A developer working on Mass Effect 4 has spoken up about BioWare's plans for the now-canceled RPG. Tony de Waal was cinematic supervisor at the now shuttered studio. He joined the team "29+ years ago", left for a spell shortly after the launch of Mass Effect 2, and then returned in 2021 to work on Dragon Age: The Veilguard. According to de Waal, there were "50-ish" people working on Mass Effect 4 before the studio closure.
"I was one of the lucky ones who stayed with BioWare to start on the next Mass Effect [after The Veilguard], where I believe we were making something special: a level of autonomy and choice that no other game has been able to match," de Waal wrote on LinkedIn.
"We saw what Larian and CD Projekt were bringing to the table with their latest offerings, and started down a path to bring Mass Effect to the next level while remaining true to the Trilogy."
De Waal also described some of the challenges BioWare faced during the development of The Veilguard, which was the studio's second project made using EA and DICE's Frostbite engine. "It was a herculean effort that tested the limits of even my workaholic mindset, and I'm proud of the level of polish we were able to pull off in the Frostbite engine.
"Seriously, you have no idea the craziness going on under the hood of that game to make a variable player character work across 3+ hours of cinematics, and the number of conditions to account for in the scenes towards the end of the game."
BioWare's closure comes as part of a big restructuring at EA following its acquisition by Saudi Arabia's PIF (and two other investment firms with tiny stakes). Over 400 people have been laid off as the publisher pivots to live service shooters and sports.
"I'm sad you won't ever get to see what we were cooking, and sad for the small, talented group of devs who were all punching above their weight to make something special," de Waal wrote. "Please consider those who stayed with BioWare until the very end. They are truly some of the most talented people I've had the pleasure of working with throughout my career."
For de Waal, as for thousands in the games industry, a hunt for work will ensue. "With that, if you need someone who knows cinematic production, blending gameplay with cinematics, the tools, the tech, and has the know-how to realize complicated narratives—a true production expert with nearly three decades of experience who isn't afraid to roll up their sleeves and create content—please think of me."
You can read de Waal's full post on LinkedIn.