Saved by the Drell?
Fans continue to rally around the 'Save Mass Effect' movement, this time with a billboard at Times Square and more initiatives planned throughout the rest of the year.
Last week, publisher EA shut down BioWare and cancelled the next Mass Effect game. In the days since, an increasingly loud community-organised campaign has attempted to make Electronic Arts reverse course and ensure that the beloved sci-fi universe can journey forward in some form.
🚨 WE'RE IN TIMES SQUARE! Together with @kalaelizabeth, we've managed to get a #SaveMassEffect billboard up in Times Square, NYC, all day today! 📍 1560 Broadway, above the Pelé store (Duffy Square) ⏰ 15 seconds every hour at :35 HOLD THE LINE! ❤️ https://t.co/wNP9Ak9Vh8
— We are Mass Effect - #SaveMassEffect (@WeAreMassEffect) October 26, 2026
The We Are Mass Effect community group and content creator Kala Elizabeth are now collaborating on a number of initiatives, including a billboard at New York City's Times Square that points people toward the growing online "SaveMassEffect" hashtag. Text that reads "Kellah Si'yah" is sprawled across the ad - referencing the in-game ship that ferried different races to settle the Andromeda system.
"Apart from the Times Square billboard, we also have several other initiatives in the works. An advertising truck near EA's headquarters in Redwood City and in Edmonton, a mobile billboard for N7 Day, and another one in LA for The Game Awards. All of them will carry a message in support of #SaveMassEffect," one of the group's organisers, Maria Mora, told me via email.
The 'SaveMassEffect' petition gained a huge amount of traction this weekend with 226,000 signatures and counting. The petition urges rights holder EA to commit to "the continued development of Mass Effect" by either funding a new game in the series or by licensing it to an outside studio who can do it justice.
"All of these initiatives will be funded by the community itself! We're putting together a GoFundMe after receiving an overwhelming response from community members eager to contribute financially to make all of these happen," Mora added. "And given the incredible support and generosity we've received, any funds raised beyond our goal will be donated to the Game Workers' Hardship Fund, which supports game developers who have been laid off." The United Videogame Workers union (UVW-CWA) opened the fund earlier this year to support the many laid off video game workers across Canada and the USA.
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