It’s not a competition, and we’re talking about two very different topics, but the energy around saving Mass Effect seems to have gained traction more effectively than the push to save physical games in the wake of Sony’s decision to scrap them. On July 1, a petition was started, dubbed ‘Don’t Kill The Disc’, and it took just over a week for it to gather 250,000 signatures.
The ‘Save Mass Effect’ petition, which went live six days ago, at the time of writing, has just managed to hit 251,000 signatures, actively outpacing the anti-Sony action. But will Mass Effect’s petition go on to generate more signatures than the ‘Save Physical Games’ one?
People Want to Save Mass Effect
Mass Effect’s demise comes at the hands of a BioWare studio shutdown, issued by Electronic Arts in a bid to cut costs. It brought to an end the lifecycle of a studio that had weathered the industry for more than 30 years, and it meant that Mass Effect ‘5’, in development for some time, was shut down.
We later found out it would have been called Mass Effect: Universe, and that it would have been a time-altering, galaxy-hopping adventure that kept Commander Shepard’s legacy intact.
Almost as soon as it was revealed that Mass Effect: Universe was canceled, fans took to social media to mourn. One user by the name of Joe Smith went to Change.org to open a petition to stop Electronic Arts from dismissing the Mass Effect IP forever. He wrote:
Mass Effect holds a special place in the hearts of millions of players worldwide. Its rich and immersive sci-fi universe, with Commander Shepard leading the iconic crew aboard the Normandy, has captivated gamers for years. However, recent revelations have cast a shadow over its future. The decline in dedicated resources and ambiguous development plans from Electronic Arts (EA) threaten to leave this beloved series at a standstill, jeopardizing its incredible legacy.
In the six days that the petition has been live, it has generated 251,000 signatures.
Earlier this year, a similar petition surfaced, aimed at Sony following the revelation that the tech titan would stop manufacturing new PlayStation discs from January 2028. It was named ‘Don’t Kill The Disc’, and it quickly became one of the most popular petitions in the gaming space, as was the physical vs. digital debate.
However, it took just over seven days for the petition to garner a quarter of a million signatures:
We just passed 250,000 signatures, a quarter of a million people in a little over a week. Thank you. That number alone makes this one of the biggest gaming petitions there is. And over 10,000 of you didn’t just sign, you left comments and even videos explaining why this matters to you as well.
In a line, that means that the Mass Effect petition has gained traction faster than the global ‘keep our discs’ petition, which was seen to have much more energy back when it took off on social media.
The Save Physical Games petition eventually slowed, and at the time of writing, it was sitting on 387,000 signatures in just under four months, which means in the 15 weeks since it hit 250,000 signatures, it only managed to get another 127,000 people to back the cause.
Let’s wait and see how far the Mass Effect petition goes.
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Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
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