Harding in Dragon Age: The Veilguard, a BioWare game

BioWare Hit by Layoffs Following Dragon Age: The Veilguard's Failure

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Published: January 30, 2025 10:18 AM

BioWare has laid off several of its employees as part of an initiative to become a "more agile" studio, although the developer itself hasn't officially announced these layoffs.

As noted by Rock Paper Shotgun, several BioWare employees who worked on Dragon Age: The Veilguard, including lead writer Trick Weekes and producer Jennifer Cheverie (among others), have posted on social media that they're now looking for a new job.

Yesterday, BioWare posted a studio update in which general manager Gary McKay said the studio was becoming "a more agile, focused studio", referring obliquely to "today's news" and refraining from announcing any of the staff departures that were subsequently confirmed by staff members themselves.

The player fighting wraith-like enemies alongside their companions in Dragon Age: The Veilguard, a BioWare game
Dragon Age: The Veilguard's flop appears to have led to layoffs at BioWare.

McKay also says that "a core team" at BioWare is currently working on the next Mass Effect, and that the game will boast the involvement of folks who worked on the original trilogy. He cites names like series producer Mike Gamble, designer Preston Watamaniuk, and cinematics animator Parrish Ley.

He also says that given the "stage of development" the next Mass Effect is currently at, the team doesn't "require support from the full studio", and so some BioWare employees have been moved to "other teams at EA that had open roles that were a strong fit".

While this isn't necessarily the sole reason behind these layoffs, it's worth noting that EA recently revealed its flagship RPG Dragon Age: The Veilguard was a flop, selling around half of the copies the publisher expected it to shift.

The game also spent a very, very long time in development, undergoing at least one major reboot before being shaped into the game that was eventually released in October.

Right before these layoffs were reported, Veilguard director Corinne Busche revealed that she was leaving BioWare, so it's possible that she jumped before she was pushed.

Whatever the case may be, all eyes are now on the next Mass Effect, which seemingly has a lot of work to do if it's going to pull BioWare back from what appears to be a pretty dangerous brink. Stay tuned for more.

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Joe has been writing for TechRaptor for several years, and in those years has learned a lot about the gaming industry and its foibles. He’s originally an… More about Joseph