The BioWare layoffs have officially begun in the wake of Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s catastrophic failure.
Despite BioWare’s initial restructuring announcement noting that it would be moving team members to other EA divisions and avoiding the word “layoffs” entirely, the reality has now become clear—developers who worked on Veilguard are being cut.
Dragon Age Director Corinne Busche – YouTube, Smash JT
This comes shortly after Veilguard director Corinne Busche’s exit, which was framed as a voluntary departure, though few believe the disgraced director left by choice after overseeing one of the most disastrous releases in BioWare’s history.
Just yesterday, BioWare released a statement in a post on the studio’s official blog. Studio general manager Gary McKay announced that the company is shifting its focus entirely to the next Mass Effect game—effectively sidelining Dragon Age after the latest installment’s disastrous reception.
A screenshot from Mass Effect Legendary Edition (2021), BioWare
“Given this stage of development, we don’t require support from the full studio,” McKay said. “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.”
But apparently he didn’t mean all of their colleagues.
A screenshot from Dragon Age: The Veilguard (2024), BioWare
READ: Dragon Age: The Veilguard Price Slashed at GameStop by 65%, Four Month Old Game Costs $25 Brand New
Among those let go are Trick Weekes and Karin West Weekes, two longtime BioWare veterans who confirmed their departures on Bluesky. Trick Weekes, who served as Veilguard’s lead writer, previously worked on every game and expansion in the original Mass Effect trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, and Inquisition.
Karin Weekes, an editor with credits on Mass Effect 2, 3, Andromeda, and multiple Dragon Age titles, was also removed. The BioWare layoffs extend beyond writing staff, with producers, system designers, analysts, and other team members also cut as EA guts the studio to refocus on Mass Effect.
Both Trick and Karin confirmed that they were let go through posts on Bluesky.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard devs confirm they were let go from BioWare in posts on Bluesky – Bluesky
The BioWare layoffs extend well beyond the high-profile departures of Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s lead writer and editor. More key developers across multiple disciplines have also been shown the door as EA continues its aggressive restructuring of the studio.
Among them is Ryan Cormier, an editor who worked on Star Wars: The Old Republic, Anthem, and Veilguard. His departure further signals that BioWare is moving away from the team responsible for its most recent flop, likely in an attempt to salvage what remains of the studio’s reputation.
Also cut was Jennifer Cheverie, a longtime BioWare veteran who served as a tester, analyst, and producer on multiple major projects, including Mass Effect 3, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Anthem, and Veilguard. With her exit, BioWare is shedding another figure tied to its modern development pipeline—one that has largely struggled to deliver the kind of quality experiences that defined the studio’s golden era.
A screenshot from Dragon Age: The Veilguard (2024), BioWare
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The layoffs didn’t stop there. Daniel Steed, a producer who worked on Star Wars: The Old Republic – Legacy of the Sith and Veilguard is out, as well as Lina Anderson, a senior product manager. Michelle Flamm, a systems designer, and Mad Bee, a UX designer, were also cut.
This latest development further highlights the fallout from The Veilguard’s commercial disaster. EA had projected that the game would sell over 10 million copies across its lifespan. Instead, it barely managed to “engage” 1.5 million players, with reports indicating over 30,000 returns and widespread retailer discounting.
GameStop recently slashed the price of brand-new copies to $24.99, a staggering 65% drop from its launch price of $69.99, and tanked its trade-in value after just one week. It’s a clear sign that demand has completely cratered, leaving EA scrambling to mitigate the damage.
A screenshot from Dragon Age: The Veilguard (2024), BioWare
The BioWare layoffs are a direct response to the studio’s failure to connect with players, as Veilguard prioritized identity politics over compelling storytelling and worldbuilding. Fans rejected the game’s tone and lack of depth, leading to its financial collapse. With the developers responsible now being shown the door, EA appears to be acknowledging that this direction was a mistake.
At the same time, BioWare has assured fans that the next Mass Effect is in the hands of veterans from the original trilogy, including Mike Gamble, Preston Watamaniuk, Derek Watts, and Parrish Ley.
Unlike Veilguard, which alienated its core audience, this announcement might signal a return to form for the franchise, but there’s no guarantee of that.
A screenshot from Dragon Age: The Veilguard (2024), BioWare
The BioWare layoffs mark a major shift for the studio. EA is clearly trying to distance itself from Veilguard’s failure and rebuild BioWare around its more successful franchises. With Mass Effect now its sole focus, the studio has one last chance to regain the trust of players and prove it can still deliver a great RPG. Whether it succeeds remains to be seen, but at least this time, it won’t be bogged down by the same mistakes that doomed Veilguard.
Do you think these BioWare layoffs will lead to better things for the troubled developer? Sound off in the comments and let us know!
Most devs in there are woke lunatics, so it’d be easier to close down the entire studio.
I don’t think this is going to change. At least not for the better. There are so many woke zealots in dev studios right now, that I think we are already in a downward spiral. Because those people make it less appealing for sane game devs to join big studios, because they will eventually have to put up with some of those lunatics there. This will probably lead to less sane people applying for jobs at big studios and the rates of lunatics rise even more, making it even less appealing for sane devs to join that studio.
