Following EA’s reveal that Dragon Age: The Veilguard was a financial disappointment, the gigantic publisher confirmed that BioWare was undergoing a restructure.
The wording of this led the community to believe that lay offs weren’t on the cards. Instead, members of BioWare would help with different projects internally at EA while work on Mass Effect 5 ramped up.
Now, an eagle-eyed Redditor by the name of IcePopsicleDragon has seemingly confirmed that there have, in fact, been lay offs. And quite a few of them too.
Who Has Been Laid Off at BioWare So Far?
The list so far includes:
- Trick Weekes – Lead Writer
- Karin West-Weekes – Lead Editor
- Ryan Cormier – Narrative Editor
- Jennifer Cheverie Cott – Producer
- Daniel Steed – Associate Game Producer
- Lina Anderson – Senior Product Manager
- Michelle Flamm – Senior Systems Designer
Senior Writer Sheryl Chee is also rumoured to have been moved internally to EA Motive.
Since then, Mike Straw from Insider Gaming has confirmed in that very same thread the following:
FWIW: I was told by a few sources that the layoffs were “at least a few dozen” people and that there could be more
What Does This Mean For the Future of BioWare?
Well, it doesn’t look good. What EA has officially said is that Mass Effect 5 development is still on, but that it hasn’t reached the stage where it needs the full force of BioWare on it.
The solution? Here’s EA’s words:
We have incredible talent here at BioWare, and so we have worked diligently over the past few months to match many of our colleagues with other teams at EA that had open roles that were a strong fit. Today’s news will see BioWare become a more agile, focused studio that produces unforgettable RPGs.”
So we’ve got members of the development team moving within EA, either permanently or temporarily, and many others either laid off already or in the process of.
On paper, it doesn’t seem like BioWare is completely done for, but it is a worrying time for fans of the studio.
