Legendary RPG studio BioWare has announced its plans to lay off 50 developers.
"After much consideration and careful planning," BioWare general manager Gary McKay says in the announcement, "we have built a long-term vision that will preserve the health of the studio and better enable us to do what we do best: create exceptional story-driven single-player experiences filled with vast worlds and rich characters. This vision balances the current needs of the studio - namely, ensuring Dragon Age: Dreadwolf is an outstanding game - with its future, including the success of the next Mass Effect."
McKay says that the timing of these layoffs comes in part because of a "significant" number of roles open at parent company EA, though he admits that "it's unlikely that everyone will find a new role within the company."
Throughout the post, McKay repeatedly characterizes the move as part of a plan that will improve the studio overall, and tells fans awaiting the new fantasy RPG ever since we were calling it Dragon Age 4 that "our commitment remains steadfast, and we all are working to make this game worthy of the Dragon Age name."
As for Mass Effect 5, McKay says "a core veteran team led by Mike Gamble continues their pre-production work." That's roughly been the studio's message on the game for the past year, but lengthy pre-production cycles on a game of this scale are not that unusual.
Layoffs are a sadly common story even among the industry's most successful studios. CD Projekt Red laid off "around 100" devs just last month.
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