Several key developers of Dragon Age: The Veilguard have confirmed to leave Bioware as the studio is currently undergoing a restructuring process that sees many of it’s staff moved to other projects at EA. Bioware is also reportedly focusing solely on the next installment of the Mass Effect and is set to “delivering the best experience” they can for the fans of the series.
The current layoffs have also been hinted by a latest blog post from Bioware where general manager of the studio Gary McKay has stated that they are taking the time between “full development cycles to reimagine how we work at BioWare.” Which suggests some shifts and changes among many of it’s staff. However, the layoffs were pretty unexpected, especially that it involves many developers who have worked at Bioware for a long period of time and possibly were part of several Dragon Age games of the past.
Many developers including Editor Karin West-Weekes, narrative designer and lead writer on Dragon Age: The Veilguard Trick Weekes, and editor Ryan Cormier all have confirmed their recent departure from Bioware along with producer Jen Cheverie and senior systems designer Michelle Flamm who have also took to social media and stated that they are no longer part of the studio.
Bioware has seen a lot of departures from the team involved in their latest Action RPG Dragon Age: The Veilguard as game director Corinne Busche had also confirmed leaving the studio recently.
Any reports of developers getting laid off by the publisher are always unfortunate for the studio, especially considering how much interference and meddling the publishers themselves are responsible for in many games. And while EA has confirmed that all of these changes won’t have any affect on the next Mass Effect game, it also indicates that the staff recently laid off are mostly from the team behind Dragon Age: The Veilguard.
This does put a huge question mark on the future of the Dragon Age series of games which is definitely sad and disheartening for many fans of the series, especially considering that several of it’s earlier games were widely acclaimed for being some of the greatest RPGs in the modern era of gaming.
EA had also confirmed earlier that Dragon Age: The Veilguard had missed the publisher’s revenue expectations by 50%, which probably played a part for the recent layoffs in the studio.
