Bioware: "Loaned" employees are not allowed back

EA is pulling employees from Bioware en masse: According to a Bloomberg report, numerous Bioware employees are moving to other EA studios. Two dozen employees are also said to have been made redundant. This means that Bioware now only has 100 employees, compared to twice as many two years ago.

The US publisher already announced last week that EA was plundering Bioware in order to support other studios. However, the statement released by EA suggested that the Bioware employees are only moving on a temporary basis while the upcoming "Mass Effect" game is in pre-production. "At this stage of development, we do not need the support of the entire studio," Bioware wrote in a blog entry.

Bioware developers are now developing sports games

However, according to Bloomberg, this is by no means a temporary commitment: the former Bioware employees were informed last week that they have been permanently removed from Bioware. Their supposed transitional tasks are now long-term jobs. Should they wish to work for Bioware again in the future, they would have to reapply.

This news has angered some employees, writes Bloomberg. Instead of working on role-playing games at cult studio Bioware, they would now have to develop sports and action games for EA, for example. According to Bloomberg, this is not very appealing to some employees. The former Bioware developers are now working on games such as "Iron Man" and "Skate".

Bioware is a legendary developer of role-playing games and has created "Baldur's Gate" and "Knights of the Old Republic", among others. However, the past decade has been characterized by flops: "Anthem" and "Mass Effect Andromeda" fell miles short of the expectations of fans and investors. The recently released "Dragon Age: The Veilguard" received solid reviews, but only sold half as well as publisher EA had hoped.

(dahe)