Mass Effect

The employees from BioWare that EA temporarily moved to other internal teams might not actually be given the chance to go back, a new report claims. Jason Schreier of Bloomberg has reported in response to last week's news of BioWare downsizing as it focuses on making the next Mass Effect game that the workers it lost can't just as easily return to the project once it's ready for them. Talking to sources, Schreier said "the loans had morphed into permanent relocations".

Due to how early the next Mass Effect game is into its production, BioWare announced it was downsizing to allow some of its employees to work on other projects while a core team of Mass Effect "veterans" scoped out and put together the foundations of the next RPG. This came after the conclusion of Dragon Age: The Veilguard development since BioWare doesn't have any other games in the works.

These reassignments were thought to be temporary, but Schreier reports those moved elsewhere won't automatically get to move back to the developer. If they wanted to work for BioWare again, they would have to actually wait for job openings and re-apply.

"This was an unwelcome development for some of the employees, who now find themselves on brand-new teams at studios they’d never planned to join," Schreier reports. "Some had come to BioWare to work on storied role-playing game franchises and found the idea of working on action or sports games less appealing."

As part of the Bloomberg report, it's stated that around 24 people were laid off as part of the restructuring — something that wasn't included in BioWare's post on the subject last week. Now, it's projected that less than 100 people work at BioWare.

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[source bloomberg.com]