By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Gaming Discussion - EA restructures Bioware

G2ThaUNiT on 30 January 2025

Damn......EA looks to have cleaned house.



You called down the thunder, now reap the whirlwind

Around the Network
JRPGfan on 30 January 2025
G2ThaUNiT said:

Damn......EA looks to have cleaned house.

The tweet:

"The Dragon Age franchise has been put on hold. A large portion of the writing staff behind Dragon Age The Veilguard has been laid off and won’t be working on Mass Effect 5. I really hope lessons were learned here, Mass Effect 5 needs to stylistically LOOK like Mass Effect and be subtle with its writing, Dragon Age died almost singlehandedly off the less realistic art style not hitting with long-time fans and clips of its “bad writing” going viral, if this happens again, BioWare won’t be around after ME5. Fingers crossed they nail it."


The writers should be fired for their bland and poor job, at the story and dialog.
Management and the stuff they pushed, should get the boot too tbh.
Even that guy that went on saying "he was not looking to hire dusty old white guys, and would hire people of color instead".
(thats discrimination on race)

Or the teams that went on tweeter and basically defended all this with the "if you don't like it, dont play it, this game isn't for you" (Tash viral clips)
(if you do divisive takes, you lose customers.... game makes less money = people get fired)

The LGBTQA+ stuff had a minor effect, imo.

The biggest issue... is it's just not a good game.

If you p*** all over your franchise fanbase, that want a turn based party RPG, set in a dark fantasy setting....
and give them a single party action game instead, set in a disney land..., this happends.

(your party members don't matter in this game, non of the dialog or combat stuff is meaningfull... they dumbed down the gameplay too much)

The franchise is dead now.
They need to wait 15-20 years and reboot it.


Last edited by JRPGfan - on 30 January 2025

LegitHyperbole on 30 January 2025
JRPGfan said:
LegitHyperbole said:

Can you TLDR. I don't want to give IGN traffic.

They used to be a 2 project team studio.
So while pre-production, and planning, everyone would go do the otherthing, while they where not directly needed at the time for their own thing.
(and vice-versa). This way, they would always have people working for them, doing something, in this studio.

Now...

Gary McKay, wrote that the studio is "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 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 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."
(why should we tell you, how many people we fired? and how many are working on Mass Effect atm? We think it's enough for now)



TLDR :

Bioware is no longer a 2 project team studio (it's implied by Gary, and repeated by IGN).
People not needed, are being fired (they are in pre-planning Mass Effect stage, don't need everyone at the studio who currently is).
Some that were deemed really tallented, if needed other places, were put there instead (most were probably just let go)
(they won't give numbers, its likely alot).




The good news, is a year down the line, when they are ready to start full production or something...
They might rehire some of these people, if they are then still looking for work, and want to give it another go.

Thank you. 



Games Beaten In 2025 | 2025 Trophy League | 24 Games Beaten In 2024 | 5 Games Beaten In 2023  | Top 50 Games of all Time. | Current games thread

Darc Requiem on 30 January 2025
Pemalite said:

People have been saying this -next game- is Biowares last chance since Dragon Age 2.

Since we have had Mass Effect 3, Anthem, Andromeda, Veilguard which have all been surrounded by criticism, politics and drama.

However this is the first movement we have had since 2011 where EA are taking proactive changes to "manage" the developer... The next Mass Effect is likely the make it or break it moment for Bioware, EA doesn't support developers who drop the ball, forever.

I don't recall that at all. I don't remember this talk getting kicked around until Athem tanked. Mass Effect 2 was a big hit which made Mass Effect 3 highly anticipated. Despite the issues with DA2, it got two major DLC expansions. While Inquisition was one of their biggest hits.



JRPGfan on 30 January 2025

Dragon Age Veilguard is now on sale for 24$ on gamestop (physical disc).
I guess they made and order more copies than they can realistically sell, and don't want to burn in with all that.
So to the bargin bin it goes.


https://x.com/gamestop/status/1884718188505805210



Around the Network
JRPGfan on 31 January 2025

https://bsky.app/profile/jasonschreier.bsky.social/post/3lh2qelurg22b

"NEW: After the release of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, dozens of BioWare employees were told they were temporarily assigned to other projects within EA.

This week, a twist: those temp assignments are now *permanent* transfers. And BioWare has shrunk.

the story : the story "    -  Jason Schreier


"BioWare is now down from more than 200 people two years ago to less than 100 today, according to the people familiar. A small team will remain to work on the next Mass Effect game — led by company veterans who oversaw the development on the original trilogy as well as on 2019's Anthem — in hopes of expanding as the game gets further into production."

"Now, BioWare studio head Gary McKay and Mass Effect executive producer Mike Gamble are essentially looking to reboot the company as they plunge forward on their next game. It will be a long road ahead, and what emerges will be a very different BioWare. But at least for now, the studio will continue. "

TLDR:

There is like 24-36 people moved to other parts of EA (likely talents, they wanted to keep).
BioWare is now less than 100 people  (its down like more than 100 people from 2years ago)
They look at this as rebooting the studio (ei. get rid of unwanted elements, and start anew)


*edit:
Apparently back in the day (2010) they had over 800 people at Bioware (their wiki said so anyways).
Having less than 100 people working on a new ME game.... will really limit it in scope, or they rehire like 100-200 people.... or use alot of contract workers (outsource).

Last edited by JRPGfan - on 31 January 2025

G2ThaUNiT on 31 January 2025

BioWare now has less than 100 employees TOTAL?!?! Good lord.......



You called down the thunder, now reap the whirlwind

Darc Requiem on 31 January 2025

AFAIK Bioware currently has 72 employees.



JRPGfan on 31 January 2025
Darc Requiem said:

AFAIK Bioware currently has 72 employees.

Do you really need more to make a AAA RPG? 
just give them 10 years or something.... it'll happen eventually. See you in 2035...        /sarcasm

Last edited by JRPGfan - on 31 January 2025

Darc Requiem on 03 February 2025
JRPGfan said:
Darc Requiem said:

AFAIK Bioware currently has 72 employees.

Do you really need more to make a AAA RPG? 
just give them 10 years or something.... it'll happen eventually. See you in 2035...        /sarcasm

Honestly, and this is pure speculation on my part but I think EA is just giving them one last shot before shuttering the studio. They've got a enough people that develop a proof of concept to present to EA. If EA likes it, they'll give them the necessary staff to complete project. If they don't, it's bye bye Bioware.