Mass Effect 5: BioWare Doesn’t ‘Require Support From the Full Studio’, EA Moves Some Staff to Other Teams

EA has announced it is restructuring Dragon Age and Mass Effect studio BioWare, moving a number of developers onto other projects within EA and focusing entirely on its upcoming Mass Effect game going forward.

In a blog post from general manager Gary McKay, he 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,” he continues. “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.”

IGN understands that EA has already placed an unknown number of developers from BioWare into other, equivalent roles within the company. A smaller number of Dragon Age team members are also seeing their roles terminated, and are being offered time to apply to other roles within the company if they so choose.

BioWare’s structure has shifted repeatedly in recent years. The studio had a round of layoffs in 2023., and has seen a number of high-profile departures throughout the development of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, the most recent of which was director Corinne Busche announcing her departure from the studio last week. It is unclear how many individuals work at BioWare today. IGN asked EA for any comment or specifics on how many individuals at BioWare are being impacted by this change, how many are facing potential layoffs, and how many will remain at the studio. EA did not provide the specifics, but a spokesperson offered the following comment:

“The studio’s priority was Dragon Age. During this time there were people continuing to build the vision for the next Mass Effect. Now that The Veilguard has shipped, the studio’s full focus is Mass Effect.

“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.”

The new Mass Effect in question was announced four years ago, and is still in the early stages of development. IGN understands that BioWare’s current strategy is to prioritize one game at a time, as some developers who had been working on Mass Effect were previously moved to Dragon Age to get the project over the finish line and are now moving back. Per the blog post, Mass Effect development is now being led by series veterans including Mike Gamble, Preston Watamaniuk, Derek Watts, and Parrish Ley.

This news comes a week after EA announced that Dragon Age: The Veilguard missed its player targets by nearly 50% and reduced its guidance for the fiscal year due to this and, more impactfully, weaker-than-expected results from EA Sports FC 25. The company will hold its Q3 earnings conference call on February 4.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to [email protected].