BioWare is Restructuring and Eliminating Roles for Mass Effect 5’s Development

gamingbolt.com:

Mass Effect 5 (or whatever it ends up being called) has been in the works for years now, but with the sci-fi RPG still clearly in the early stages of production, questions about BioWare’s behind-the-scenes functioning are being asked with greater frequency. The newest changes announced by the studio, however, might raise more questions still.

In a blog update, BioWare GK Gary McKay has said that the next Mass Effect is continuing development with a team of veterans who worked on the original trilogy, including Mike Gamble, Preston Watamaniuk, Derek Watts, and Parrish Ley. However, McKay said that the project “require support from the full studio”, which, as you might imagine, means changes are inbound.

For starters, an undisclosed number of BioWare employees have been assigned to projects in the works at other studios across EA.

“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,” McKay writes. “In keeping with our fierce commitment to innovating during the development and delivery of Mass Effect, we have challenged ourselves to think deeply about delivering the best experience to our fans. We are taking this opportunity between full development cycles to reimagine how we work at BioWare.

“Given this stage of development, we don’t require support from the full studio. We have incredible talent here at BioWare, and so we have worked diligently over the past few months to match many of our colleagues with other teams at EA that had open roles that were a strong fit.”

IGN has claimed in its report that several members of the Dragon Age: The Veilguard development team have also been laid off from the studio. Several former employees have taken to social media to confirm the same, including editor Ryan Cormier, producer Jen Cheverie, narrative designer Trick Weekes,