Bad news for BioWare today, as General Manager Gary McKay has admitted that the studio’s impending reshuffle means a wave of layoffs. McKay says the company “must shift towards a more agile and more focused studio.
“To achieve this, we find ourselves in a position where change is not only necessary, but unavoidable,” he writes. “As difficult as this is to say, rethinking our approach to development inevitably means reorganizing our team to match the studio’s changing needs. As part of this transition, we are eliminating approximately 50 roles at BioWare.”
The studio’s “long-term vision” going forward is focusing on Dragon Age: Dreadwolf (“[O]ur dedication to the game has never wavered,” McKay says) and the next Mass Effect installment. BioWare is apparently trying to place as many workers as possible within other studios at EA.
MMO readers will notice that Star Wars The Old Republic was not mentioned; earlier this summer, BioWare split off the SWTOR team and moved the game – and a large chunk of its workforce – to EA’s home for old games, the indie MMO studio Broadsword. Presumably, further changes at BioWare itself will have no impact on SWTOR.
