Mass Effect 5, a new installment of the sci-fi RPG series that BioWare has been teasing for a few years now, having released an official teaser trailer back in December 2020, remains in pre-production but will be developed by a smaller team, according to a new report that alleges the Canadian studio now comprises less than 100 people following the release of Dragon Age: The Veilguard—the new fantasy RPG from BioWare that apparently did not perform as well as its publisher EA had hoped when it launched for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam, EA App, and the Epic Games Store on October 31, 2024.
“BioWare is now down from more than 200 people two years ago to less than 100 today,” reads a report from Bloomberg that explains how “two dozen” people at the company were laid off this week as part of a reorganization, while others, which were temporarily “loaned out to other teams” to work on other EA games (e.g., Iron Man and Skate), have now been permanently moved to other studios.
“BioWare’s next game, a new installment in the popular sci-fi Mass Effect series, was in pre-production and did not need the entire studio…but this week, the group was informed that the loans had morphed into permanent relocations…they were no longer BioWare employees who were temporarily on assignment elsewhere; now, they worked for whichever EA subsidiary had borrowed them,” the report states. “If they want to work at BioWare again in the future, they would have to look for job openings and re-apply.”
News of BioWare’s reorganization comes several days after Gary McKay (General Manager, BioWare) published a blog post on the official BioWare site that explained how the company had taken a break to “reimagine” how it works, noting that the next Mass Effect game doesn’t “require support from the full studio.”
“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,” McKay told readers. “Today’s news will see BioWare become a more agile, focused studio that produces unforgettable RPGs. We appreciate your support as we build a new future for BioWare.”