A handful of BioWare employees have revealed they are afraid of losing their jobs and for the future of the studio following its parent company, Electronic Arts, going private as part of a $55 billion deal.
Earlier this week Electronic Arts sold the company to Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake, and Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners as part of a $55 billion sale to take the company private. In a press release, EA announced, “Electronic Arts Inc., a global leader in interactive entertainment, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by an investor consortium (“the Consortium”) comprised of PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners in an all-cash transaction that values EA at an enterprise value of approximately $55 billion. The transaction positions EA to accelerate innovation and growth to build the future of entertainment.”
Following this, a number of BioWare employees spoke anonymously to Insider Gaming about their fear for their jobs and the studio at-large. One said, “Look at the negativity that came after Dragon Age. If we felt it was only going to get worse then, you can imagine what some of us think now.”
Another shared they had been looking for a job since Veilguard’s failure, “I’ve been doing it since last year, but I’m making sure I have a portfolio ready and feelers out for other jobs. Kind of feels like a matter of time.”
EA informed employees that the company does not plan to engage in layoffs immediately. In a SEC filing, the company stated, “There will be no immediate changes to your job, team, or daily work, as a result of this transaction.”
It added, “Our focus is on driving innovation, and expanding our global reach, all of which require world class teams, who are excited to shape the future of entertainment.”
Nevertheless, BioWare announced job cuts and structural changes at the beginning of this year following Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s failure. First, EA admitted the game was a failure sharing, “Dragon Age engaged approximately 1.5 million players during the quarter, down nearly 50% from the company’s expectations.”
A little over a week after this announcement, BioWare’s General Manager Gary McKay shared in a blog post, “Now that Dragon Age: The Veilguard has been released, a core team at BioWare is developing the next Mass Effect game under the leadership of veterans from the original trilogy, including Mike Gamble, Preston Watamaniuk, Derek Watts, Parrish Ley, and others.”
“In keeping with our fierce commitment to innovating during the development and delivery of Mass Effect, we have challenged ourselves to think deeply about delivering the best experience to our fans. We are taking this opportunity between full development cycles to reimagine how we work at BioWare,” he committed.
McKay concluded, “Given this stage of development, we don’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.”
A day later it was confirmed that the entire writing and editing team that worked on Veilguard was laid off.
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I also worry about lossing my job, when I don't do good work.
Mass Effect is the next failure "everyone is waiting for" and will be the "greatest ever" (flop).
The developers of ME stated on Bluesky around inauguration that they would be bringing the fight against Trump into the newest Mass Effect in development.
How's that really going to work out for them?
But... there are still low-IQ players blind enough that they're "holding out hope" that these TDS septum-rings will finally "learn a lesson" and make a game that isn't about their idiotic gender struggles.
Note the teaser of Shepard. Sexy, androgynous walk on a gender-fluid figure. I swear that if I had blinked, I woulda seen Baphomet.
No thanks.
And I hope all those portfolio-padders never find work again. Harsh? Too bad.