BioWare, the Edmonton-based game development studio best known for titles like Baldur’s Gate, Mass Effect, and Dragon Age, is shutting down, the company announced today.
The news: On Wednesday, BioWare posted to various social media channels explaining the studio was closing its doors after operating for more than three decades. The decision comes after parent company Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) announced it would lay off staff and shut down the studio. BioWare said development of its new Mass Effect game would also stop.
From the source: “There is nothing easy about writing those words,” BioWare’s post reads. “Our focus right now is on our incredibly talented team who put their hearts into these games, and supporting one another through this transition.”
The context: EA, which has been BioWare’s parent company since it acquired the studio in 2007, announced plans to cut around 400 jobs (about three percent of its total staff), including roughly 50 members of BioWare’s staff, according to Bloomberg News. The news comes after several years of turbulence for both EA and BioWare. In August, EA went private after a $55-billion USD ($77 billion CAD) leveraged buyout.
BioWare, founded in 1995, has slowly dwindled from the height of its success, when it boasted more than 400 employees. Prior to shutting down, it had around 100. The trajectory of the company has mirrored the success of its games, with recent installments to its once-heralded Dragon Age and Mass Effect franchises underperforming.
Final thought: The closure of BioWare, once one of the Canadian gaming industry’s crown jewel studios, is another signal of the dire straits the industry is in. Earlier this year, fellow Canadian developer Ubisoft closed both its Winnipeg and Halifax offices, laying off more than 100 staff. The decision by EA to do away with the studio forewarns a greater financial disruption for Canada’s games industry if some of the world’s best-selling video game franchises are no longer seen as financially viable.
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Feature image courtesy Unsplash. Photo by Redd Francisco.
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