Gotta think of those quarterlies
Venerable RPG studio Bioware announced on it is shutting down after more than 30 years of making RPGs. The studio is responsible for making the original Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Dragon Age, Mass Effect, and Anthem.
As part of the announcement Bioware also say that "development on the next Mass Effect project is ending."
The post gives no reasoning for the shut down, nor does it mention its parent company EA who made the decision. In an open letter from EA's Chief Operating Officer David Tinson and Chief Studios Officer Cam Weber explained the closure, saying "we’re making deliberate choices to align talent and investments where we see the greatest opportunities for players and long-term growth."
They also cancelled a project in The Sims series code-named project Lotus, prioritising instead another called Project Evergreen.
The letter also revealed that there will be continued investment in EA's sports games, Apex Legends, Battlefield, and the next Star Wars Jedi game. Apparently, Dice and Respawn are collaborating on a new game which is likely a new Star Wars: Battlefront game.
Bloomberg reports that across EA there will be 400 layoffs, 50 of them taking place at Bioware.
Just last week, I ran a piece from Mark Darrah, a Bioware alum who had been with the studio since its Baldur's Gate days, only leaving after shipping Anthem in 2021. He explained how dangerous it was for a studio to make the scale of games Bioware was making with Mass Effect Andromeda, Anthem, and Dragon Age: Veilguard. The cost of the projects, the length of time they took to produce, and the risk they run of not selling enough companies puts the studio in "a really dangerous place". He said of his old studio that "BioWare sat right at the point where it doesn't quite work." For instance, shortly after Dragon Age: Veilguard's launch, EA CEO Andrew Wilson said the RPG had significantly underperformed, reaching only 1.5m players, less than the 3m the company had planned for.
It's also hard not to view the news in light of EA's buyout in August this year. Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, equity firm Silver Lake, and Jared Kushner's Affinity partners completed their $55 billion leveraged buyout of EA, a move that both took the publisher private and added a vast amount of debt to the company's books. A year before the deal went through, unionised workers warned this buyout would mean layoffs. And, while there was an initial round in June, ahead of the deal going through, it appears this larger round is EA's first attempt to address the pressing debt they're now saddled with.
While there's no mention in EA's letter of further layoffs to come, they don't rule it out either.