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Several key developers from the Dragon Age team at BioWare have announced their departure following the studio's recent restructuring, which aims to focus entirely on the development of the next Mass Effect game. On January 29, IGN reported that BioWare had reassigned numerous developers to other projects within EA, signaling a shift in priorities.
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."
While EA has successfully placed an unknown number of BioWare developers into equivalent 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 taken to social media to confirm their departure from the studio and their search for new opportunities.
This news comes after BioWare experienced a round of layoffs in 2023, and just last week, Dragon Age: The Veilguard director Corinne Busche announced her exit from the studio.
When asked by IGN about the specifics of the impact on BioWare's staff, EA provided a vague response: "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 first new game in the fantasy RPG series in a decade, concluded its development last week with what appears to be its final major update. The game's launch was underwhelming, and BioWare confirmed that Dragon Age: The Veilguard wouldn’t receive any post-launch DLC, disappointing fans who expected expansions similar to those of previous Dragon Age titles.
EA also revealed that Dragon Age: The Veilguard failed to meet sales expectations by 50%, achieving only 1.5 million players against a target of three million. The game's development faced numerous challenges, including layoffs and the departure of several project leads at various stages, as previously reported.
Looking ahead, 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 now focused on developing the next Mass Effect game.
