The problem with the “we want to be story focused” line is they are firing long time writers (i,e. Mary Kirby who wrote Varric) . I’m sure the “core” writing is done if the release is 2024 but moving forward it is concerning.
It's currently in Alpha supposedly, which means the content is complete (I.e. writing and the core mechanics of the gameplay loops have been settled on).
@@ukmaxi which is why i said my concern is more moving forward - DLC and future games. It is short sighted to lose talented writers because they are “done” with this particular project.
The other concern is whether or not they intend to try to train AI to write video game dialogue going forward. This is taking place against the backdrop of the WGA strike. And EA also cut contracts with a unionized play testing company. Those EA execs gotta get their bank.
@@christineherrmann205 I’m not even that opposed to using AI. There are places with a lot of minor NPC, or vendor conversations where the dialog is largely transactional or just exposition dumps that don’t need talented writers. Now, in my dream an impossible dream world the AI grinding out that dialog should free up writers to write more/better character and plot building dialog.
Much of the OG talent reformed under Archetype Entertainment and are working on a sci-fi rpg. That’s who I’m keeping an eye on. They have a partnership with Blur Studios(people who made the SWTOR trailers). I’m infinitely more hopeful in their success as I am BioWare being able to resurrect itself.
The old Bioware that created the games we love and brought them acclaim hasn't existed for about a decade, perhaps more if one includes the point at which erosion of it began. I find the passage of time hasn't made it feel any less tragic or painful though. It seems many others feel the same. I truly hope the heart, soul, creative fecundity and autonomy of the old Bioware from the 2000s are restored in the coming years.
This wasn't a decision made to "slim down for faster interation"...it's about the company saving money by firing senior devs (who get paid more) in favor of newer, less established devs who are easier to push around and who get paid LESS. It's corporate greed. Cutting 25% of your workforce is going to force lower paid people to do MORE work for less money. Remember how crunch was something they vowed they'd never do? I have a feeling that pledge is out the window.
That’s one cynical way to look at it. That could be true. But It could also not be the case at all. It’s been a long time since BioWare’s last full title release and there’s been a lot of changes since then both for BioWare and EA. Give it time to see whether those changes were a positive or not.
@@MrProdigy810 their actions play their hand though. If they had to crunch with this many people. They’re gonna have to crunch with less. That’s just logistics. It’s unlikely they’re going to start setting goals in a smarter timeframe especially because they Have already failed it that multiple times. Other studios have released many games in the time that it has take them to release one. They just aren’t good at making them anymore magic is gone
We know that at least two og writers, from BG1 and Dragon Age Origins, were amongst those fired. If you're trying to return to the Bioware of old why fire some of the few classic era employees that you have left? There must be something else going on behind the scenes or that aspect of the statement seems particularly troubling.
They say they are slimming down to give us better single player games with great writing at the same time they fire some of their most experienced and talented writers. Mary Kirby, who gave us Varric, the Qunari, and the Chantry. Lukas Kristjanson, who wrote for BG1, BG2, KOTOR, Mass Effect Trilogy, and Dragon Age Series so far. This is the dude who gave us Joker. Who other BioWare writers have repeatedly described as a mentor to them. I don’t buy the BioWare press speech, when these are their actions.
Man I didn’t know he wrote all of those masterpieces to be honest I didn’t know about this guy. But now that I do it is a crime that they fired him. I mean he won’t have trouble finding another job but still. it really goes to show where their effort is going when they are planning on firing the writers LMAO
There’s no way Dreadwolf is going to be a return to form for Bioware. The studio has been in shambles for nearly 10 years now. I think they’re just running down the clock at this point.
To me the most important thing is the tone of the game, and I don’t think any of the subsequent dragon age games have successfully matched the tone and atmosphere that origins created. Origins felt more grimdark, and I really loved that about it, dragon age 2 somewhat matched that tone but the game was being dragged down by to many issues… and dragon age inquisition just really didn’t hit for me, it just didn’t feel like the same world.
Getting rid of great writers that have worked on the games we love seems like a really shitty way to move forward. Leadership is what should change, not the developers on the floor. But the devs get laid off while the leadership is filling their pockets. I have zero confidence in this modern Bioware.
What the hell are you talking about? If you want to produce better story-focused games with great character development, the first thing you have to do is start firing writers. Duh.
@@nfbk123 EA would never allow that to happen, and tbh once they have Acti/Bliz I think regulators worldwide wouldn't allow it even if EA were begging to join the Microsoft family. It was hard enough getting Acti/Blizz, the FTC would strike that down before it even becomes a rumor. EA has already been concerned with having potential buyers. I think it would be the same if Sony wanted to buy them, unfortunately EA would have much leeway in buying up more competition themselves though. So the only real solution is EA selling off some of their own studios, or entire IPS, which is less likely to happen than Rockstar Games releasing GTA6 without an online mode.
The issues of bioware were certainly upper management, but theres no way those 50 were all upper managment, maybe a couple but the rest was certainly the lower rung in the company and its those people that make the games. The lizards at thr top are certainly still there and this was done not to endanger their pay.
This is what always happens in reorgs. They fire the people that do things and keep the people who are good at BS. I went through a layoff once where the literally fired everyone who did work and kept the VP. The VP then stole proprietary data and tried to sell it. Every time the company does a reorg, we lose people that know how the business works and the company ends up being less efficient even when they inevitably hire more people to fix the mistakes caused by replacing people who know how to do things with people who do not.
I think after BG3, Dreadwolf will have a higher bar to clear to reach players not familiar with Dragon Age. Us DA fans may be more forgiving, but I wouldn’t be surprised if EA pulls the plug on Deeadwolf if its just a graphical evolution of prior DA games. I think Bioware lacks the vision and passion to make Dreadwolf a truly worthy successor in the series.
