There is really no getting around the fact that BioWare is in dire straits at the moment, now at the end of a decade of three missed opportunities

BioWare is reportedly now down to fewer than 100 employees after a round of layoffs and staff exits following the release of Dragon Age: The Veilguard and a restructure to focus on the next Mass Effect game.

Amid changes at BioWare as the studio shifts its focus to Mass Effect 5, while shuffling some devs to other EA studios and reportedly laying some off, the project director of the upcoming sci-fi RPG has clarified that the game is "still in pre-production.

BioWare general manager Gary McKay tried to explain the current state of the studio in a new blog post that was full of vague ambitions but light on actual specifics. We know that the studio has completely moved on from last year’s Dragon Age: The Veilguard and is focused entirely on making the next Mass Effect.

BioWare now has fewer than 100 employees after laying off “around two dozen” staffers and shifting others to different projects at EA, Bloomberg reports.

The studio is said to have less than 100 active employees at the moment, which constitutes fewer than half of the BioWare staff levels reported in 2023. The drastic downsizing is a mix of layoffs and reshuffles, with company veterans such as Dragon Age lead writer Trick Weekes finding themselves out of a job.

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Mass Effect 5’ is “still in pre-production”. Now that BioWare has finished work on ‘Dragon Age: The Veilguard’, many employees have moved over to the upcoming sci-fi RPG, though director Michael Gamble has now said ‘Mass Effect 5’ has not yet entered full-scale development.