The Electronic Arts developer BioWare - known for famous RPG series such as Baldur's Gate, STAR WARS: Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect - has announced it is "eliminating approximately 50 roles" at the studio.
In order to match the changing needs, it will shift towards a "more agile and more focused studio" - allowing developers to iterate quickly, unlock more creativity and form a clear vision of the games being built before development is ramped up. This "extremely difficult" decision will also apparently "preserve the health of the studio" and allow it to focus more on what it does best: "create exceptional story-driven single-player experiences filled with vast worlds and rich characters."
Impacted colleagues will be given "internal opportunities" throughout EA, but not everyone will necessarily be guaranteed a new role. As for current projects in development such as Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, BioWare insists its commitment remains steadfast. Pre-production on the new Mass Effect game also continues.
As cliche as this sounds, there truly is never a good time to enact changes like this, but we trust that we have the right leaders and team in place with vision, passion, and proven track records to deliver world-class Dragon Age and Mass Effect experiences that our fans will love. - BioWare general manager, Gary McKay
Although there haven't been any new BioWare projects released on the Nintendo Switch, a lot of the company's older titles have made their way across to the hybrid system thanks to other developers and publishers. Some of these titles include Never Winter Nights and the original Knights of the Old Republic Star Wars game.
If we hear any other developments, we'll let you know.
[source blog.bioware.com]
Comments 30
In a totally unrelated story EA's executives got a $20 million pay package earlier this year for their brilliant work of sitting around profiting off other people's efforts.
I know buzzwords when I hear them.... I'd have had a bingo if they'd worked "synergy" into their cheap excuse.
Sad that it happens but it happens. Companies move on and need to change to stay relevant. Roles and structure change and some people can roll with it and some people can't.
Also gives a good chance to get rid of deadwood or problematic people.
With all these “aaa” studios struggling to get more than one game out per console generation or even per decade I’d say being more agile is absolutely called for but I’d also say it’s far too late for that now and heat death is pretty much inevitable for them.
"Do more with less" but what you really do is less with less or grind your employees to burning out.
@Jacket_p You mean deadwood or problematic people like the CEOs?
What about Baldurs gate 3? Was it them developing it?
If this was truely about agility and keeping studio focused, they would move 50 people to its own team instead of firing them.
The execs and shareholders would just like to take this opportunity to thank the effected staff for their input, and their wages.
@mlt no, Baldurs 3 was developed by Larian Studios, iirc it's not related with bio bioware.
To have a "more agile and more focused studio" you need better leaders, reducing the number of developers will only reduce the output, but of course you can't touch the former...
Say what you want of Nintendo in other contexts, but let's not forget that their CEOs cut their already relatively low salaries compared to the rest of the industry when the company had financial problems!
@tabris95
I'd hope not all CEOs would be considered deadwood But maybe you mean CEOs at EA and not in general? Still, I bet they have some nice ones and some bad ones (if the leader of each company can call themselves CEO - I am not familiar with their company group structure). In the end, we're all different people irrespective of our titles 🤗
Difficult day for everyone... well, not EVERY everyone, just you guys, the people we fire... I will be fine, honestly.
You can find me on my yacht if you need me. Actually, don't bother me, you plebs.
Hey EA, where’s our Mass Effect: Legendary Edition on Switch? Anytime would be nice.
As with all studios that EA owns, they were once great companies that somehow end up dead in EA's basement. Looks like Bioware is just another victim on the ongoing list.
Very curious how it's always the normal employees getting the boot while the criminally overpaid and overinflated management and eXeCuTiVeS get huge bonuses.
I'll always respect Nintendo's approach in this regard, but this is just a problem with our current economic system in general, not just this industry.
@Pillowpants They lasted longer than most of EA’s absorbed appendages, at least.
So freaking lol. To eliminate 50 people from the process and to justify it by the desire to adopt the strategy that focuses on delivering a perpetually unfinished products in order to milk customer’s money via dlc, updates etc.👏
@dskatter They seem to have, but it's pretty much guaranteed that studios will eventually end up in the EA basement. It's only matter of time
Maybe they are now "agile" enough to go and go and bleep themselves in the bleep.
@Jacket_p You're serious? They are solely concerned with making the line go up.
@molkom You are far more generous of spirit than I am.
This is what EA got from the saying “less is more”
Fire the execs, mutualise the profits
If you want to make a workplace more "agile" and "focused" you get rid of management. Everyone who has ever had a job knows this.
I bet this is replacing a bunch of creatives with AI. It’s happening a lot at the moment. Heck, Bobby Kotick even had the gall to go out there and say they were moving to AI because “creatives ask for too much money” as he sits on millions in bonuses alone.
Honestly, games are meant to be about creativity and art through technology and innovation resulting in fun and engagement. We’ve really lost this somewhere in the big studios as it’s all become about business and profits and capitalism.
Nintendo, at least for now, seem to be continuing doing the right thing but who knows what the future will hold? Their hand could be forced even if they don’t want to go that route.
It’ll be a sad day when the industry is just CEOs and middle management forcing “prompt engineers” to churn out quick regurgitated content from the same limited pool of stolen art, just to slap on top of yet another live-service, battle-pass focussed, micro-transaction riddled, cookie-cutter, generic, safe-bet, “AAA” game. But it’s the future the industry is blasting towards right now because apparently profits for millionaires and billionaires is the most important thing in society.
Too political? Eh it’s just the reality we live in.
"Pre-production on the new Mass Effect game also continues."
It's been 3 years since they announced it and development has yet to even properly begin. Which is not a surprise, as the members of the Mass Effect team joined the development of the new Dragon Age, which was announced in 2018 and has yet to even get a release date.
Bioware is a mess.
They welcomed their AI overlords already it seems.
Bioware is a complete joke these days, a complete shame for what was once one of my top 10 favourite developers.
@Ogbert
Wanted to give a thumbs up to your post and a heart just didn't feel right for that message - so here's the thumb 👍
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