DA 3 was fun enogh to me. But becouse they close the story with the whole solas/dreadwolf was very good. Now i think they will taint DA 4 with social justice bul l sh it;
@@ArantyrDarkhand the series is already loaded with it, has been from the start - if you have actually played the games you would know this. Or you are one of those people that engages with media content a lot of leftist messaging and you walk away thinking "yup, not woke at all, I saw a boob!". Also, please define "social justice"
If dreadwolf will ever release, it'll be mercilessly compared to BG3 and let's face it, it'll be nowhere near BG3. It's really ironic because it was bioware that set the bar high for developers branded as their "spiritual successors" like larian, but now it's bioware who needs to reach the bar setup by their spiritual successors Bioware has been long dead IMO, you can't even call DA2 and DAI "worthy successors," those games are barely RPGs... dragon age as a series should've culminated into something like what BG3 is, instead it got dumber and dumber with each sequel as the series strays away from its CRPG roots and its RPG mechanics got watered-down.
@ArantyrDarkhand honestly I was chill with DA 3s story. Story writing is an art form and an adventure I'm fine with traveling down that story and making it my own in an rpg. I just worry that with the main writers gone dread wolf will end up a bit flat and not nearly as nuanced as the other games.
By your logic, then baldur's gate 3 would have also had issues. They have more workers than bioware does, so why havent they had chain of command or communication issues? It just sounds like youre giving another excuse for bioware, theyre not a poor little indie company.
Larian is different...Sven is the leader and basically the chain of command, there's is no chain, there is one person in charge with a final say so over everything...different animal.
Normally I would say would be better to have multiple people in command rather than just one person but when it comes to larian it seems it's pulled off well. The only reason there's controversy of the baldur's gate 3 is fear, if companies weren't threatened they wouldn't be causing backlash hopefully larian studios maybe one of the only companies left standing by the time BioWare releases some of these games, assuming they are going to be trash, if dreadwolf and ME4 are good they will stick around if not goodbye.
Yeah but they’re also going to have less issues with that problem. Because it is a management issue and they seem to have very good management over there. That’s one of the reasons why it’s affecting these guys and not necessarily those other guys. These guys are firing their writers and they are claiming they want to make RPG‘s. If you have a lot of people but they know how to work together and you know how to manage them it’s different than bringing in a bunch of temporary labor. That has no real association with the office. Hiring and firing people leading to team instability and not properly maintaining your design pillars and A cohesive design document and making sure that people are all on the same page there. It’s probably their problem. They are all wanting to make different games so they are doing that. And that’s why they keep running into development issues.
@@sean236 If they fail DA4, its over. The same way blizzard have 1 year to fix D4 or its over, and bethesda mediocre space skyrim if they fail its over. But bethesda atleast aways made sh it games and modders keep saving then.
I think people need to start looking at game development studios somewhat like bands because once the people responsible for the masterpieces of the past leave its simply not the same company n maybe that's not a bad thing but it surely can be
I'm honestly worried Dragon Age & Mass Effect are doomed now. I'm hoping for the best, obviously, and anxiously anticipating these games' releases. Was also hoping they'd do a Dragon Age Origins Remake/Remaster, but I suppose that's a pipe dream now with these layoffs.
I actually think it’s *more* likely that we’ll get a remake/remaster of Origins, but that’s because they’ll want to harken back to the old BW magic and, considering they fired two of their most senior writers, remaking the original game is the only way they’ll be able to do that.
The average employee there is probably very frustrated and demoralized, especially since EA took millions in stock buybacks this year -- more than enough to keep 800 people on board at the entire corp.
BioWare used to date a cute girl named ‘tabletop inspired roll playing’, and they were very happy together and BioWare became very popular. With its new found status, BioWare decided to abandon its longtime girlfriend in favor of a ‘sexier’ one named ‘Mass appeal’. Over time, ‘Mass appeal’ grew bored with BioWare and dumped him. Then, BioWare saw it’s old girlfriend ‘tabletop inspired roll playing’ with a new man, Larian studios, and she looks more attractive then ever. And together they’re happy, unlike BioWare who is still pathetically trying to court ‘mass appeal’ with no success, and who is now sad and lonely.
Bioware was probably shaking in their boots looking at how well BG3 has been doing and decided it might be time to clean house and get their shit together. The timing of this is too coincidental imo.
They should have been shaking in their boots a year after Inquisition when Witcher 3 came out. Their games can't get away with meaningless fetch quests anymore.
bg3 is a direct evolution of the design philosophy BioWare pioneered then proceeded to abandon in a misguided pursuit of mass appeal. Take as old as time.
As sad as it is; BioWare needs to be more focused then ever before. Dreadwolf is their be all or end all. If it fails BioWare goes bye bye forever sadly.
Baldur's Gate 3 is basically Dragon Age Origins 2. So much of that game is heavily inspired by the Dragon Age Origins formula. The reality is EA isn't going to invest money into making a big budget RPG. Not when their yearly FIFA game costs half as much as BG3 and will make more than it in a week.
It makes me feel as old as I am when people think Bioware started with DAO or Star Wars or even Mass Effect. I remember Shattered Steel for God's sake. The day Bioware were taken over by EA the only convo among players was how long they would continue making decent games before EAs mismanagement destroyed them. No one thought it would be this painful and drawn out though.
@@yiasemi I can understand why most people wouldn't know about Shattered Steel because it's a mech sim (nothing like anything else in their catalogue) but people don't even know about BG either and it's the basis for or core of every game they've made since.
They MUST succeed with DREAD WOLF. Bioware has to return to the old days and be more centered. After all of this problems the team has to prove they are still here. I totally agree with you.
so magic pretty much. wow. ya, they will magically "return to form" and succeed, a studio filled with temps and company yes men that cant do anything. lol
Yea I think dreadwolf is going to be the death knell for BioWare. It’s a shame, because it feels like we never got an actual successor to origins. 2 and 3 just didn’t hit the same for me.
@@carsonnesbit1178 The fact that they messed up Dragon Age 2, and even Inquisition, in my opinion, is crazy. They had the chance to maintain good-quality games after the success of Origins. Origins was made with excitement and love. The others were all about money, and that represents, the actual state of Bioware.
