In news that certainly came out of nowhere, BioWare announced it was cutting 50 positions from its workforce. Some of these cuts impacted senior staff, as Jon Renish, BioWare's Technical Director who has been with the company for over eight years, announced they were one of the staff hit by cuts. The timing is certainly worrisome considering Dragon Age: Dreadwolf is still in active development and has a planned release date of 2024. Oh, who can forget about the barely announced Mass Effect 4, which BioWare's current GM, Gary McKay:, affirms exists and will continue to move forward in development despite these cuts. Other choice words in their statement include:
BioWare can continue to thrive in an industry that’s rapidly evolving, we must shift towards a more agile and more focused studio. It will allow our developers to iterate quickly, unlock more creativity, and form a clear vision of what we’re building before development ramps up.
The layoffs will likely be a blow to morale
We’ve chosen to act now in part to provide our impacted colleagues with as many internal opportunities as possible. These changes coincide with a significant number of roles that are currently open across EA’s other studios. Impacted employees will be provided with professional resources and assistance as they apply for these positions.
While it’s unlikely that everyone will find a new role within the company, we are committed to supporting our staff as they navigate this change.
If there is one good part to this press release, BioWare's general manager affirmed that laid off employees deserved to be credited in the final version of Dreadwolf that comes out.
One of the people laid off today at BioWare has been a writer on the Dragon Age games since Origins.
— AmericanTruckSongs9 (@ethangach) August 23, 2023
Just incredibly discouraging news out of that studio, and from a publisher that can afford not to treat people like excel spreadsheet formulas. pic.twitter.com/WHk1M8Zgbt
Also, as if laying off staff members with a pending release wasn't a bad enough look for BioWare and its owner, EA, VentureBeat reported that BioWare is severing ties with a playtesting group, Keywords, which recently agreed to unionize. Wowzers, you mean to tell me the CEO of EA might have anti-union tendencies?
Our very own Jeff Grubb has stated that he plans to host a Game Mess Morning on 08/24/2023 that delves into more details on what EA's mindset is and what they plan to do to guarantee BioWare can get Dreadwolf to ship by its 2024 date. Also, what do we think the timer looks like on a shutdown of Anthem servers?
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