Last week’s announcement that Dragon Age: The Veilguard and EA Sports FC 25 both underperformed on the sales side was confusing for many to swallow. In games media, sports coverage is often left for enthusiast sites or outlets with massive budgets. Therefore, it’s common for most outlets to focus too much on anything other than sports. This time the frenzy circled around the latest Dragon Age game which was rebooted at least once and took nearly a decade to make, missing its sales target by 1.5 million copies.
Also, some of that coverage is sensationalist at best and purposefully courting right wing, anti-woke weirdos at worst. The less said about those outlets, the better.
If the fiscal reporting was a murky, palate-gripping shot, this week’s news that BioWare is downsizing and outsourcing development of the next Mass Effect is a brutal, bitter chaser.
As of this writing, we still don’t know critical details alluded to in BioWare General Manager Gary McKay’s blog post on the studio’s website. The wording is vague, strange. BioWare “doesn’t require support from the full studio” to make the next Mass Effect, hinted to be a direct sequel to the acclaimed trilogy that wrapped in 2012. The post also suggests Mass Effect is the only thing the studio is working on.
So what does this all mean for employees who aren’t needed to complete the new game? Well, some have moved onto to other studios within the EA infrastructure and some have been laid off, according to IGN.
No one knows what’s in the hearts of executives at EA and the top brass at BioWare. Maybe there really is a rally afoot to restore BioWare and the Mass Effect series to its former glory. Maybe the plan makes a kind of sense with how tortured the development process was for Dragon Age: The Veilguard.
All I know is that while I watched many colleagues and fans of the Mass Effect series mourning another round of layoffs and what feels like the overwrought death scene of something profoundly beloved, I felt…acceptance. Not of the layoffs, of course. This machine is disgusting and will be until labor claims its rightful power in the dynamic at play and executive pay contracts and the bloated beneficiaries of this system are out of the picture.
But for Mass Effect and the people who made it, I feel gratitude. From 2007 to 2012, BioWare performed what feels like genuine human magic. It is work of tremendous importance to the next wave of great storytellers of the medium. I felt this way at the time and more than a decade removed I feel it even stronger. So many members of those teams aren’t in the building anymore at the studio. BioWare is quick to remind us that some senior personnel from the original trilogy are in charge of the new game, but we’re all well aware at this point that the narrative core of Mass Effect is out the door.
As much as many in my orbit seemed to like or love Dragon Age: The Veilguard, I stand firm with my opinion that the game suffered mightily from a fundamental disconnection between Rook’s adventure and the games that got us here. This is a human problem exacerbated by mismanagement and poor executive leadership. Many people who shipped The Veilguard, talented as they clearly are, weren’t there for Origins or even mainstream breakout Inquisition. It showed.
I don’t think we will get another Dragon Age game made by BioWare. I also don’t think we’ll get another Mass Effect game made by BioWare. For the unverified number of people still at the studio, I hope I’m wrong! But at the same time, I don’t think I need it. If it really is meant to continue the story of Commander Shepard, a player insert we spent tens of hours creating, living with, dying with, and living with again, I don’t need it! We already finished that story and it’s just about perfect.
More than the burden we place on a new Mass Effect with our nostalgia, an unfathomable burden is being hoisted onto the rumored skeleton crew working core development on the series. For all I know, this team still desperately wants to make the next Mass Effect and if that’s the case my sincere hope is they’re able to do it without any other roadblocks. However, BioWare is a legendary studio responsible for multiple unique intellectual properties. I think we need to let go of the past and allow a smaller, leaner team to make something new on their terms, unimpeded by the enormous stakes created by chasing this legacy.
Listen, I’ll be there with bells on when and if the new Mass Effect arrives, but my heart is feather light and devoid of expectation. I already gave it to the original trilogy and I can revisit anytime I want.
Sometimes things end and it’s hard. It’s so hard. But God…sometimes it’s harder when they don’t.
