In my article about the $55 billion EA buyout deal, I singled out BioWare as the likely target of potential layoffs following the closure. Indeed, later today, Insider Gaming posted an article citing inside sources from the Canadian studio, revealing that the employees are already worried about this sudden transition.
Two of the anonymous sources allegedly 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.
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.
The reference is to last year's launch of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, the studio's first new game since the massive failure of Anthem. Unfortunately, despite a fairly positive critical reception, the game did not sell nearly as well as publisher Electronic Arts had hoped (the goal was to hit 3 million players, but in January 2025, EA said Veilguard had only 'engaged' 1.5 million players), leading to layoffs that brought the studio headcount to less than a hundred.
BioWare is now focused on making the next Mass Effect game, but will they even get the chance? For now, the sentiment inside the studio is simply to go ahead until they are told otherwise:
We're going to keep working until they tell us we are done. It's not the healthiest way to live, but as long as the paychecks keep coming, we're not going to just walk away.
Insider Gaming even reports having heard that there were attempts to sell off BioWare at some point, though they must have gone nowhere for the time being, as there was no such official news alongside the buyout deal.
Perhaps that would be the best chance for the studio that made some of the greatest Western roleplaying games of all time, such as Baldur's Gate 1 & 2, Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect, and Dragon Age. As things stand, on one hand, Electronic Arts going private could mean slightly less pressure to deliver right away; on the other, the publisher has a lot of debt and its new owners (PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners) may want immediate cost-cutting measures to deal with it.
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