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

Key Dragon Age Developers Depart BioWare Amid Studio Restructuring

In a significant shift for BioWare, several key developers from the Dragon Age team have announced their departure following the studio's recent restructuring to focus exclusively on the next installment of the Mass Effect series. The news broke on January 29, with IGN reporting that BioWare had reassigned numerous developers to other projects within EA as the studio zeroes in on Mass Effect 5.

General Manager Gary McKay emphasized that this move comes between full development cycles, allowing BioWare to "reimagine how we work." He stated, "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 equivalent roles within the company, a smaller group from the Dragon Age team faces termination. These individuals are being given the opportunity to apply for other positions within EA.

In the wake of this announcement, several BioWare developers publicly shared their decision to leave the studio. Notable departures include 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, all of whom are now seeking new opportunities.

This restructuring comes on the heels of a round of layoffs at BioWare in 2023 and the recent departure of Dragon Age: The Veilguard director Corinne Busche. When IGN sought more details from EA about the number of affected individuals, potential layoffs, and the current staff size at BioWare, the 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."

Dragon Age: The Veilguard, the latest entry in the fantasy RPG series after a decade-long hiatus, concluded its development last week. Despite high anticipation, the game's launch was underwhelming, with BioWare confirming no post-launch DLC would be available, a stark contrast to previous Dragon Age titles. EA later revealed that Dragon Age: The Veilguard fell short of sales expectations by 50%, achieving only 1.5 million players against a target of three million.

As BioWare shifts its focus to Mass Effect, a "core team" led by veterans from the original trilogy, including Mike Gamble, Preston Watamaniuk, Derek Watts, and Parrish Ley, is spearheading the development of the next game in the series.