Dragon Age studio BioWare has reportedly ‘halved in size’, with staff surprised by EA relocations
The Mass Effect developer is reportedly down to ‘less than 100 employees’, from 200 in 2023
Mass Effect and Dragon Age developer BioWare has reportedly halved in size compared to two years ago, partly caused by owner Electronic Arts’ decision to make cuts and move employees to different teams within the company.
Bloomberg reports that, following the announcement of a studio reorganization this week, EA informed team members who believed that they had been temporarily loaned to other EA studios following the completion of Dragon Age: The Veilguard that these moves were now, in fact, permanent.
BioWare confirmed this week that some employees had been moved to help on other EA projects, said to include Skate and Iron Man, since the next Mass Effect game was in pre-production and did not need the entire studio.
According to Bloomberg, the transferred staff had believed that their move to other projects was temporary, and that they were told this week that their loan moves had morphed into permanent relocations, that they were no longer BioWare employees, and if they wanted to work at BioWare again, they would have to look for job openings.
BioWare is now down from more than 200 people two years ago to less than 100 today, according to Bloomberg’s sources. A small team led by veteran employees is currently working on Mass Effect 5, and will likely expand as production ramps up.
In a blog post published on Wednesday, BioWare general manager Gary McKay confirmed the studio was restructuring following Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s release in late 2024.
With the next Mass Effect game not requiring “support from the full studio”, he said an unspecified number of BioWare staff have transferred to other teams within its parent company EA. According to Bloomberg, around a dozen people were also laid off as part of the restructure.
EA recently lowered its revenue forecast for its current business year, partly due to what it called the underperformance of EA Sports FC 25 and Dragon Age: The Veilguard.
The fantasy RPG “engaged” around 1.5 million players during its first two months of availability, which EA said was nearly half of its expectations.
