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 the studio's recent restructuring to focus exclusively on the next installment of the Mass Effect franchise. On January 29, IGN reported that BioWare had shifted several of its developers to other projects within Electronic Arts (EA) as part of this strategic pivot.

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

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

Following the announcement, several BioWare developers took to social media to confirm their exits from 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 employment opportunities.

This latest development comes on the heels of BioWare's layoffs in 2023 and the recent departure of Dragon Age: The Veilguard director Corinne Busche. When asked by IGN about the specifics of the impacted individuals, potential layoffs, and remaining staff at BioWare, EA provided a non-committal 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, was released last week but failed to make a significant impact. BioWare confirmed that the game would not receive any post-launch DLC, disappointing fans who had anticipated additional content similar 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. The game's development was marred by various challenges, including layoffs and the exit of several project leads at different stages.

Looking ahead, EA announced 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.