A new report has confirmed Dragon Age and Mass Effect developer BioWare has been hit by even more layoffs with most of its studio gone.

While the reception for Dragon Age: The Veilguard could be described as a trainwreck, its publisher and parent company Electronic Arts officially noted it missed expectations.

A leaked (via Mark Kern) internal email has confirmed BioWare is not only restructuring and laying off more staff, staff they had loaned to other EA studios will now remain as the RPG studio is seemingly on the chopping block.

“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,” BioWare general manager Gary McKay said in the email.

Despite the core of BioWare’s staff moving on to produce that previously announced next entry in the Mass Effect franchise, Kern’s source(s) report the developer has fewer than 100 staff now, a fraction of what they used to boast in years prior (sometimes reportedly over 400 staff).

The leaked email quietly confirms the developer was hit by more layoffs with McKay noting the new Mass Effect “doesn’t require support from the full studio.”

Furthermore, the email reconfirms the aforementioned loaned staff, now permanently matched with “many of our colleagues with other teams at EA.”

Here’s the full leaked message from BioWare general manager Gary McKay:

Hello Everyone,

Today, we are turning towards the future and preparing for the next chapter in BioWare’s story. As we announced in August 2023, we are changing how we build games to meet the needs of our upcoming projects and hold ourselves to the highest quality standards.

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.

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.

Today’s news will see BioWare become a more agile, focused studio that produces unforgettable RPGs. We appreciate your support as we build a new future for BioWare.

Gary McKay
General Manager, BioWare