Has Electronic Arts cracked the whip on the studio? After all, it was the publisher that complained that it was one of the games that did not live up to expectations…

BioWare CEO Gary McKay said in a blog post that the studio’s staff has been significantly reduced: “Today we turn our attention to the future and prepare for the next chapter in the BioWare story. As we announced in August 2023, we are changing the way we make games to meet the needs of our upcoming projects and hold ourselves to the highest standards of quality. Following the release of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, a core team at BioWare is developing the next Mass Effect game, led by veterans of the original trilogy, including Mike Gamble, Preston Watamaniuk, Derek Watts, Parrish Ley, and others.

In keeping with our fierce commitment to innovation in the development and delivery of Mass Effect, we have challenged ourselves to think deeply about how to deliver the best experience for our fans. We are taking this opportunity between full development cycles to rethink how we work at BioWare. At this stage of development, we don’t need the support of the full studio. We have incredible talent here at BioWare, so we have worked diligently over the past few months to match many of our colleagues with other teams at EA that had open positions that were a good fit. With today’s news, BioWare will become a more agile, focused studio making unforgettable role-playing games. We appreciate your support as we build a new future for BioWare,” McKay wrote.

Various Developers and Writers have been reportedly laid off at BioWare
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The blog post doesn’t mention it, but many people lost their jobs with this restructuring, i.e. they couldn’t go elsewhere within Electronic Arts. On LinkedIn and Bluesky, many people mentioned who left, and this was summarized on Reddit. The list is quite extensive: Lead Writer Trick Weekes, Lead Editor Karin West-Weekes, Narrative Editor Ryan Cormier, Producer Jennifer Cheverie Cott, Associate Game Producer Daniel Steed, Senior Product Manager Lina Anderson, and Senior Systems Designer Michelle Flamm.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard has reached 1.5 million players, which is only half of what was expected, so it’s no wonder that the editor of Insider Gaming says that a few dozen more developers have left the studio…

Source: WCCFTech