Key developers from the Dragon Age series have announced their departure from BioWare following the studio's restructuring to focus on the next installment of the Mass Effect franchise. On January 29, IGN reported that BioWare had shifted several of its developers to other projects within EA, concentrating its efforts entirely on Mass Effect 5.
BioWare's general manager, Gary McKay, stated that the studio is "taking this opportunity between full development cycles to reimagine how we work." He added, "Given this stage of development, we don’t require support from the full studio. 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."
IGN learned that EA has successfully placed an unspecified number of BioWare developers into equivalent roles within the company. However, a smaller group of Dragon Age team members are facing termination and have been given the opportunity to apply for other positions within EA.
Following the announcement, several BioWare developers, including editor Karin West-Weekes, narrative designer and lead writer on Dragon Age: The Veilguard Trick Weekes, editor Ryan Cormier, producer Jen Cheverie, and senior systems designer Michelle Flamm, took to social media to announce their departure from the studio and their search for new employment opportunities.
BioWare had previously undergone layoffs in 2023, and Dragon Age: The Veilguard director Corinne Busche announced her exit from the studio just last week.
When IGN sought more details from EA about the number of affected individuals, potential layoffs, and the remaining staff at BioWare, the response was nonspecific: "The studio's priority was Dragon Age. During this time there were people continuing to build the vision for the next Mass Effect. Now that The Veilguard has shipped, the studio's full focus is Mass Effect. While we're not sharing numbers, the studio has the right number of people in the right roles to work on Mass Effect at this stage of development."
The development of Dragon Age: The Veilguard concluded last week with its final major update. Despite being the first new game in the fantasy RPG series in a decade, its launch was underwhelming. BioWare confirmed that Dragon Age: The Veilguard would not receive any post-launch DLC, disappointing fans accustomed to expansions from previous Dragon Age titles.
EA also revealed that Dragon Age: The Veilguard fell short of sales expectations by 50%, achieving only 1.5 million players against a projected three million. The game's development had faced numerous challenges, including layoffs and the departure of several project leads at various stages.
Regarding Mass Effect, EA mentioned that a "core team" at BioWare, led by veterans from the original trilogy such as Mike Gamble, Preston Watamaniuk, Derek Watts, and Parrish Ley, is currently developing the next Mass Effect game.
