It has become known that after a wave of layoffs, transfers, and dismissals, BioWare has less than 100 employees left. This happened after the release of Dragon Age: The Veilguard and the studio’s restructuring aimed at developing the next Mass Effect installment.
According to Bloomberg, two years ago, during the active development phase of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, the studio employed more than 200 people. But last week, EA reorganized BioWare, focusing the studio exclusively on the development of Mass Effect 5. This meant that some of the employees who worked on The Veilguard were transferred to other EA divisions. For example, Veilguard creative director John Epler was redirected to work on Skate by Full Circle, and Dragon Age senior writer Cheryl Chieu moved to Motive, where she is working on the Iron Man game.
This decision was made after EA announced that Dragon Age: The Veilguard did not meet commercial expectations. In the fiscal quarter after its release, the game attracted 1.5 million players, which is almost 50% less than the company’s forecasts. According to Bloomberg, these transfers were initially temporary, but now they have become permanent. That is, employees who were sent to work in other EA divisions are no longer part of BioWare.
In addition, some studio employees reported that they were simply fired and are now looking for new jobs. After the official announcement, several BioWare developers posted on social media about their dismissal. In particular, editor Karin West-Weeks, narrative designer and lead writer of Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s narrative designer and chief writer Trick Weeks, editor Ryan Cormier, producer Jen Shaver, and senior systems designer Michelle Flamm confirmed that they had said goodbye to the studio.
The company gave a vague answer to a request for information about the number of laid-off employees and the remaining BioWare staff:
«The studio’s priority was Dragon Age. At the same time, some people continued to work on the vision for the next Mass Effect. Now that The Veilguard has been released, the studio’s full attention is focused on Mass Effect.
We don’t disclose the number of employees, but we can say that the studio has the right number of people in the right positions for the current stage of Mass Effect development.»
According to Bloomberg, the layoffs affected about two dozen BioWare employees. At the same time, BioWare employees reportedly consider it a miracle that Dragon Age: The Veilguard was released as a complete game at all. This became possible after EA initially imposed a live-service model on the game and then changed its mind. At different stages of Dragon Age: The Veilguard development, the studio faced the previous dismissals of several key executives.
Amid these events, Dragon Age fans began to fear for the future of the series. However, one of BioWare’s former writers said:
«Dragon Age is not dead, because now it belongs to you.»
As for Mass Effect, EA announced that the next game in the series is being developed by the «core team» BioWare, which includes veterans of the original trilogy: Mike Gamble, Preston Watamaniuk, Derek Watts, Parrish Lay, and others.
Source: IGN
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