As work on Mass Effect 5 properly gets going, BioWare says it’s downsized, with “many” devs moved to other EA teams and some staff departures

BioWare has announced that it’s undergone some restucturing as it shifts its full focus to the next Mass Effect game after putting out Dragon Age: The Veilguard. The studio has confirmed that “many” staff have been moved to other EA teams, while there are reports which hint at potential layoffs having come as part of this downsizing.

Gary McKay, BioWare’s general manager, has adressed these moves in a blog post simply entitled “BioWare Studio Update”.

“Now that Dragon Age: The Veilguard has been released, a core team at BioWare is developing the next Mass Effect game under the leadership of veterans from the original trilogy, including Mike Gamble, Preston Watamaniuk, Derek Watts, Parrish Ley, and others,” McKay wrote, adding: “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,” he continued, “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. Today’s news will see BioWare become a more agile, focused studio that produces unforgettable RPGs.”

IGN reports that, in addition to the staff the McKay’s post cites as having moved to other teams, there’s also a smaller group of Dragon Age team members who’ve had their established roles terminated, but are in the position of being offered time to apply for other jobs within EA if they wish, rather than simply being put straight into fresh posts.

EA didn’t get into specifics when asked about what would seemingly amount to layoffs if affected staff don’t wish to apply for the roles on offer or don’t end up getting those jobs. “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,” it told IGN. Ok, then.

A number of ex-BioWare staff have taken to social media to share where this restucturing has left them, with many having seemingly been let go, including Veilguard writing lead Patrick Weekes, who posted on BlueSky that he’s “now looking for a new writing/narrative position”. Editors Ryan Cormier and Karin West-Weekes have also posted they’re looking for new roles, while writer Brianne Battye is among those who’ve moved to Motive Studio.

While EA said Veilguard “underperformed” the publisher’s targets, it cited EA Sports FC 25‘s performance as a bigger factor in a recent readjustment of its financial forecast.