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

Key developers from the Dragon Age series have announced their departure from BioWare following a studio restructuring aimed at focusing on the next Mass Effect game. On January 29, IGN reported that BioWare had reassigned several of its developers to other projects within EA, as the studio shifts its full attention to 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."

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 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, have taken to social media to confirm their departure and seek new opportunities.

This news 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 asked by IGN for specifics on the number of affected individuals, potential layoffs, and remaining staff, EA's response was vague, stating, "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 its final major update. The game, the first new entry in the fantasy RPG series in a decade, did not meet sales expectations, achieving only 1.5 million players against EA's target of three million—a shortfall of 50%. BioWare confirmed that Dragon Age: The Veilguard would not receive any post-launch DLC, disappointing fans accustomed to expansions from previous Dragon Age titles. The game's development faced numerous challenges, including layoffs and the departure of several project leads.

Meanwhile, 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 currently developing the next installment in the Mass Effect series.