Theres a good chance theyll make a decent Dragon Age 4, on the level of the other sequels. But a Mass Effect sequel with the worldbuilding and writing quality of the original trilogy? No way.
I mean by that logic dragon age 4 will suck as well, both series are completely propped up by the writing. At least origins was, that game had amazing writing, and every dragon age game since has felt like a consistent downgrade in writing quality and world building.
It's actually looking to be the opposite for me. The new Mass Effect seems to be more promising than Dreadwolf. The people working on the new Mass Effect are very passionate, are huge fans of the trilogy, and have a clear vision for it. On the other hand, Dreadwolf has been through one of the worst developmental hells I've seen in a while and we've seen nothing of the game even though it's supposed to release by next year.
@@lep2525 I hope you're right about Mass Effect. Even though I liked DA 2 and 3 fine I think Origins covered pretty much the story and world for me. Im hoping Dreadwolf is good but its lower stakes than Mass Effect. If ME4 (5?) fails it will forever remain just the brilliant trilogy. Strong Science Fiction IP is far scarcer and more valuable than Fantasy. Especially in gaming.
@@carsonnesbit1178 The writing def went downhill after origins and awakening but it's another thing to play inquisition and actually see the world that "Origins" couldn't show you we saw ferelden and orlais in that game and I was not disappointed at all.
Because the game is in Alpha stage and is playable from start to finish I think is the reason why they layed off all those people. They can see the finish line and they also want to be more resourceful and not waste money. I’m hoping that’s what this is.
Right why would you lay off senior employees when you can milk all you can out of them, of course that's what they're doing then they're going to fire him after everything is finished. If the games are good that's good for us but that really sucks for these people who put their blood sweat and tears into these games
games can be alpha and playable from start to finish long before anyone is not needed, and many, many years before launch. Talk about huffing the copium.
Always gotta be cautiously optimistic but it’s not that shocking considering contracts ending before a game release is nothing new - this way it just clears things outta the way before they start marketing and finishing up things. Still sucks that a bunch of ppl had to be cut
@MrMattyPlays I can understand some layoffs happening, but 2 of the layoffs really just hurt and didn't make sense. You should know the 2.. One has been a main writer there since BG 1, the other wrote Varric. Couldn't help but shed a tear for them and the future of all the characters they've written.
I have the feeling this BioWare is going to disappear at some point but I do want to see the next Mass Effect, nothing to do but wait and see what happens in the end
I don’t have a long-established familarity with Bioware to be honest, I only played Mass Effect Legendary Trilogy last summer, but yeah, as it stands so many developers and staff have left the studio over the years that the Bioware people loved is nonexistent at this point.
Even if BioWare was going into more agile methodologies in their game development, a hybrid approach should have be used , im sure none of the 50 people released were managerial roles. Make the development more agile by building a collaborative team for dragon age and mass effect and resources and communication can happen between both teams , projects of projects.
Matty you should cover Archetype entertainment, a new studio comprised of og BioWare veterans, working on a sci fi rpg. Only concern is they’re owned by WotC/Hasbro
I could understand if this was just technical layoffs or roles not needed that Dreadwolf is winding down, but they laid off major writers. One which had been there for 27 years. They laid of Mary Kirby, Varric's creator and writer. There's no framing that as a positive thing.
Maybe they 'needed' to slim down but if that's the case then why get rid of the people who made their older games great? Baldur's Gate and Dragon Age writers, etc. this sounds more like a corporate filter for 'we want to save money' as opposed to an actual need
This all started with Dragon Age II and Dragon Age III Inquisition having an identity crisis, Mass Effect Legendary Edition, does not inspire confidence either with the state it is abandoned in. You do not attain sustainability by firing writers and leading technical directors, especially when Bioware's known for writing, that's not easily replaceable. I rarely use the terminology, but this feels like coping, sticking your head in the sand.
I’m with you…. I want this game yesterday! BUT….. this is going to be such an important game, for BioWare, for me. I will wait as long as it takes. BioWare needs to take its time with this.
I’m very intrigued by the DA series.. Picked up the first two on PC not too long ago.. I’m hoping the launch of the next one goes smoothly and without much delay..
@@kristianwhite1061 To this day, I only really like origins. I respect those who like inquisition, but it just didn’t match the atmosphere and tone of origins for me. It didn’t feel like the same world, and no flashy graphics can save that. Origins felt more grim dark, something that inquisition was getting further away from. There are some points of origins where it feels like it’s bordering on being a horror game and I really miss that.
You know you should really play Origins, imo inquisition was the worse game out of them all. When I saw mass effect andromeda I know, it look way to similar to inquisition. Just compared to the writing, and lore of the original games. It’s just sad
Fans: "We want Old School Bioware back!" Bioware: "Ok! To do that, we're shit-canning our best Old School Bioware writers!". Look- this whole thing may be "The product of Bad Management", but the people who are implementing these plans very likely ARE the Bad Management. Considering the turmoil we have heard about within the studio, EA's interference, as well as all the other issues we've come to be aware of, it really sparks a vote of no confidence. This whole "letter" is rife with typical corporate platitudes to try and sell it all to us- much like a shady used car salesman. Well, color me skeptical. The proof will be in the pudding, as they say. When(and IF) Dreadwolf drops, it had better be at least moderately good or I fear Bioware will be done.
Matty u need to talk about the starfield hate and how insanely unwarranted it is, just because ps5 boys are being pissy about how their fav game company left their console
Love your stuff man, been following you for a while. Can't wait to see your Starfield content; hopefully that will bring out some of the beloved Matty skits that we all miss. I'm glad your health is back on track!
The BioWare that made dragon age origins isn’t alive anymore and that makes me sad because it never felt that we had a successor to origins, on paper we did, but dragon age 2 was riddled with so many problems and inquisition just didn’t feel like the same grim dark world that I grew up loving in origins. Honestly, out of the 3 dragon age games I really only liked origins, it’s sad that BioWare is dead now because I’ll always wonder what could have been. Hopefully new BioWare can make a good game that will attract a whole new generation of dragon age fans, it just won’t be my dragon age, and that’s okay.