I think the fall down of AAA games is unavoidable, unless they really manage to turn gamers into modern audiences. And the talented devs, who are on the businesses for creating great games and don’t want to put up with woke BS, will either start their own Studios or they will join small studios making small games. They also won’t be able to grow to much, because if they do, they will need investors, who will push for agendas in the game, and you will inevitably hire some bad apples, who will start the downward spiral, Abs ruin the whole bunch.
Gonna be interesting, that’s for sure. I love Mass Effect, so we’ll see what they do. It’s literally their last chance, though, that’s for sure –
Need no woke bs. Normal people generally like to see masculine male characters, feminine female characters, no alphabet nonsense, no DEI, no modern feminism. Keep that trash out.
People play RPG games like Mass Effect for their deep story and character lore. The ability to affect the story and relationships with characters, be it meaningful friendships made along the way, romances with characters like Miranda Lawson and the like by making key choices throughout the game’s narrative.
I think more than anything the key linchpin in this will be who they hire to write the story. If they still have woke whackadoodles on staff, then this game has no chance.
If they can get back to some normal stuff like the aforementioned points, they will be on the right track.
They would also be well-advised to try a pro-consumer angle with marketing and no-DRM – no Denuvo, no EA Origin Client requirements and reach out to Youtubers and share marketing info with them to get assistance marketing the game. Build a positive relationship with gamers by giving them what they want, and not fighting with them by trying to lecture them on what the studio thinks they should want…
We’ll see… my wallet will wait for the veredict of Grumz
I don’t think I’m going to buy Mass Effect either. It probably will have gay options, just like the old Mass Effect games and I won’t ignore this anymore, just because it’s optional. Ignoring it, because it’s optional is just a micro agreement, which makes you more likely to agree with the next optional small thing, because it’s a proven fact, that we humans try to repeat decisions we’ve already made once. And by doing this often enough they will add more and more weird stuff into the game over time.
I just don’t want anything LGBTQ+ in my games anymore. Any game that has any LGBTQ+ content even if it’s optional will keep sitting in the shelves.
Also I don’t think Bioware or EA learned anything. Else they would admit, that the game failed because of DEI. Them not saying anything about DEI at all makes me believe they are still holding on to their DEI politics and just want to use a less direct approach now.
Seeing last endymeon video about Bioware, yeah nothing changed, they are bad, some “normal” devs are scared sh*tless, but unless the decorative “leader” roles get purged, EA bioware is gonna go the ubisoft route.
There is a chick there blackmailing man to sleep with her… and thats one of the “leader” roles, whose only job is betting ideas, and rejectign actual work in meetings, they are so screewed, a few hundreds lawoff is gonna do nothing at all
Well, we obviously won’t get confirmation from every dev that gets fired, but when they’re telling us through Bluesky of all places, we know it hit the right ones. Only rabid leftists went there.
EA golden egg, FIFA is already strugling thanks to their “innovated” aproach; same graphics, only female referee (90%, almost), more than half of the time the players displayed on the main menu are people of color (coincidence?), even more agressive microtransactions, female players with overinflated stats, female players in the ultimatum teams, etc… no wonder why after the announcment of Fifa 26 their stock plundered 19%.
So if this time ME4 flops FIFA crutch will not save thrm from the same destiny as their French counterpart, Ubisoft.
WTF, the last FIFA I played was 2020 or so. Just took a look at the stats and there’s female players with stats above 90. No way female players could have stats as high as male players. There’s a reason why men and women sports are always separated. Super stupid decision to make FUT mixed and give women equal stats as men.
I guess it’s to push female football, but I think this achieves the opposite and will make more people despise women football, than it will make people like it.
90% players doesn’t even care about the pixels programmed to models… especially if they have the same stats. But what angers people is that female players are clearly favored in something that was always a male game, like intentionally inflating stats. Why they didn’t make a new separate game with female world cup is beyond me. It would probably went far better, actually making the curious people buy a whole new game, maybe even creating a whole new market out of women who would start playing it. But that would require a functioning brain somewhere in the EA’s hierarchy of decision-makers and that is a big no-no.
EA are just pushing DEI propaganda to make a few loud DEI fanatics happy, even though they never even played FIFA or any other game. Game or reality.
You don’t even need to make separate games, just make it 2 separate leagues. But the female League will see much less interest, than the male league, because most Fans also watch the male League and follow male players. Female football is a niche interest. Somebody at EA probably didn’t like the fact, that it’s a niche interest though, and that’s why they shove it in peoples face thinking it makes people like female football, when it will actually have the opposite effect.
I’m not much of a football fan myself, I just follow the Bundesliga and Champions league, but also not very closely. And every 4-5 years I buy a Fifa game to play against friends. But if I would play ultimate team and pay money for the player packs there, I would be pissed if I would get female players in them, because I have 0 interest in female football and don’t know or care for any of the players there. I would rather want to get the players I follow in the packs.
The whole lame AAA-gaming industry, from Apple, Sony and Microsoft-leadership down, is infected by the woke mind virus. It would never occur to them not to be woke. They couldn’t bring themselves to make games for even mildly-right-wingers.
“the studio has one last chance to regain the trust of players…”
One last chance? Again? It’s becoming a joke!
We quickly forget the Anthem, ME Andromeda (and DA V.) disaster.
So it’s rather their 4th last chance… which makes no sense!
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