All eyes are on Mass Effect now (EA)Despite promises that many BioWare staff have found new roles elsewhere at EA, it seems quite a number of them have simply been let go.Last week, EA admitted that both EA Sports FC 25 and Dragon Age: The Veilguard havent been performing as well as the company hoped. While the former is by far the most shocking, considering EAs football games are one of its biggest sources of revenue, its the latter that has had the most immediate impact.EA didnt share exact sales figures, only saying The Veilguard engaged approximately 1.5 million players during the third quarter of the fiscal year (October 2024 to December 2024), which is almost half of what EA wanted.The Veilguards failings have led to developer BioWare undergoing a reorganisation, as they continue work on the next Mass Effect, and while at first it was implied this wouldnt involve any redundancies that doesnt seem to be the case.BioWare general manager Gary McKay broke the news of the reorganisation yesterday in a blog post, with a far more positive spin on the situation and without any acknowledgement of The Veilguards underperformance.Now that Dragon Age: The Veilguard has been released, a core team at BioWare is developing the next Mass Effect game under the leadership of veterans from the original trilogy, including Mike Gamble, Preston Watamaniuk, Derek Watts, Parrish Ley, and others, wrote McKay.The new Mass Effect is obviously a delicate project within BioWare. Its been more than a decade since the original and beloved trilogy ended, and 2017s Mass Effect: Andromeda was a mixed bag that failed to resonate with fans.Youd think BioWare would want all hands-on deck for it and yet McKay wrote: Given this stage of development, we dont require support from the full studio. That means an unknown number of staff have been taken off the game to work on other unknown projects.McKay added that the studio has managed to find new positions for some of its staff at other departments within EA, but this still means BioWare was subject to layoffs.Neither BioWare nor EA have openly acknowledged this, but a number of BioWare employees have since posted to social media saying theyre looking for new work.This includes:Over on Reddit, Insider Gamings Mike Straw also claims to have heard that at least a few dozen were let go from BioWare and there could potentially be more layoffs to follow.IGN has asked EA for specifics on BioWares restructuring, but all the company has said is, The studio has the right number of people in the right roles to work on Mass Effect at this stage of development.Its not clear how far along the next Mass Effect actually is. It was unveiled with a short cinematic trailer in 2020 and BioWare has only shared even vaguer teases since.Not to mention, BioWare already suffered from layoffs in 2023, losing roughly 20% of its workforce. McKay justified this at the time by saying it was done to meet the needs of our upcoming projects and continue to hold ourselves to the highest standard of quality; phrases he reiterated in yesterdays blog post.Frankly, with the way BioWares been handled in the last decade, its a miracle the studio hasnt been shut down yet. After Mass Effect: Andromedas disappointing launch, BioWare took a crack at multiplayer live service game Anthem in the hopes of rivalling Bungies Destiny.More TrendingAnthem launched in 2019, garnered mixed reviews, failed to meet sales expectations, and despite promises of a substantial reinvention, was abandoned in early 2021.Dragon Age: The Veilguard (or Dreadwolf as it was originally subtitled) became BioWares next priority, but that was hardly smooth sailing either. Reports claim it was envisioned as a multiplayer live service game, but was transformed into a traditional single-player experience, partially due to Anthems failure.The game then fell off the grid for years, only appearing at last years Xbox showcase with a new subtitle and a poorly received trailer.As a result, theres now more pressure on Mass Effect to succeed than ever before. And if it underperforms as well, BioWare may well not get another chance. What did you think of the new Dragon Age? (EA)Emailgamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below,follow us on Twitter, andsign-up to our newsletter.To submit Inbox letters and Readers Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use ourSubmit Stuff page here.For more stories like this,check our Gaming page.GameCentralSign up for exclusive analysis, latest releases, and bonus community content.This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Your information will be used in line with our Privacy Policy