Well I hope the game turns out alright and not the worst thing sense Fruitcake . I feel for those who lost they're jobs and it always sucks when its talented people that leave too
I find it amusing that you assumed that the people being laid off were coming from the middle of the chain of command that this would allow for better managed projects. That is not how layoffs generally work.
After all the BS we've seen game companies pull, how can you still feel okay with playing devil's advocate? I mean sure maybe downsizing the amount of people in the kitchen might be beneficial in some way but I can guarantee you a good amount of people that got laid off were people that were lower on the totem pole and actually doing the "cooking"... The overpaid/higher-level management and leadership who are responsible for Bioware's current state? Chilling in their job security lmao. And NONE of this will help Bioware become the old Bioware we all loved. It's not happening.
In theory, reducing the chain of commands might be healthier. Unfortunately I'm finding difficult to believe that these layoffs were targetting redundant managing roles. Writers, senior devs, 3d artists... these roles were most likely the most affected. Not to even mention that the Agile Methodology they're hinting at here does NOT require a small team. This was unavoidable, not to restructure and refocus the studio but to save as much money as possible on a global EA scale.
I don't really see this as positive at all. They cut veterans who genuinely wanted to work on the series especially people like Mary Kirby who has wrote multiple characters and some of the lore. Even if dreadwolf is good there's a future without writers who genuinely knew the series ins and outs. I don't think that's a good thing at all. I hate to see anyone lose their job but to see them cut devs who knew the franchise from the beginning instead of the Devs leaving on their own wishes seems like an incredibly bad move on bioware and EA's part. I still want to see what dreadwolf is at the end of the day but I don't see much of a future for dragon age after that.
Despite what I think about it Inquisition was well received and sold well….Idk how they’re dropping to ball so hard behind the scenes knowing that. I want Dreadwolf to be good so bad.
The release date could be 10 years from now and the game still wouldn’t be half as good as origins or bg3 lol. Which is crazy because the blueprint is right there. Incompetence
I would put money 💰 on the fact the layoffs won't affect anyone at the executive and management level, won't affect anyone from marketing or financial, but 90% of layoffs will happen to creative/design departments as per usual with big corporations who vastly undervalue their creative departments
I know you're busy, Matty, but this video needed far more scrutiny and the usual critical eye. What positions were let go? If they're just animators, testers, etc. then that's not slimming down the pipeline of communication. What about this in context with the other recent firings or leaves? Just because Bioware got out ahead of this news, doesn't mean they're not trying to spin it.
Not shocking in the least, Violate of the past is dead and gone. Hollowed out and mutilated by E.A I have no anticipation for Dragon age nor Mass effect, as a life long fan this breaks my heart.
There could be a shift in the features of the game based on the recent success of Baldur's Gate 3. It seems they haven't even put pencil to paper in Mass Effect planning.
This was a pretty optimistic take. Normally when companies do reorgs, it’s not the senior leadership that takes the hit. It’s not the managers. The managers will get demoted and the people doing the work get let go. “Increasing efficiency” or “streamlining” just means they wanted to save money by eliminating paid humans that do work. It’s about the bottom line, not the product. I predict DA4 will be a buggy, incoherent mess. They will have fired devs familiar with the code and replaced them with people building on code they didn’t write and can’t ask anyone about. If they currently have a problem with competing visions and are this far into production, that means it will cost a fortune to rewrite for the winning vision so they will take parts of the old visions and paste them into the new vision. Or they will be forced to strip down real content and give us fluff like the multiple areas in Inquisition that do not have anything at all to do with the actual story.
If Dreadwolf flops, I'm pretty sure Bioware will be done for, specially because people will absolutely compare it to Baldur's Gate 3, the game is destined to be scrutinized no matter what they do, perhaps Dreadwolf will be their last launch and after that they will merge within EA and someone else will take over their IPs. Sad end to such an iconic studio, but it's been in a steady decline since ME3, even ME2 and DA2 suffered because of EA, but perhaps is the best at this point.
It's time for EA to shut them down and hand over that sweet IP to someone capable. This is what happens when you fill a team up with no-talent company yes men than have no clue on how to do anything.
Bioware needed to do this. You need a medium sized dev group not an over bloated bureaucratic slog of too many fingers for a better contiguous piece of art.
This is BS. Larian has 400 people working there in multiple studios and they made BG3. The idea that Matty and others are promoting here is just silly. There are tons of examples of this. This has nothing to do with streamlining and it would not surprise me if Bioware is completely gutted and extinuished in a few years and will people then say they needed more streamlining? This just a terriblly thought-out rationalisation for what has happened. They fired Mary Kirby; the creator of Varric and the Qunari; is that streamlining necessary? Give me a break.
It all falls back on management and how you lead a team. Laying off tons of people is not a positive. Any company can have make hundreds of employees work well together but only if the leads do their job and LEAD.
@@spellandshield idk I think it very much shows in BG3s writing. the inspiration for many beats feels like someone at a table saying ‘wouldn’t it be cool if this happened’ and nobody having a good reason or enough authority to say no. The whole story feels a bit like ‘and then, and then, and then’. It doesn’t hold a candle to the writing in BG2, not even remotely close imo.
larian has 130+ more employees than bioware does, and theyre not having issues. just sounds like a excuse for bioware to fall back on because of higher ups bad decisions.
Did they need to lay off the people who led their best games' writing? Doesn't make sense, more likely the lay offs CAME from a bureaucratic decision maker at EA than an actual need to 'slim down'
i read this myself a few days ago and was just wondering how long good oh matty would take to do a vid on it and i agree all the problems was down to bad management
As someone who grew up playing the three Dragon Age games, I came to terms with the fourth one not looking too hot after playing Andromeda and witnessing the clusterfuck that was Anthem.
