The company EA recently also officially became the property of Saudi Arabia, and in the first wave of layoffs, which make up about 3% of the company, or 400 people, BioWare was hit, as about 50 people were from that studio. As of today, the studio officially no longer exists, and the projects they were working on are being canceled.
BioWare was founded in Edmonton, Canada, by three doctors – Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk, and Augustine Yip 31 years ago. The studio was acquired in 2007 by EA, an endeavor that cost the company over $850 million. The studio's founders left in 2012.
BioWare's body of work is truly rich, and over its 31 years of existence, they delivered a great many iconic titles. They created the original Baldur's Gate games that set the standard for the RPG genre and revived Dungeons & Dragons. Beyond that, they also stand behind Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and Dragon Age.
When talking about the last decade, the studio didn't really distinguish itself with the titles it delivered. In fact, we could even say that the last successful project was Dragon Age: Inquisition, which was also crowned Game of the Year.
They suffered the first serious blow to the brand back in 2017 with Mass Effect: Andromeda, which launched in a catastrophic technical state, riddled with bugs and poor animations. Under pressure from EA, they entered the world of multiplayer games with Anthem, with which they promised a lot but delivered very little and in poor condition, resulting in the servers being shut down earlier this year.
Probably the final attempt, albeit a rather unsuccessful one, was Dragon Age: The Veilguard, which underwent a turbulent development cycle shifting from a multiplayer title packed with microtransactions to a single-player game that left out key elements essential to the franchise.
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