shutdown came not long after EA changed hands, to Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund plus two investment firms, Silver Lake and Affinity Partners.

Help has come from outside the fan base too. Destiny players are lending a hand, IGN reported. They organized when Sony moved to stop making new Destiny 2 content earlier this year, and last month Bungie said it was rethinking its plans for Destiny after players spoke up. Owlcat Games pinned a post to the account for its upcoming RPG The Expanse: Osiris Reborn: "The Expanse show was saved by fans in the past." That's the precedent the signers are hoping holds.

The signers are bringing their own history along. "You're gonna have to pry Garrus from my cold dead hands," one signer, Savannah, wrote on the petition, PC Gamer reported.

None of it binds EA. PC Gamer pointed out that the publisher has no obligation to act on an online petition. In EA's own letter to staff, work on the next Mass Effect is still over.

Mark Meer, who voiced the male Shepard, posted his own video Saturday, after seeing Hale's. "Save Mass Effect. Hold the line," he said, IGN reported, and then he told fans to go sign.

Source: ign.com, retrieved October 26, 2026. Other sources: tbreak.com, pcgamer.com.