Mass Effect fans are using the game's annual day of celebration to send a message to BioWare after it laid off several employees last month.
As all Mass Effect fans will know, November 7 marks 'N7 Day', where fans of the long-running series come together to celebrate the game, its characters, and everything in between. Things don't feel quite as celebratory this year though, after BioWare laid off 50 developers, "shortchanged" those former employees with low severance pay, and laid off all unionized QA workers working on Dragon Age 4 (at outsourcing company Keywords Studio) last month.
As reported by Kotaku's Ethan Gach, seven of the 50 employees let go last month are in the process of suing BioWare and have released a statement (below), revealing that the company is going to court instead of negotiating a settlement. In the statement, the employees involved in the lawsuit mention N7 Day and ask fans to show their support by sharing memes and images relating to the layoffs using the #N7SeveranceDay hashtag.
- EA says Mass Effect 5 is now BioWare's "full focus" as it shuffles devs to other studios, with some reportedly facing layoffs following Dragon Age: The Veilguard's underperformance
- Baldur's Gate 3 dev slams EA's BioWare layoffs as "a short-term cost-saving measure" that "doesn't solve a long-term problem"
More BioWare news: laid off devs suing for severance say the company is going to court instead of negotiating a settlement and call the process anything but "empathetic, respectful."They call N7 day a reminder of "the importance of loyalty to your crew"https://t.co/sBT04B0Dvq pic.twitter.com/UAu5yNUVJqNovember 6, 2023
"The developers involved in the lawsuit are hoping N7 Day this year will be a reminder to BioWare of the importance of loyalty to your crew," the statement reads. Fans of Mass Effect have come together to take part in #N7SeveranceDay hashtag on Twitter, with one Twitter account, @N7SeveranceDay, leading the effort.
This is just one of the ways people are sending a message to BioWare on N7 Day. As also reported by Gach, the former QA testers are planning to picket outside of BioWare today (November 7). EA has reportedly released a statement on the protest, writing: "We hope that Keywords and the union are able to resolve their differences but ultimately BioWare has no role in that process."
The statement continues: "It is our view that any activities targeting our offices are misguided as BioWare is not involved in any way in the negotiations and Epcor Tower has never been a place of employment for Keywords employees." According to Gach, EA attempted to block the protest but the Alberta Labour Relations Board sided with the workers.
Find out everything you need to know about BioWare's current project with our Mass Effect 5 guide.
