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BioWare Staff Worried About Studio’s Future

Dr. Samuel Hayden

Dr. Samuel Hayden

Member
Just get in the coffin.

On Monday it was announced that Electronic Arts (EA) is being sold to a group of investors that include Silver Lake, the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund, and Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners. This deal is for roughly $55 billion and includes $20 billion in debt to be taken on by EA from JPMorgan Chase. With the company going private with the deal and taking on this new debt, it has, once again, seen many under the EA umbrella start to worry about what it means for the future. From studios to in-development games, how aggressive will the changes be in order to pay off that debt.

One studio especially worried about the future is BioWare.

In January, the Edmonton-based studio saw a number of staff let go after Dragon Age: The Veilguard failed to meet expectations set by EA. At the time, a number of employees spoke about the fear of another wave of layoffs. While that hasn't happened, many have continued to work with a feeling that any day could be the last of BioWare has they know it.

Fast forward to today, and that feeling has grown tenfold.

Multiple sources within the company have spoken under the condition of anonymity about their feelings over the last 24 hours. Of those who spoke, most believe that BioWare will be one of the first studios to see more cuts when the new group takes over.

"Look at the negativity that came after Dragon Age," said one source. "If we felt it was only going to get worse then, you can imagine what some of us think now."

The sale of EA to the investor group isn't expected to close until Q1 Fiscal Year 2027, meaning that studios and employees likely have until at least April 2026 before anything becomes official. That said, there are a few that are already preparing to look for work elsewhere.

"I've been doing it since last year, but I'm making sure I have a portfolio ready and feelers out for other jobs," another current employee said. "Kind of feels like a matter of time."

When asked for why they feel that way about BioWare specifically, almost all of them pointed to the discussions that happened after Dragon Age: The Veilguard's release. The company's headcount was cut to less than 100 people after having more than 200 in 2023. While staff reduction is normal for studios after big game releases, the drastic number has people wondering if EA planned for more cuts at BioWare.

Insider Gaming understands that, at one point, there were talks of EA looking to sell off the studio. Where those ended up, however, is unknown.

Regarding where things stand with Mass Effect, they all are working under the assumption that the game is going to come out. At the beginning of the year, only a small team was actively working on it, but more resources had recently started to be put into the game.

"We're going to keep working until they tell us were done," Insider Gaming was told. "It's not the healthiest way to live, but as long as the paychecks keep coming, we're not going to just walk away."
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I'm playing Dragon Age: Veilguard and I don't understand why people say it's so bad. It's like... A completely average BioWare experience. Yeah there's some 2025 LGBTQIA+ shit in there but it's whatever. Mission variety is about the same as Mass Effect 2 being a corridor shooter with the same mission format for 30 hours.

Just shut it down, they haven't offered the genre anything new since when I was a child.
 
Yeah I'd be worried if I worked there as well. They haven't made EA money in a long time and the bosses aren't going to be nostalgic about them.
 
Oh No Omg GIF by The Office
Its as simple as stop making :poop: woke games

edit: @mods please merge these threads
adamsapple

Thread 'Insider-Gaming: BioWare Staff Worried About Studio’s Future'


On Monday it was announced that Electronic Arts (EA) is being sold to a group of investors that include Silver Lake, the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund, and Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners. This deal is for roughly $55 billion and includes $20 billion in debt to be taken on by EA from JPMorgan Chase. With the company going private with the deal and taking on this new debt, it has, once again, seen many under the EA umbrella start to worry about what it means for the future. From studios to...
Click to expand...
  • LOL
  • Empathy
  • Treasure
  • Fire
 
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Bioware needs to be rebuilt from the ground up if it's supposed to survive. I don't see that happening, so yeah, best we can hope for is that Exodus will deliver on what's been promised.
 
Should have made better games. 🤷‍♂️

I mean it still sucks because there are employees there who do just want to make good games , but the loud weirdos over them brought this on everyone.
 