Sucks for the people laid off but I actually feel bad for Corinne Busche, the director because she was probably thrusted onto this project (in Feb 2022) and probably set as the 'fall guy' (or woman in this case) if DA:D turns to be a big mess (and being a Transwoman, sent Transphobic abuse her way). Was that Alpha leak with action-y combat before or after Connie was Director? And back to people being laid off; the amount of talented who knew and stayed around for a long time are thrown under the bus by Management who seem to *hate* the fact that Bioware has done RPGs.
Dude what are you smoking in those opening 5 mins? Yeah sure slimming down is all well and good but did you actually look into who was let go? These aren't a bunch of easily replaceable nobodies. They fired mostly senior staff, massive talent including writers, the gal who wrote Varic ffs.. The talent pool at Bioware was already on life support. Now it's DEAD and BURIED.
Among the fired employees are the lead writers for Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 and all three Dragon Ages. This doesn't really strike me as "streamlining", more like a continued separation from a successful past.
That last statement is just filled with corporate and buzz words, nothing in it inspire confidence or anything good imo. And the worst is that among the people they layed off are 2 of their best writters since the first Baldur's Gate games...
I covered this myself, but that entire blog is making things sound overly positive. The uncomfortable fact no one wants to admit: Papa EA is taking Bioware down a road it took Westwood and many others (Just mentioning Westwood because I am missing a good C&C game but I digress). If Dreadwolf doesn't deliver? We won't see Mass Effect because Bioware will be right beside Westwood. The reduction in force has nothing to do with efficiency and everything to do with Bioware not delivering on their recent big releases (Andromeda and Anthem) and EA not having confidence. And they cut millions of overhead with those 50 people. And then something else, we have seen way more Mass Effect stuff than Dragonage stuff. Weird since Dragonage is next up, perhaps as soon as 2024. What gives?
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The problem with the “we want to be story focused” line is they are firing long time writers (i,e. Mary Kirby who wrote Varric) . I’m sure the “core” writing is done if the release is 2024 but moving forward it is concerning.
It's currently in Alpha supposedly, which means the content is complete (I.e. writing and the core mechanics of the gameplay loops have been settled on).
@@ukmaxi which is why i said my concern is more moving forward - DLC and future games. It is short sighted to lose talented writers because they are “done” with this particular project.
@@cfish7186 Well, whether they are let go or go for their own reasons. You cannot stop it.
The other concern is whether or not they intend to try to train AI to write video game dialogue going forward. This is taking place against the backdrop of the WGA strike. And EA also cut contracts with a unionized play testing company. Those EA execs gotta get their bank.
@@christineherrmann205 I’m not even that opposed to using AI. There are places with a lot of minor NPC, or vendor conversations where the dialog is largely transactional or just exposition dumps that don’t need talented writers. Now, in my dream an impossible dream world the AI grinding out that dialog should free up writers to write more/better character and plot building dialog.
The BioWare that created all those games we love does not exist anymore
Sad but true
True, but let’s see what the new team does, yes, the old team worked on Andromeda
You're being cringe. Stop being cringe.
Much of the OG talent reformed under Archetype Entertainment and are working on a sci-fi rpg. That’s who I’m keeping an eye on. They have a partnership with Blur Studios(people who made the SWTOR trailers). I’m infinitely more hopeful in their success as I am BioWare being able to resurrect itself.
The old Bioware that created the games we love and brought them acclaim hasn't existed for about a decade, perhaps more if one includes the point at which erosion of it began. I find the passage of time hasn't made it feel any less tragic or painful though. It seems many others feel the same. I truly hope the heart, soul, creative fecundity and autonomy of the old Bioware from the 2000s are restored in the coming years.
This wasn't a decision made to "slim down for faster interation"...it's about the company saving money by firing senior devs (who get paid more) in favor of newer, less established devs who are easier to push around and who get paid LESS. It's corporate greed. Cutting 25% of your workforce is going to force lower paid people to do MORE work for less money. Remember how crunch was something they vowed they'd never do? I have a feeling that pledge is out the window.
Yeah your right. Colin has definitely got to him. This is just classic capitalism.
That’s one cynical way to look at it. That could be true. But It could also not be the case at all. It’s been a long time since BioWare’s last full title release and there’s been a lot of changes since then both for BioWare and EA. Give it time to see whether those changes were a positive or not.
@@heat9238capitalism works. Layoffs are part of life, BioWare will probably come out better because of the cost savings.
This is a very glass half empty outlook.
@@MrProdigy810 their actions play their hand though. If they had to crunch with this many people. They’re gonna have to crunch with less. That’s just logistics. It’s unlikely they’re going to start setting goals in a smarter timeframe especially because they Have already failed it that multiple times. Other studios have released many games in the time that it has take them to release one. They just aren’t good at making them anymore magic is gone
We know that at least two og writers, from BG1 and Dragon Age Origins, were amongst those fired. If you're trying to return to the Bioware of old why fire some of the few classic era employees that you have left? There must be something else going on behind the scenes or that aspect of the statement seems particularly troubling.
Yeah Matty skipped over that no idea why
In a variety of ways, Matty was surprisingly far less critical than he should have been.
Put the diversity hires out.
@@ArantyrDarkhand triggered baby is triggered
@@ArantyrDarkhandwhat does that have to do with anything besides your own stupidity
They say they are slimming down to give us better single player games with great writing at the same time they fire some of their most experienced and talented writers. Mary Kirby, who gave us Varric, the Qunari, and the Chantry. Lukas Kristjanson, who wrote for BG1, BG2, KOTOR, Mass Effect Trilogy, and Dragon Age Series so far. This is the dude who gave us Joker. Who other BioWare writers have repeatedly described as a mentor to them. I don’t buy the BioWare press speech, when these are their actions.
Man I didn’t know he wrote all of those masterpieces to be honest I didn’t know about this guy. But now that I do it is a crime that they fired him. I mean he won’t have trouble finding another job but still. it really goes to show where their effort is going when they are planning on firing the writers LMAO
There’s no way Dreadwolf is going to be a return to form for Bioware. The studio has been in shambles for nearly 10 years now. I think they’re just running down the clock at this point.
