Bioware Downsizing Amid Dragon Age: The Veilguard Troubles

With work on Dragon Age: The Veilguard finished, Bioware has set its sights to the stars with the next Mass Effect game. As such, the developer restructured the studio, claiming it does not require the support of a full studio. Unfortunately, this seems to have led to layoffs of key developers of the latest Dragon Age game.

Bioware sees layoffs as studio shifts focus on next Mass Effect

Bioware’s Gary McKay recently posted a studio update regarding the changes to the developer. Citing their announcement in August 2023, the end of Dragon Age: The Veilguard was the beginning of the studio’s restructuring. Now, a “core team” is assembled to develop the next Mass Effect game under the leadership of series veterans, including Mike Gamble, Preston Watamaniuk, Derek Watts, and Parrish Ley.

“In keeping with our fierce commitment to innovating during the development and delivery of Mass Effect, we have challenged ourselves to think deeply about delivering the best experience to our fans,” said McKay. “We are taking this opportunity between full development cycles to reimagine how we work at BioWare.”

“Given this stage of development, we don’t require support from the full studio,” McKay continued. “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.”

As reported by IGN, several Bioware developers announced they were exiting the studio on social media. Karin West-Weekes, Trick Weekes, Ryan Cormier, Jen Cheverie, and Michelle Flamm all confirmed they are no longer with the studio.

IGN asked EA about how many employees were impacted by the new restructuring.

“The studio’s priority was Dragon Age. During this time there were people continuing to build the vision for the next Mass Effect,” the publisher said in a statement. “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 statement continued.

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