The leader of Canada’s federal NDP party, Avi Lewis, wants BioWare developers to run the studio with backing from the federal government after EA shuttered the studio.
In a series of posts on Bluesky, Lewis blamed the private equity pattern of buying up businesses and tearing them apart for “short-term profit” for what happened to the beloved Edmonton-based developer before pitching a solution.
“The developers at BioWare know how to run the studio. They know how to make the games we all love. They should be given the first opportunity – and the federal support – to buy it and run it themselves,” Lewis said.
The developers at BioWare know how to run the studio. They know how to make the games we all love. They should be given the first opportunity – and the federal support – to buy it and run it themselves.
— Avi Lewis (@avilewis.ca) October 21, 2026 at 4:55 PM
And if you’re wondering which BioWare games Lewis likes, he mentioned over on Twitter (or X, if you prefer) that he’s more of a “Mass Effect 1 on the PS3 type of guy.”
Lewis’ comments come as EA cut 400 jobs and shuttered BioWare following a deal to go private that closed in August. The deal was backed by Saudi Arabia and U.S. firms Silver Lake and Affinity Partners, the latter of which is owned by Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Notably, the deal saw EA take on billions in debt, leading it to implement a cost-cutting plan that targeted research and development costs.
In other words, Lewis has a point — there’s a pretty clear line between EA’s deal to go private and the closure of BioWare, and it’s the type of pattern we see over and over again both in the gaming industry and beyond. We’ve seen it with Microsoft, which went on a game studio buying spree and is now shuttering and merging multiple studios (including Canadian ones).
This also isn’t the first time Lewis has called for nationalizing a Canadian company impacted by foreign interests. He made similar comments about Hamilton, Ont.’s Stelco steel plant as its Trump-supporting owner blames his own president’s tariffs for having to cut jobs, despite Stelco primarily serving Canadian customers.
Of course, Lewis doesn’t have much power to make this happen. He’s not the prime minister, and the NDP currently don’t have enough seats in Parliament to make much happen. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Mark Carney has so far been quiet on the BioWare issue, though his government’s response to what’s going on with Stelco doesn’t exactly inspire hope.
And that plays into a larger issue of the Canadian government generally not paying attention to the country’s massive gaming industry, which contributed over $5 billion to the country’s GDP in 2024.
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