Considering they're ripping off modern GoW's combat, yeah it'll unlikely be a return to form
Also, the multiple rumors of development trouble, restarts, and changes in direction don't lend much confidence in the state of the game.
the change in combat is terrible. they keep streamlining it and keep following trends
Nice joke 👌
To me the most important thing is the tone of the game, and I don’t think any of the subsequent dragon age games have successfully matched the tone and atmosphere that origins created.
Origins felt more grimdark, and I really loved that about it, dragon age 2 somewhat matched that tone but the game was being dragged down by to many issues… and dragon age inquisition just really didn’t hit for me, it just didn’t feel like the same world.
Getting rid of great writers that have worked on the games we love seems like a really shitty way to move forward. Leadership is what should change, not the developers on the floor. But the devs get laid off while the leadership is filling their pockets. I have zero confidence in this modern Bioware.
Amen
What the hell are you talking about? If you want to produce better story-focused games with great character development, the first thing you have to do is start firing writers. Duh.
I love how they throw the spin out first before saying "Oh, by the way, 50 people are on the bread line". I just feel for those who lost their jobs.
The only solution is for Xbox to buy EA
@@nfbk123 EA would never allow that to happen, and tbh once they have Acti/Bliz I think regulators worldwide wouldn't allow it even if EA were begging to join the Microsoft family. It was hard enough getting Acti/Blizz, the FTC would strike that down before it even becomes a rumor. EA has already been concerned with having potential buyers.
I think it would be the same if Sony wanted to buy them, unfortunately EA would have much leeway in buying up more competition themselves though. So the only real solution is EA selling off some of their own studios, or entire IPS, which is less likely to happen than Rockstar Games releasing GTA6 without an online mode.
This video feels like coping. He does not mention Mary Kirby being fired.
@@nfbk123 I really don't know if it's a company worth buying.
Hopefully it won't be hard for them to find another job.
The issues of bioware were certainly upper management, but theres no way those 50 were all upper managment, maybe a couple but the rest was certainly the lower rung in the company and its those people that make the games.
The lizards at thr top are certainly still there and this was done not to endanger their pay.
This is what always happens in reorgs. They fire the people that do things and keep the people who are good at BS. I went through a layoff once where the literally fired everyone who did work and kept the VP. The VP then stole proprietary data and tried to sell it. Every time the company does a reorg, we lose people that know how the business works and the company ends up being less efficient even when they inevitably hire more people to fix the mistakes caused by replacing people who know how to do things with people who do not.
I think after BG3, Dreadwolf will have a higher bar to clear to reach players not familiar with Dragon Age. Us DA fans may be more forgiving, but I wouldn’t be surprised if EA pulls the plug on Deeadwolf if its just a graphical evolution of prior DA games. I think Bioware lacks the vision and passion to make Dreadwolf a truly worthy successor in the series.
DA 3 was fun enogh to me. But becouse they close the story with the whole solas/dreadwolf was very good. Now i think they will taint DA 4 with social justice bul l sh it;
@@ArantyrDarkhand the series is already loaded with it, has been from the start - if you have actually played the games you would know this. Or you are one of those people that engages with media content a lot of leftist messaging and you walk away thinking "yup, not woke at all, I saw a boob!".
Also, please define "social justice"
If dreadwolf will ever release, it'll be mercilessly compared to BG3 and let's face it, it'll be nowhere near BG3. It's really ironic because it was bioware that set the bar high for developers branded as their "spiritual successors" like larian, but now it's bioware who needs to reach the bar setup by their spiritual successors
Bioware has been long dead IMO, you can't even call DA2 and DAI "worthy successors," those games are barely RPGs... dragon age as a series should've culminated into something like what BG3 is, instead it got dumber and dumber with each sequel as the series strays away from its CRPG roots and its RPG mechanics got watered-down.
@ArantyrDarkhand honestly I was chill with DA 3s story. Story writing is an art form and an adventure I'm fine with traveling down that story and making it my own in an rpg. I just worry that with the main writers gone dread wolf will end up a bit flat and not nearly as nuanced as the other games.
By your logic, then baldur's gate 3 would have also had issues. They have more workers than bioware does, so why havent they had chain of command or communication issues? It just sounds like youre giving another excuse for bioware, theyre not a poor little indie company.
depends what you mean by "poor," they are talentless.
Larian is different...Sven is the leader and basically the chain of command, there's is no chain, there is one person in charge with a final say so over everything...different animal.
Normally I would say would be better to have multiple people in command rather than just one person but when it comes to larian it seems it's pulled off well. The only reason there's controversy of the baldur's gate 3 is fear, if companies weren't threatened they wouldn't be causing backlash hopefully larian studios maybe one of the only companies left standing by the time BioWare releases some of these games, assuming they are going to be trash, if dreadwolf and ME4 are good they will stick around if not goodbye.
Yeah but they’re also going to have less issues with that problem. Because it is a management issue and they seem to have very good management over there. That’s one of the reasons why it’s affecting these guys and not necessarily those other guys. These guys are firing their writers and they are claiming they want to make RPG‘s. If you have a lot of people but they know how to work together and you know how to manage them it’s different than bringing in a bunch of temporary labor. That has no real association with the office. Hiring and firing people leading to team instability and not properly maintaining your design pillars and A cohesive design document and making sure that people are all on the same page there. It’s probably their problem. They are all wanting to make different games so they are doing that. And that’s why they keep running into development issues.
@@sean236 If they fail DA4, its over. The same way blizzard have 1 year to fix D4 or its over, and bethesda mediocre space skyrim if they fail its over. But bethesda atleast aways made sh it games and modders keep saving then.
I think people need to start looking at game development studios somewhat like bands because once the people responsible for the masterpieces of the past leave its simply not the same company n maybe that's not a bad thing but it surely can be
I'm honestly worried Dragon Age & Mass Effect are doomed now.
