The Veilguard Developers Laid Off

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home January 30, 2025 3 Views 6 Min Read
The Veilguard Developers Laid Off



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Summary

  • Some developers from Dragon Age: The Veilguard have been laid off from BioWare
  • Dragon Age: The Veilguard performed below expectations.
  • BioWare is reportedly focusing on the next Mass Effect game.

Some developers who worked on Dragon Age: The Veilguard have announced they were laid off by BioWare. These changes happened on the heels of the announcement that BioWare is “restructuring” to prepare for the development of the upcoming Mass Effect game after the completion of Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard was released on October 31, 2024, after being in development for nearly a decade. Despite gaining positive reviews from most critics, with an average score of 80 on OpenCritic, the game was fairly controversial among the player base, and it failed to achieve financial success. In recent financial reports, EA revealed that Dragon Age: The Veilguard performed below expectations by 50%, reaching only 1.5 million players in 2024.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard blueprints alongside Mass Effect's N7 figure.

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The new direction BioWare took with its party members in Dragon Age: The Veilguard is something that upcoming Mass Effect 4 could take notes from.

Now, as reported by IGN, BioWare is suffering from an undisclosed number of layoffs. Earlier this week, BioWare’s general manager Gary McKay announced that BioWare would restructure for the development of the next Mass Effect, and multiple employees would be sent to other EA studios to make BioWare a “more agile, focused studio.” At the time, it did not seem that this would lead to layoffs, but social media posts indicate that at least five people were laid off. Following the announcement, Dragon Age: The Veilguard narrative designer and lead writer Trick Weekes, editors Karin West-Weekes, and Ryan Cormier indicated that they were looking for work. Senior systems designer Michelle Flamm and producer Jen Cheverie also confirmed they were laid off. When asked by IGN about how many employees were laid off, BioWare declined to give specific numbers.

An Unknown Number of BioWare’s Employees Who Worked on Dragon Age: The Veilguard Were Laid Off

I’m now looking for a new writing/narrative position. It’s been a privilege to work with so many amazing devs over my 20 years at BioWare, and I will cherish the memories of the wonderful folks in the community I’ve met along the way. Thank you all.
— Trick Weekes (@trickweekes.bsky.social) 2025-01-29T22:58:09.452Z

This is certainly unfortunate news, as some of these developers like Trick Weekes were part of the company for the last two decades. In 2023, BioWare laid off 50 employees, so this continues the trend of downsizing the studio. Recently, Dragon Age: The Veilguard director Corinne Busche also left BioWare. However, Busche confirmed that her departure was not in any way linked to the game’s poor performance.

It seems that the development of Dragon Age: The Veilguard is finished, as the game will not receive any DLC. The most recent Dragon Age: The Veilguard update was likely the last, adding quality-of-life features and fixing some bugs. It seems that more updates will only be released if new game-breaking bugs are found in the game, as the studio’s efforts will other be solely focused on the production of the upcoming Mass Effect game.

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