EA shuts down BioWare studio and lays off its staff
EA announces the closure of the BioWare studio and the layoff of its staff after a decade of decline, according to the debate
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
EA shuts down BioWare studio and lays off its staff after ten years of decline
EA has announced the closure of the BioWare studio and the layoff of its staff. The news comes after a journey of more than a decade in which the studio behind Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect kept losing its veterans until it was reduced, according to one participant, to «dregs and posers»: an empty shell with the brand intact and the talent out the door.
The final project, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, arrives at the closure as a symbol of a drift that some read in cultural terms. «Go proge get broke never fails», sums up a recurring take in the thread: the idea that the studio's turn toward a non-binary relationship simulator with medieval fantasy as a backdrop —as the original pitch is mockingly described— ended up alienating the player base that had funded its best years.
From Neverwinter Nights to Anthem: the timeline of the fall
The rundown of the studio's trajectory leaves little doubt, according to participants, about where the chain broke. The titles most people spare are the early ones: Neverwinter Nights (2002) and Jade Empire (2005), with an honorable mention for Baldur's Gate, Knights of the Old Republic and the Mass Effect trilogy up to before Andromeda. From there, the list of releases the community considers worthy cuts off at Mass Effect 3, in 2012. After that, downhill: Dragon Age Inquisition, Mass Effect Andromeda, Anthem and Dragon Age The Veilguard, each one worse than the last.
The Anthem case deserves a chapter of its own. According to Jason Schreier's 2019 report in Kotaku, EA gave the studio six years of continuous funding for a cooperative shooter. Of those six, four and a half went into deciding nothing: the concept kept changing, flight was removed and added back, direction was never settled. The actual game was made in the last twelve or eighteen months, with crunch, and shipped cut down in 2019. EA cancelled the relaunch in 2021.
On top of that came the Frostbite engine, imposed by the parent company because it is the one used for Battlefield and was never designed for RPGs or games as a service. Every basic antiestéticature —inventory, saving, quests— cost an absurd amount of programming work. The conclusion drawn from the facts is uncomfortable: it was not just ideology, it was also management that burned six years of budget only to start working when eighteen months were left.
What became of the executives who led Dragon Age The Veilguard?
The person in charge of Dragon Age The Veilguard was reportedly hired a year ago by the D&D folks for a role-playing project, with suspicions that it is a Baldur's Gate sequel. If confirmed, the industry is witnessing a paradox: the talent blamed for the studio's creative debacle immediately lands on its feet at the very franchise the studio itself helped build.
The closure, in any case, did not come out of a clear blue sky. The company had been «limping along for ten years or more», and the diagnosis going around is that no seniors from the old days were left. When the one who knows leaves and the one who repeats slogans stays, the outcome has an expiration date.
The question no one quite settles remains: did the discourse kill the studio, or did management kill the studio while the discourse merely placed the tombstone? With six years of budget squandered and eighteen months of crunch, the answer leans toward the latter. But the brand is already buried and the debate, served.
EA has announced the closure of the BioWare studio and the layoff of its staff. The news comes after a journey of more than a decade in which the studio behind Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect kept losing its veterans until it was reduced, according to one participant, to «dregs and posers»: an empty shell with the brand intact and the talent out the door.
The final project, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, arrives at the closure as a symbol of a drift that some read in cultural terms. «Go proge get broke never fails», sums up a recurring take in the thread: the idea that the studio's turn toward a non-binary relationship simulator with medieval fantasy as a backdrop —as the original pitch is mockingly described— ended up alienating the player base that had funded its best years.
From Neverwinter Nights to Anthem: the timeline of the fall
The rundown of the studio's trajectory leaves little doubt, according to participants, about where the chain broke. The titles most people spare are the early ones: Neverwinter Nights (2002) and Jade Empire (2005), with an honorable mention for Baldur's Gate, Knights of the Old Republic and the Mass Effect trilogy up to before Andromeda. From there, the list of releases the community considers worthy cuts off at Mass Effect 3, in 2012. After that, downhill: Dragon Age Inquisition, Mass Effect Andromeda, Anthem and Dragon Age The Veilguard, each one worse than the last.
The Anthem case deserves a chapter of its own. According to Jason Schreier's 2019 report in Kotaku, EA gave the studio six years of continuous funding for a cooperative shooter. Of those six, four and a half went into deciding nothing: the concept kept changing, flight was removed and added back, direction was never settled. The actual game was made in the last twelve or eighteen months, with crunch, and shipped cut down in 2019. EA cancelled the relaunch in 2021.
On top of that came the Frostbite engine, imposed by the parent company because it is the one used for Battlefield and was never designed for RPGs or games as a service. Every basic antiestéticature —inventory, saving, quests— cost an absurd amount of programming work. The conclusion drawn from the facts is uncomfortable: it was not just ideology, it was also management that burned six years of budget only to start working when eighteen months were left.
What became of the executives who led Dragon Age The Veilguard?
The person in charge of Dragon Age The Veilguard was reportedly hired a year ago by the D&D folks for a role-playing project, with suspicions that it is a Baldur's Gate sequel. If confirmed, the industry is witnessing a paradox: the talent blamed for the studio's creative debacle immediately lands on its feet at the very franchise the studio itself helped build.
The closure, in any case, did not come out of a clear blue sky. The company had been «limping along for ten years or more», and the diagnosis going around is that no seniors from the old days were left. When the one who knows leaves and the one who repeats slogans stays, the outcome has an expiration date.
The question no one quite settles remains: did the discourse kill the studio, or did management kill the studio while the discourse merely placed the tombstone? With six years of budget squandered and eighteen months of crunch, the answer leans toward the latter. But the brand is already buried and the debate, served.
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Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (17 replies).
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