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MrTroubleMaker said:
Oh No Omg GIF by The Office
Its as simple as stop making :poop: woke games

edit: @mods please merge these threads
adamsapple

Thread 'Insider-Gaming: BioWare Staff Worried About Studio’s Future'


On Monday it was announced that Electronic Arts (EA) is being sold to a group of investors that include Silver Lake, the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund, and Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners. This deal is for roughly $55 billion and includes $20 billion in debt to be taken on by EA from JPMorgan Chase. With the company going private with the deal and taking on this new debt, it has, once again, seen many under the EA umbrella start to worry about what it means for the future. From studios to...
Click to expand...
  • LOL
  • Empathy
  • Treasure
  • Fire
Click to expand...

Interesting flex to tell people you've never played a BioWare game in a thread about them.

BioWare was "woke" long before it became an overused pejorative by extremists.
 
MrTroubleMaker said:
I've played all the games. The wokeness only got worse with each iteration.
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Correct. Mass Effect alone demonstrates this trajectory.

I suppose it is somewhat ironic this trajectory ultimately ended up with being bought by an Islamic monarchy. I wonder how many of the staff owned stock and whether they will accept the money from a state which criminalizes everything they ostensibly support.
 
The people that made Mass Effect what it was no longer exist. Whatever this current Bioware would have put out would have been ME in name only.

Absolutely zero hype from me when they announced a new one, and zero tears shed when they cancel it.
 
Make a good game that sells great and is profitable and youre safe.

I dont get a sense the FIFA or Madden teams are shaking in their boots. I dont think even the NHL team (I think those games only sell about 1M copies per year) is afraid either. BF team is safe too.
 
Dear Arabs: Please allow them to make Mass Effect sequel at least!

Give them money, ban woke bullshit from the game and speed up development.
 
Bioware went from a studio I once revered to one I now view with, at best, indifference - and at worst, absolute contempt.
 
VectorVictor said:
Interesting flex to tell people you've never played a BioWare game in a thread about them.

BioWare was "woke" long before it became an overused pejorative by extremists.
Click to expand...
Sad Kelly Clarkson GIF by American Idol

Everything has a woke quotient.

Before their woke quotient was 4, maybe 5.

Veilguard was a 9. Surely you aren't arguing that their previous games were as woke as Veilguard.

No "extremists" here but I won't get into that. I would however argue that my usage of the term "woke" is more satirical than pejorative.
 
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BioWare has been making shit games for the last decade and now they are worried about the future of the studio ?

Get fucked.
 
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Bioware's been decaying since the doctors left, and that decay leading to ultimate death is the life cycle of every company absorbed by EA.

I was sad over Bullfrog, I was crushed over Westwood, but I only have apathy for Bioware.

Larian, Owlcat Games & inXile Entertainment fill the gap well enough, and Archetype Entertainment could be another with Exodus being a replacement for Mass Effect.
 
Zacfoldor said:
Everything has a woke quotient.

Before their woke quotient was 4, maybe 5.

Veilguard was a 9. Surely you aren't arguing that their previous games were as woke as Veilguard.
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This is...actually a very reasonable take from you.

I have said for a while that there are levels to this and it's not a simple on/off light switch when it comes to social messaging in writing and that the better properties out there are usually written more subtle with these things.

I agree with you that Veilguard's writing suffered due to the writers needing to be as unnecessarily inoffensive as possible.

I think where I split off from Bioware fans is that I am 100% aware that they have had a major drop-off in writing quality ever since the PS360 gen and their fandom, on the other hand, have been coping through this. ME:A and DA:I should have been clear signs of this. I think they peaked during the PS360 gen and they should have pivoted to much more linear narratives when their older writers left.

I don't think Veilguard should have had dialogue options at all, and looking at what happened behind the scenes it seems that the game wasn't originally built for it anyway, which is why over 90% of dialogue choices seem so inconsequential.

They put themselves into an unnecessary corner when continuing to go for their games branching narrative experiences when their writers were better off focusing on one path. But it is what their fans keep expecting, so they keep doing it. Thus the wheel turns.
 
