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

Key developers from the Dragon Age series have announced their departure from BioWare following a restructuring that shifts the studio's focus entirely to the next Mass Effect game. On January 29, IGN reported that BioWare had reassigned several developers to other projects within EA, as the studio concentrates 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."

According to IGN, EA has already 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 offered the opportunity to apply for other roles 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 opportunities.

This news comes after BioWare experienced layoffs in 2023, and Dragon Age: The Veilguard director Corinne Busche announced her exit last week.

When asked about the specifics of the impact on BioWare's staff, EA's response was non-committal: "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 what appeared to be its final major update. The game, the first new entry in the fantasy RPG series in a decade, did not meet expectations. 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 targets by 50%, achieving only 1.5 million players compared to the anticipated three million. The game's development was fraught with challenges, including layoffs and the exit of several project leads at various stages.

Meanwhile, 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 now focusing on the development of the next Mass Effect game.