Update: Canadian MP Don Davies commented on the BioWare petition:
“BioWare has cultivated an international following through its renowned video game franchises like Mass Effect, Baldur’s Gate and Dragon Age. The Canadian video game industry creates some of our most important cultural exports, and BioWare has been one of our greatest success stories.
Electronic Arts, their American parent company, has never invested in BioWare’s success since it bought the studio as part of a larger acquisition in 2007. This is a trend among video game publishers like EA. They buy smaller developers, set unrealistic deadlines, overwork their employees, and meddle in the development process, resulting in lower quality games. Then, when sales don’t meet expectations, they blame the developers, lay off staff, and eventually close the studio to make short-term profits.
New Democrats want BioWare to remain in business, preferably under Canadian control. We believe BioWare employees should have the first opportunity to buy back their studio and continue making the games fans love. The petition primarily asks the federal government to provide the required capital. It’s entirely possible. Our goal with this petition is to demonstrate how many Canadians believe this is a worthwhile investment in our entertainment industry.
Original story continues below.
It’s been a few weeks since EA shut down BioWare, but the fight to save the studio continues to gain momentum. And now, after a fan-created petition reached 300,000 signatures, a Canadian politician has launched an official petition to the government to save the Mass Effect developer.
Petition e-7898 was started by Burnaby, British Columbia resident Brendan Routh and sponsored by Vancouver Kingsway MP Don Davies. The petition mainly asks the Canadian government to provide BioWare with the necessary capital to guarantee its independence and ownership of its intellectual property. However, it further calls on the government to protect Canadian businesses “against the dictates of American and foreign corporate interests.”
The petition also calls on the government to “defend the values of inclusion, tolerance, democracy, justice and civil rights that are at the heart of Canada’s national identity by preserving BioWare’s invaluable contribution to the global entertainment industry.”
At the time of writing, the petition already had 2,861 signatures. And while that’s a far cry from the 307,000 signatures on the change.org petition, the Canadian government only requires 500 people to sign it before it is presented to the House of Commons for discussion. And even if the project will be presented to the House of Commons, it remains to be seen whether the Canadian government will follow through on it or not.
However, Don Davies reached out to Bluesky to argue the merits of the petition. In an article, Davies claims that “BioWare’s American parent company, EA, has decided to close the studio. These publishers buy developers, tear them apart and dismantle them for profit. There is a pattern of American companies buying Canadian companies and shutting them down, costing Canadians their jobs. »
In a follow-up article, Davies continued: “The developers at BioWare know how to run their studio. They know how to make the games that fans love. They should have the first opportunity – and federal support – to buy and run it themselves.”
This petition comes just over a week after another Canadian politician, Avi Lewis, spoke out on the shutdown and floated the idea of the Canadian government helping BioWare gain independence from EA. But now that a petition has passed the signature threshold, there’s actually a slim possibility that something will happen.
I have contacted Don Davies for comment and will update this article if I hear anything. But who knows? maybe there’s a chance something will come from this incredible Mass Effect 5 trailer after all.
Jackie Thomas is the senior technical editor at IGN and the queen of PC components. She’s been covering gaming hardware for over a decade for IGN, TechRadar, Gizmodo, PC Gamer and more. You can follow her @Jackiecobra
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