I'm hoping for the best, obviously, and anxiously anticipating these games' releases. Was also hoping they'd do a Dragon Age Origins Remake/Remaster, but I suppose that's a pipe dream now with these layoffs.
You're assuming the position layoffs were important positions.
It is extremely worrisome, to be sure. Yikes.
When corporations say they want to be “more nimble,” they mean “we fired a bunch of people because Daddy needs a new yacht.”
I actually think it’s *more* likely that we’ll get a remake/remaster of Origins, but that’s because they’ll want to harken back to the old BW magic and, considering they fired two of their most senior writers, remaking the original game is the only way they’ll be able to do that.
Two long time writers are part of the firings. Matty's take here is as if he is talking about pre-FO76 Bethesda.
i wonder if theyre revamping the game again to chase trends like theyve done 3 times during its development already
I can't imagine what the reception was like when Bioware saw Baldur's Gate doing so well despite being a hardcore, non simplified CRPG.
The average employee there is probably very frustrated and demoralized, especially since EA took millions in stock buybacks this year -- more than enough to keep 800 people on board at the entire corp.
BioWare used to date a cute girl named ‘tabletop inspired roll playing’, and they were very happy together and BioWare became very popular.
With its new found status, BioWare decided to abandon its longtime girlfriend in favor of a ‘sexier’ one named ‘Mass appeal’.
Over time, ‘Mass appeal’ grew bored with BioWare and dumped him.
Then, BioWare saw it’s old girlfriend ‘tabletop inspired roll playing’ with a new man, Larian studios, and she looks more attractive then ever. And together they’re happy, unlike BioWare who is still pathetically trying to court ‘mass appeal’ with no success, and who is now sad and lonely.
All I know is I BETTER SEE SOMETHING FROM THEM SOON! My patience is running really thin & people are starting to just… not mention them
God I miss classic Dragon Age....
I know😮 it's difficult for me to believe they're capable of creating memorable characters such as Dorian, Cullen or Cassandra for example.
I’m terrified for Dragon Age and Mass Effect.
With Starfield mass effect isn’t even needed anymore it has been trash after 2 anyways
You will be......
You will be.......
Bioware was probably shaking in their boots looking at how well BG3 has been doing and decided it might be time to clean house and get their shit together. The timing of this is too coincidental imo.
So they sack the writer of BG1 & 2? Seems legit.
They should have been shaking in their boots a year after Inquisition when Witcher 3 came out. Their games can't get away with meaningless fetch quests anymore.
Yes agreed
bg3 is a direct evolution of the design philosophy BioWare pioneered then proceeded to abandon in a misguided pursuit of mass appeal.
Take as old as time.
As sad as it is; BioWare needs to be more focused then ever before. Dreadwolf is their be all or end all. If it fails BioWare goes bye bye forever sadly.
They fired lead writers, quality assurance people and veteran programmers though. That's like making your car run lighter by taking out the engine.
Baldur's Gate 3 is basically Dragon Age Origins 2. So much of that game is heavily inspired by the Dragon Age Origins formula. The reality is EA isn't going to invest money into making a big budget RPG. Not when their yearly FIFA game costs half as much as BG3 and will make more than it in a week.
"The DAO formula"
AKA the Baldur's Gate 1&2 formula.
It makes me feel as old as I am when people think Bioware started with DAO or Star Wars or even Mass Effect. I remember Shattered Steel for God's sake. The day Bioware were taken over by EA the only convo among players was how long they would continue making decent games before EAs mismanagement destroyed them. No one thought it would be this painful and drawn out though.
@@yiasemi I can understand why most people wouldn't know about Shattered Steel because it's a mech sim (nothing like anything else in their catalogue) but people don't even know about BG either and it's the basis for or core of every game they've made since.
@@Spr1ggan87 Wasn't a criticism. I'm with you. Let's encourage the decent games by spreading the word.
@@yiasemi Another one of their overlooked games is MDK 2
They MUST succeed with DREAD WOLF. Bioware has to return to the old days and be more centered. After all of this problems the team has to prove they are still here.
I totally agree with you.
The old Bioware is gone. It's been obvious for awhile, move on....
@@gtfokthxbyecyaBioware as a developer hasn't even existed for years. EA just mishmashed multiple smaller studios together under the Bioware brand.
so magic pretty much. wow. ya, they will magically "return to form" and succeed, a studio filled with temps and company yes men that cant do anything. lol
Yea I think dreadwolf is going to be the death knell for BioWare. It’s a shame, because it feels like we never got an actual successor to origins.
2 and 3 just didn’t hit the same for me.
@@carsonnesbit1178 The fact that they messed up Dragon Age 2, and even Inquisition, in my opinion, is crazy. They had the chance to maintain good-quality games after the success of Origins. Origins was made with excitement and love. The others were all about money, and that represents, the actual state of Bioware.
Theres a good chance theyll make a decent Dragon Age 4, on the level of the other sequels.
But a Mass Effect sequel with the worldbuilding and writing quality of the original trilogy? No way.
I mean by that logic dragon age 4 will suck as well, both series are completely propped up by the writing.
At least origins was, that game had amazing writing, and every dragon age game since has felt like a consistent downgrade in writing quality and world building.
It's actually looking to be the opposite for me. The new Mass Effect seems to be more promising than Dreadwolf. The people working on the new Mass Effect are very passionate, are huge fans of the trilogy, and have a clear vision for it. On the other hand, Dreadwolf has been through one of the worst developmental hells I've seen in a while and we've seen nothing of the game even though it's supposed to release by next year.
@@lep2525
I hope you're right about Mass Effect.
Even though I liked DA 2 and 3 fine I think Origins covered pretty much the story and world for me. Im hoping Dreadwolf is good but its lower stakes than Mass Effect. If ME4 (5?) fails it will forever remain just the brilliant trilogy.
Strong Science Fiction IP is far scarcer and more valuable than Fantasy. Especially in gaming.
