The shockwaves following BioWare's closure continue to resonate powerfully throughout the gaming world. After Electronic Arts shut down the Canadian veteran studio, the fan base of the sci-fi saga has organized an unprecedented protest. Under the banner of the campaign #SaveMassEffect the subgroup "We Are Mass Effect" now takes their discontent directly to the publisher's doorstep: After recently securing an advertising space at New York's Times Square, a crowdfunding campaign for additional billboards in front of EA's offices and at the upcoming Game Awards took less than a quarter of an hour to smash its funding goal.

Protest where EA cannot look away

Initiated by the three fans Kala Elizabeth, Ariel Aguilar, and Mer, the GoFundMe campaign launched with a target of exactly 5,274 US dollars , an amount based on precise estimates from local advertising agencies. After less than 15 minutes, the amount was fully covered.

With the funds, highly visible billboards will be placed at three strategically critical locations:

  • EA Headquarters in Redwood City: The corporate leadership should be confronted with the players' protest directly on their way into the office.

  • The BioWare office in Edmonton: The building in Canada facing liquidation following the studio's closure serves as a memorial for the lost legacy.

  • The Game Awards in Los Angeles: Timed to coincide with the major award ceremony on December 10, 2026 an advertising space around the event will remind the assembled industry and global media audience of the franchise.

Organizer Mer expressed to Kotaku that she was overwhelmed by the momentum: "I am at a loss for words. We are already internally gathering more ideas to maintain this momentum."

Surplus funds for laid-off developers

The fundraising campaign was stopped after reaching the target amount to avoid unnecessary surplus. All funds exceeding the pure costs for billboard spaces and platform fees are intended by the trio to go directly to those affected by the wave of layoffs.

Planned is a donation to the Game Worker Hardship Fund of the union organization United Videogame Workers-CWA, which financially supports former employees during unemployment. As the organization is currently still working on the formal interfaces for direct external donations, the initiators are seeking ways to securely transfer the amount to the developers in need.

250,000 signatures and internal cracks in the fan base

The billboard campaign is part of a growing protest movement. A parallel petition on Change.org has already surpassed the mark of 250,000 signatures and demands EA to continue the series.

However, the petition is not entirely undisputed within the community: Critics complain that the text demands simply handing over Mass Effect to another development studio, while the fate of the fired BioWare developers is not mentioned with a single word. For many fans, however, it is clear that the soul of the series was inextricably linked to the people who built it over decades. With the billboards outside EA's corporate headquarters, they want to ensure that this loss is not simply swept under the rug in quarterly reports.