The Fans Trying To Save Mass Effect Just Paid For A Billboard In Times Square

The #SaveMassEffect petition urging Electronic Arts to stop holding onto the Mass Effect license after it shut down series developer BioWare last week has now surpassed 200,000 signatures on Change.org. That is a striking figure, but as the movement has had more time to coordinate and draw up plans of action, a representative of the group has bought billboard time in Times Square for October 26.

For those who do not live in New York City, some of the billboards adorning Times Square’s screen-covered buildings let the average person purchase screentime for ads and similar purposes. Sometimes people use it to shitpost, as when Overwatch fans placed the game’s hero Venture in a skibidi toilet meme on the big screen. Mass Effect fans, however, are using it to raise awareness of the cause.

🚨 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! ❤️ pic.twitter.com/wNP9Ak9Vh8

— We are Mass Effect – #SaveMassEffect (@WeAreMassEffect) October 26, 2026

🚨 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! ❤️ pic.twitter.com/wNP9Ak9Vh8

— We are Mass Effect – #SaveMassEffect (@WeAreMassEffect) October 26, 2026

Depending on which billboard you are advertising on, it can be surprisingly cheap. Kala Elizabeth, a content creator and member of the #SaveMassEffect movement, bought the billboard time for just $250, but tells Kotaku that she and others have plans to crowdfund for future demonstrations.

The billboard features a short animation with the phrase “Keelah Si’yah,” a Quarian phrase roughly translating to “By the homeworld I hope to find one day.” This is also the name of the Quarian Ark in the Mass Effect: Andromeda game and its tie-in novel Annihilation, which was meant to convey that its members traveling across dark space to reach a new galaxy might find their new home on the other side. Elizabeth says that she initially put “Keelah Se’lai,” a more commonly used phrase across the Mass Effect series that means “By the homeworld I hope to see someday,” often said by members of the Quarian race who have never seen their homeworld of Rannoch, but this was apparently dinged for copyright, so she had to change it.

BioWare’s closure sparked a chain of leaks for the fifth Mass Effect game, called Mass Effect: Universe, including a cinematic trailer that was being used internally, as well as several plot details that came from people claiming to have consulted on the game. Now, the petition is asking EA to either hand the game off to another studio to finish it, or license the series out to another developer so it can live on.