BioWare Silently Hit With Layoffs Amid Focus on Next Mass Effect
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A day after BioWare announced that they were downsizing and relocating staffers to other parts of EA, several developers have come forward and confirmed that they’d been laid off.
BioWare initially said the downsizing was due to not needing the full support of the full studio, though they left the part out of some developers losing their jobs.
Mass Effect 5 Development Continues, Though Without Key Members
The news comes from several developers who shared their exit from the studio on social media. As pointed out by IGN, BioWare’s editors Karin West-Weekes and Ryan Cormier, Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s narrative designer and lead writer Trick Weekes, producer Jen Cheverie, and senior systems designer Michelle Flamm have all confirmed their departure. These are just the big names that we know of, with more expected to have been laid off.
BioWare previously issued this statement in yesterday’s blog concerning the downsizing, leaving out that layoffs were occurring and alluding that they’ve been finding work within EA for those who were removed from the studio.
“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. 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. 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.”
2024 was one of the worst years for workers in the gaming industry, as it saw countless layoffs and studio closures throughout the year. 2025 doesn’t seem to be fairing any better, as we’ve already had three studios close their doors permanently at the start of this month.
We can’t say we’re surprised, considering Dragon Age: The Veilguard did end up selling less than 50% of what EA expected from it. It’s becoming more and more common for layoffs to occur nowadays in the gaming industry, especially after missing target numbers for a new game. This sadly won’t be the last time we have to report about this, as we expect even more studio closures and layoffs to occur throughout the year.
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Hopefully they downsized the writers and people who okayed all the stupid scenes about sexuality and gender. Nobody wants to play a fantasy game and be hit over the head with real world problems.