Electronic Arts Inc. has announced it will lay off staff and shut down its long-running development studio BioWare reports Bloomberg.
BioWare is the long-running development studio behind acclaimed single-player role-playing games such as many of the titles in the “Dragon Age” and “Mass Effect” franchises. Its attempt to get into live-service with “Anthem” was a famous disaster.
In a letter to staff Wednesday, EA COO David Tinson and CSO Cam Weber confirmed they will cut some projects – that includes the next “Mass Effect” game, which was in early development at BioWare and has been officially scrapped.
The video-game publisher will cut around 400 jobs, about 3% of its total staff, including roughly 50 at BioWare. The news isn’t entirely shocking after “Dragon Age: The Veilguard” missed sales expectations last year.
The company went private in August following a $55 billion leveraged buyout led by Saudi Arabia’s investment fund. To deal with its $18 billion in debt, EA told investors it had a plan to save up to $700 million in part by cutting research and development costs.
EA’s bread and butter is its sports game franchises, military shooter series “Battlefield” and live-service titles like “Apex Legends” and “The Sims”. As a result, its single-player offerings have often been few and far between, but there have been success stories such as “Mass Effect” and “Dead Space”.
Single player isn’t dead entirely there yet though as the company says it still intends to produce the next title in the “Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order” series as well as a “Marvel’s Iron Man” game. In addition, Respawn and DICE are expected to work together on a new entry in the “Star Wars: Battlefront” series.
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