Why ‘Mass Effect’ Fans Just Turned to Times Square After BioWare’s Shutdown

‘Mass Effect’ fans have a long history of making noise when they feel the series has been mishandled. After ‘Mass Effect 3’ arrived in 2012, the Retake Mass Effect campaign raised $30,000 in a single day from players hoping BioWare would release a second take on the ending. That charity drive, run with Child’s Play, eventually passed $45,000.

This time, the fallout is far bigger than a disputed ending. On Oct. 21, BioWare revealed it was shutting down after more than 30 years as a studio, and the next ‘Mass Effect’ project ended with it. EA is cutting about 400 jobs, roughly 3% of its total staff, including about 50 at BioWare.

The timing stung, too. The closure came less than a quarter after EA’s acquisition by PIF, Silver Lake and Affinity Partners was finalized on Aug. 4. EA has not announced the fate of the ‘Mass Effect’ and ‘Dragon Age’ franchises beyond cancelling BioWare’s next ‘Mass Effect’ game, which has left fans in limbo.

Enter #SaveMassEffect. The petition asking EA to stop sitting on the license passed 200,000 signatures on Change.org, and its demands are specific. It asks for a commitment from EA to continue the series in video game form, either internally or by licensing it out, and not just through the Amazon TV series still in development.

Now the movement has taken its message to one of the busiest intersections on Earth. The fan group We Are Mass Effect has rented digital billboard space in New York’s Times Square to promote the petition, as PC Gamer reported. Every hour at 35 minutes past, the screen at 1560 Broadway shows a 15-second motion graphic.

The design leans hard into nostalgia. A planetary vista reminiscent of the first game’s start screen sits behind a red N7 stripe, along with the message “Keelah si’yah, #SaveMassEffect.” The phrase comes from the Quarian language and means “by the homeworld I hope to find one day”, a fitting sentiment for fans hoping their favorite series still has a home.

The group did not go it alone. We Are Mass Effect and content creator Kala Elizabeth booked the screen for all of Oct. 26. Kala Elizabeth bought the billboard time for just $250, according to Kotaku, which also noted that she and others plan to crowdfund future demonstrations.

Bigger stunts may be coming. Kala Elizabeth had earlier floated a fundraiser for a billboard outside EA’s California headquarters. The group’s Discord is now discussing extending the Times Square run and adding other locations.

The petition’s momentum keeps building as well. PC Gamer put the Change.org count at 224,000 signatures, while Nerdist reported more than 230,000 people had signed at the time of writing. For a fandom that organized in a matter of days, those numbers are hard to ignore.

Billboard campaigns are a familiar playbook for passionate fandoms. ‘Our Flag Means Death’ fans bought a Times Square advert to demand a third season, and ‘Shadowhunters’ supporters rented a billboard in the same spot after that show’s cancellation. Whether a 15-second slot can sway a publisher is another question.

So far, there is no sign it has. EA has not responded to the petition or the billboard, which leaves ‘Mass Effect’ fans holding the line, as their own slogan puts it, and hoping the next stop is something more than a screen in Times Square.