Canadian Party Leader Proposes Government Bailout of BioWare

The news of BioWare closing down has shaken the industry, bringing about the end of a storied studio and, with it, the prospects of any new Mass Effect game.

BioWare had been in dire straits for a while, since they haven’t had a widely acclaimed title since players were glued to their screens with Dragon Age: Inquisition. The studio behind Mass Effect and Dragon Age was well ahead of its time with LGBT representation in the love lines of playable characters.

Given the rise in animosity against the LGBT community, many of its players are having a particularly difficult moment with the loss of the biggest studio to always have their back. BioWare regularly scored high among the best places to work for in over the past few years, even after its acquisition by EA.

Long-term fans have questioned why EA didn’t continue with the upcoming Mass Effect and instead just cancelled it after so many years in development. BioWare's representation of LGBT themes has given way to speculation that this played a role in the shuttering, given that a Saudi Arabian equity firm had bought EA in its entirety.

Regardless of what caused EA to pull the plug, what can be done to aid the developers behind the great works of Mass Effect, Anthem, and Dragon Age? Well, maybe a certain Canadian politician, as reported by PCGamer, says he has a solution.

Who Can Save BioWare?

Avi Lewis, leader of the centre-left New Democratic Party in Canada, went on social media to share his idea about the closure of the Edmonton-based studio. The New Democratic Party is the third largest in the country, but it hasn’t been pulling numbers as of late, so this might be part of an innovative, potentially effective way to get attention back. On top of support for BioWare, Lewis had his own fair share of words towards Electronic Arts.

Speaking on social media, Lewis said that “This is private equity; this is what it does. Buy up businesses, run them into the ground, and rip them apart for short-term profit.” The politician argued that “the developers at BioWare know how to run the studio. They know how to make the games we all love."

Easily the most interesting part of Lewis' soapbox moment is the proposal that BioWare veterans "should be given the first opportunity - and the federal support - to buy it and run it themselves. And if we want to avoid the Mass Effect in Canada, we should be keeping private equity out, not welcoming it in."

On top of support for BioWare, Lewis had his own fair share of words towards Electronic Arts.

For the Canadian government to help buy out BioWare and return it to its roots to enable development would be quite the novel conclusion to this unsavoury saga. Government involvement in game development studios is nothing new, but this has traditionally played out through grants or tax incentives, rather than an emergency bailout of a defunct studio.

Trashing private equity as a whole is part of the repertoire Avi Lewis was brought in for, following an electoral backslide during the previous shift to the right by his New Democratic Party. Whether the new direction will work is a different story and well outside the scope of reporting on the BioWare closure.

Lewis' wildcard suggestion led people to follow up and see that he was clearly serious about BioWare, but one thing is talking about it on social media, and another is making this suggestion a tangible proposal. I have strong doubts that anything will materialize from this, but on a purely emotional level it’s still good to see politicians pay attention to the gaming industry and its workers.

To close off the discussion, people asked Lewis who he romanced in Mass Effect 2, to which he replied that he’s more of a Mass Effect 1 PS3 type of guy. Unless someone pulls off a miracle, we'll never know who Avi Lewis would have romanced in Mass Effect: Universe.