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This is further proof of the state of gaming in the mid 2020's.....franchises are not allowed to fail..if they do...then look at Dead Space, Alone in the Dark, Deus Ex, Guardians of the Galaxy for reference...Mass Effect deserves better and hopefully it still does come out....but it is also a given that if that fails to meet sales expectations, then it'll definitely join the likes of the games I have mentioned above...
 
Bioware basically ceased to exist after finishing the Mass Effect trilogy. Everything they did after was a disaster. Just put the studio out of its misery already for all gamers sakes
 
VectorVictor said:
Interesting flex to tell people you've never played a BioWare game in a thread about them.

BioWare was "woke" long before it became an overused pejorative by extremists.
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Hmm I'd argue it was previously progressive, but not necessarily woke, which is more ideological preaching. Having a gay character or cultural themes traditionally ideologically aligned with the left does not automatically make something woke, or shit, it's all in the approach, and subsequent packaging/presentation, from writing, design, marketing, or even internal company policies and culture that can have a deleterious impact on the product, which veilguard suffered from on all fronts.
 
They made a triple A fantasay game in which spells like polymorph exist that had an entire quest based on helping one of your team members come out as gender neutral to their parent as the end of the world by evil gods ripping reality a part is happening in the backdrop.

Sit with that. Think about that.

This is not parody. This really happened. People internally saw this and said, "Yes, development time well spent."
 
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They are getting the axe for sure, and honestly, they deserve it for putting out terrible games for a decade. EA was soft on them imo.
 
Plague Doctor said:
They made a triple A fantasay game in which spells like polymorph exist that had an entire quest based on helping one of your team members come out as gender neutral to their parent as the end of the world by evil gods ripping reality a part is happening in the backdrop.

Sit with that. Think about that.

This is not parody. This really happened. People internally saw this and said, "Yes, development time well spent."
Click to expand...

As a long-time JRPG fan, I'm used to dealing with people's random problems as some evil god or madman is threatening world annihilation imminently. It's just a conceit of the medium that I've come to accept, and I don't fault designers for putting in odds-and-ends quests at the ends of games either. If it's written well, you can do whatever you want.

My understanding is that the last Dragon Age game was not well-written, overall, lacking the hard grit that had characterized its beginnings and offered milquetoast choices for equally milquetoast dialogue (I believe Skillup had described it as 'dialogue written as if HR were leaning over the writers' shoulders'). The problem is not a quest helping someone come out as gender neutral; it's a quest helping someone come out as gender neutral that's written like shit (probably, idk; I haven't played the game).
 
They should've been worried since Anthem never came together and was released anyway, as if it were a finished product. No sympathy, sorry. I don't think it's salvageable. RIP Mass Effect 4.
 
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Electronic Arab is poised to be the ground breaking publisher to bring us the first $100 AAAAA game with also being an industry first Billion dollar budget with unlimited follow up funds to sell 76,000 copies of this next big thing on Steam over the first 24 hours. Truly monumental times are approaching.
 
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SHAKEZ said:
So the new mass effect is already doomed.
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In fairness, if you've been following the reporting on BioWare the last few years, this really isn't new that the next Mass Effect was/is in trouble because the studio has been on the chopping block for years, now. Anthem completely ruined it.
 
LMFAO should have thought about that before putting out the trash you did…Zero sympathy for Bioware, sincerely hope nobody hires them, dont need their 'ideas' and agendas infecting other devs…Its bad enough atm as is.
 
winjer said:
Bioware hasn't made a good game in over a decade, so it no longer matters.
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Nope. It doesn't.

Why people think that the "BioWare" that made Dragon Age Origins and all three mass effect is still there absolutely baffles me. I know some people just want the IPs that love to be continue to be good, but that IP is only as good as the people who initially created it. And those folks are long gone.

This is a corpse of BioWare with charlatans wearing its carcass like a costume.

Just end it.
 
Whatever talent they had are long gone. BioWare has been dead for me for a while and mass effect andromeda and dragon age veilguard have been like Weekend at Bernie's 1 and 2. Someone propping up the dead corpse of a studio making absolute shit games of the ips they own.
 
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