News
EA shuts down BioWare and cancels next Mass Effect game amid 400 layoffs
Electronic Arts is shutting down BioWare, the longtime studio behind Mass Effect and Dragon Age, as part of a new round of layoffs affecting approximately 400 employees.
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Topic
Dragon Age
PC Gaming
"Sexy sorceresses" and "bare-chested fighters": Dragon Age's original artists wanted to base it on Conan the Barbarian, much to the outrage of the designers
Buried in the vast and sooty-fingered Summer Eternal anthology, there's an interview with former BioWare developer and Dragon Age lead writer David Gaider, who is now creative director at Stray Gods outfit Summerfall Studios. The interview is a podcast-length account of BioWare's transformations over Gaider's career, stretching back to Baldur's Gate 2. Amongst other things, it explains why the Dragon Age games feel so different from sequel to sequel. Gaider discusses the original trilogy's fortunes under RPG-phobic parent company Electronic Arts, commenting that 2009's Dragon Age: Origins made
PC Gaming
'No other studio in the world did it better' than BioWare at its peak, says former Dragon Age lead writer David Gaider
Just because we saw this coming doesn't mean it hurts less.
PC Gaming
BG3's Swen Vincke's response to BioWare's closure breaks my heart. "BioWare won't show up anymore when discussing upcoming RPGs."
EA has confirmed that it has shut Dragon Age developer BioWare and canceled its upcoming Mass Effect title, leaving the industry stunned.
Industry
BioWare is closing after 30 years
Mass Effect and Dragon Age developer BioWare is closing after more than 30 years, and early development on the next Mass Effect project is ending. Read more
PC Gaming
"It just seemed arbitrary, and not very smart": EA was never a responsible owner for Bioware, but the developer never seemed to learn from their mistakes
19 years after buying Bioware, Electronic Arts have closed the veteran RPG developer. But as saddening as this is, bringing an end to series such as Dragon Age and Mass Effect, EA have never had an easy relationship with the studio. Looking through old interviews with developers who worked across Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Dragon Age, Mass Effect, and Anthem, the corporation immediately changed the atmosphere of the studio and never seemed to understand what exactly they had bought, or even why. However, another thread of the conversations is tha
PC Gaming
Award-winning sci-fi author NK Jemisin joins BioWare's mourners and scorns a broken industry for killing geese that 'laid the golden eggs'
"The [Mass Effect] and [Dragon Age] games were a literal inspiration."