Money Monday Oct. 26th

BioWare is gone. EA killed the studio and axed the next Mass Effect before it even got rolling. Call of Duty Modern Warfare 4 dropped last week and the campaign is the real deal. I fired it up on the Switch 2 and it looks damn good. Xbox has another stacked week of releases. Let's get into it.

💥 Fail of the Week: BioWare Is Dead

Electronic Arts just shut down BioWare. The studio that gave us Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Knights of the Old Republic, and a whole generation of story-driven RPGs is closed after more than thirty years. They're laying off about four hundred people across EA, with roughly fifty of those coming from BioWare itself. The next Mass Effect is dead in the water.

This one stings. BioWare built its name on big, ambitious single-player games with choices that actually mattered. They had their missteps like Anthem and the last Dragon Age, but the catalog is legendary. Now the whole operation is gone because EA looked at the numbers and decided it wasn't worth keeping the lights on. The Canadian office in Edmonton is shuttered. Developers who poured decades into the company are updating their resumes this morning.

EA says they're focusing on core franchises and sports titles. Respawn and DICE are supposedly teaming up on a new Star Wars Battlefront. Fine. But killing BioWare and canceling the next Mass Effect the same week feels like another studio getting sacrificed on the altar of quarterly results. Thirty years of work, gone. That's your Fail of the Week.

🎮 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 — Out Now

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 4 hit shelves last week on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Switch 2. Infinity Ward delivered a campaign that actually feels like it has teeth. Sixteen missions, about six hours, set in a modern Korean conflict. Early reviews are calling the campaign thrilling and the multiplayer sharp.

I grabbed it and ran it on the Switch 2. Looks real good. The visuals hold up on the handheld, the performance is solid, and it plays smooth. If you're one of those folks who likes portable COD without dragging a whole console around, this is worth checking out. The day-one Asset Streaming Delivery tech is live across every major GPU vendor now, and it shows in the load times.

Campaign early access went to pre-order folks a week before launch, and the feedback has been strong. Multiplayer and DMZ are getting praise too. If you skipped the last couple entries because they felt stale, this one is pulling people back in. It's not reinventing the wheel, but it's doing the fundamentals right.

🕹️ What's Coming This Week

• The Wolf Among Us Remastered — Oct 29. Telltale's noir adventure gets a fresh coat of paint.

• Fallen City Brawl — Oct 28. Side-scrolling beat 'em up with pixel art and a wolf companion.

• Primal Planet — Solo-developed metroidvania with dinosaurs and survival crafting.

• House Builder 2 — Open-world building sim in low-poly style.

• Karate Survivor — Roguelite action with improvised weapons and combo building.

• The Night of the Exorcism — Choice-driven mystery horror.

🎮 Game Pass and Quick Hits

Xbox dropped their full list for the week. Fifty titles coming between October 26 and 30, with Thursday being the busiest day. Plenty of indies, horror, retro collections, and simulators if that's your thing.

Deadlock is still getting community votes on new heroes and just had a big visual overhaul. Triple-i showcase had some solid updates too. Brotato DLC, Chained Together race mode, and Gods with Badges from Strange Scaffold all look promising for the tactics crowd.

Star Wars Galactic Racer is still getting strong word of mouth. Burnout meets podracing with a roguelike campaign. If you missed it, it's one of the better surprises this fall.

That's your Monday. BioWare is closed, Mass Effect is canceled, and another piece of gaming history just got thrown in the trash. Modern Warfare 4 is out and running clean on Switch 2. The release calendar stays packed. EA is doing what EA does. October keeps moving. See you next Monday.