BioWare's just waiting for the axe to fall after EA's $55 billion buyout, say anonymous staff

EA went private in a Saudi-backed $55 billion deal earlier this week, and pretty much no one with a net worth south of $100 million is happy about it. Least happy of all? The staff of EA's myriad studios, who now have to wonder if their jobs are going under the guillotine to make Mohammed bin Salman and Jared Kushner's pocketbooks a little happier. With EA now on the hook for a $20 billion debt to JP Morgan in the wake of its leveraged buyout, frantic cost-cutting (and, joy of joys, AI) seems inevitable.

Especially worried are the staff at BioWare, which hasn't chalked up an unalloyed win since 2021's Mass Effect Legendary Edition and which hasn't chalked one up with an actually new game since 2014's Dragon Age: Inquisition. In a chat with Insider Gaming, anonymous staff at the RPG developer sound like they're just waiting for the axe to fall.

"I’ve been doing it since last year, but I’m making sure I have a portfolio ready and feelers out for other jobs," said one source, who added that it "Kind of feels like a matter of time" before things turn dark for the studio.

Another staff member said "Look at the negativity that came after Dragon Age [The Veilguard]. If we felt it was only going to get worse then, you can imagine what some of us think now." BioWare was hit by layoffs in the wake of Veilguard's release, with EA suits declaring the game was "down nearly 50% from the company’s expectations."

So BioWare was already in the dumps, Veilguard's lukewarm reception made things worse, and EA's take-private deal seems to have frayed the thread on the sword of Damocles even further. According to Insider Gaming, talks were underway at some point to sell BioWare off entirely, but it's not clear where they ended up. Frankly, that might be the positive outcome at this point.

With BioWare in the doldrums and the take-private deal anticipated to close in Q1 of FY2027, it feels like the studio's future is either a quick sale or complete closure—an ignominious end for a studio that was once the undisputed king of RPG development. Per one anonymous BioWare dev, "We’re going to keep working until they tell us we're done. It’s not the healthiest way to live, but as long as the paycheques keep coming, we’re not going to just walk away."