Dragon Age Team Laid Off as BioWare Shifts Focus to Mass Effect

Key developers behind the Dragon Age series have announced their departure from BioWare following a studio restructuring aimed at focusing efforts on the upcoming Mass Effect game. On January 29, IGN reported that BioWare had shifted several of its developers to other projects within EA as part of this strategic pivot.

BioWare's general manager, Gary McKay, stated that the studio is "taking this opportunity between full development cycles to reimagine how we work." He further explained, "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."

While EA has successfully placed an unspecified number of BioWare developers into other roles within the company, a smaller group of Dragon Age team members are facing termination. These individuals are being given the opportunity to apply for other positions within EA.

In the wake of this 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, have publicly announced their departure from the studio and are seeking new employment.

This restructuring comes on the heels of a round of layoffs at BioWare in 2023 and the recent exit of Dragon Age: The Veilguard director Corinne Busche. When asked about the specifics of the impact on BioWare's workforce, EA provided a vague response, stating, "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."

Dragon Age: The Veilguard, the latest installment in the fantasy RPG series and the first in a decade, concluded its development last week with what appears to be its final major update. The game's launch was underwhelming, with BioWare confirming that Dragon Age: The Veilguard would not receive any post-launch DLC, a decision that disappointed fans accustomed to expansions in previous Dragon Age titles. Furthermore, EA revealed that the game fell short of sales expectations by 50%, reaching only 1.5 million players against a target of three million. The development of Dragon Age: The Veilguard was marred by numerous challenges, including layoffs and the departure of several key project leads at various stages.

Meanwhile, EA confirmed that a "core team" at BioWare, led by veterans from the original Mass Effect trilogy such as Mike Gamble, Preston Watamaniuk, Derek Watts, and Parrish Ley, is currently working on the next Mass Effect game.