@@carsonnesbit1178 The writing def went downhill after origins and awakening but it's another thing to play inquisition and actually see the world that "Origins" couldn't show you we saw ferelden and orlais in that game and I was not disappointed at all.
They should make a game about their company, multiple factions, with repeatable quests, boss battles 😆
And the play time would be lengthy. It would take you 8 years to finish anything!
Because the game is in Alpha stage and is playable from start to finish I think is the reason why they layed off all those people. They can see the finish line and they also want to be more resourceful and not waste money. I’m hoping that’s what this is.
That's exactly what it is I feel to 😂
Right why would you lay off senior employees when you can milk all you can out of them, of course that's what they're doing then they're going to fire him after everything is finished. If the games are good that's good for us but that really sucks for these people who put their blood sweat and tears into these games
games can be alpha and playable from start to finish long before anyone is not needed, and many, many years before launch.
Talk about huffing the copium.
I hope DA and ME can pull up and deliver something good. I love both of those franchises.
EA had to cut costs to increase profit margins. This has nothing to do with bettering the company. This is the bottom line to keep shareholders happy.
My favorite thing is when matty is at the top of my home page, let’s gooooo!
Always gotta be cautiously optimistic but it’s not that shocking considering contracts ending before a game release is nothing new - this way it just clears things outta the way before they start marketing and finishing up things.
Still sucks that a bunch of ppl had to be cut
Its time to cut ALL of them.
I think these were internal, w2 tax form employees
you dont need to report anything if its contacted teams - you just say nothing. They are stating this because the employees were permeant.
@MrMattyPlays I can understand some layoffs happening, but 2 of the layoffs really just hurt and didn't make sense. You should know the 2.. One has been a main writer there since BG 1, the other wrote Varric. Couldn't help but shed a tear for them and the future of all the characters they've written.
I love Varric. I want more positive representation of short men
Baldur's gate was Bioware original IP, imagine how painful it must be when somebody else does it and so well
i’m a simple man, i see a matty video, i click
Cringe
literally hahah
Most of a time it is recycled internet opinions , with some advertizment throwed in . Bottom feeders of YT at best.
@@Bombsiak than why are you here?
@@Bombsiak I mean, shit, you clicked on it tho 🤣
I have the feeling this BioWare is going to disappear at some point but I do want to see the next Mass Effect, nothing to do but wait and see what happens in the end
Please oh please be Bioware again! We need this!
I don’t have a long-established familarity with Bioware to be honest, I only played Mass Effect Legendary Trilogy last summer, but yeah, as it stands so many developers and staff have left the studio over the years that the Bioware people loved is nonexistent at this point.
Even if BioWare was going into more agile methodologies in their game development, a hybrid approach should have be used , im sure none of the 50 people released were managerial roles. Make the development more agile by building a collaborative team for dragon age and mass effect and resources and communication can happen between both teams , projects of projects.
Also trusting the executives to know what their team is capable of and producing... I do not think they know
Matty you should cover Archetype entertainment, a new studio comprised of og BioWare veterans, working on a sci fi rpg.
Only concern is they’re owned by WotC/Hasbro
I could understand if this was just technical layoffs or roles not needed that Dreadwolf is winding down, but they laid off major writers. One which had been there for 27 years. They laid of Mary Kirby, Varric's creator and writer. There's no framing that as a positive thing.
I just hope bioware isn't added to the long list of studios shutdown by EA.
Sigh< Bioware barely has a pulse at this point.........
Maybe they 'needed' to slim down but if that's the case then why get rid of the people who made their older games great? Baldur's Gate and Dragon Age writers, etc. this sounds more like a corporate filter for 'we want to save money' as opposed to an actual need
I love your videos man. Life hasn't been great these past few months, but thanks to your videos it's been bearable..
This all started with Dragon Age II and Dragon Age III Inquisition having an identity crisis, Mass Effect Legendary Edition, does not inspire confidence either with the state it is abandoned in.
You do not attain sustainability by firing writers and leading technical directors, especially when Bioware's known for writing, that's not easily replaceable.
I rarely use the terminology, but this feels like coping, sticking your head in the sand.
I’m with you…. I want this game yesterday! BUT….. this is going to be such an important game, for BioWare, for me. I will wait as long as it takes. BioWare needs to take its time with this.
I’m very intrigued by the DA series.. Picked up the first two on PC not too long ago.. I’m hoping the launch of the next one goes smoothly and without much delay..
😂😂😂😂😂😂
Brother with the new Bioware it's gonna be dog water.
Try inquisition, that’s the best one in my opinion.
@@kristianwhite1061 Oh that’s the first one I got.. Then picked up the dlc.. I def have a ways to go before finishing.. Seems pretty epic
@@kristianwhite1061 To this day, I only really like origins. I respect those who like inquisition, but it just didn’t match the atmosphere and tone of origins for me. It didn’t feel like the same world, and no flashy graphics can save that.
Origins felt more grim dark, something that inquisition was getting further away from. There are some points of origins where it feels like it’s bordering on being a horror game and I really miss that.
You know you should really play Origins, imo inquisition was the worse game out of them all. When I saw mass effect andromeda I know, it look way to similar to inquisition. Just compared to the writing, and lore of the original games. It’s just sad
Fans: "We want Old School Bioware back!" Bioware: "Ok! To do that, we're shit-canning our best Old School Bioware writers!". Look- this whole thing may be "The product of Bad Management", but the people who are implementing these plans very likely ARE the Bad Management. Considering the turmoil we have heard about within the studio, EA's interference, as well as all the other issues we've come to be aware of, it really sparks a vote of no confidence. This whole "letter" is rife with typical corporate platitudes to try and sell it all to us- much like a shady used car salesman. Well, color me skeptical. The proof will be in the pudding, as they say. When(and IF) Dreadwolf drops, it had better be at least moderately good or I fear Bioware will be done.
Matty u need to talk about the starfield hate and how insanely unwarranted it is, just because ps5 boys are being pissy about how their fav game company left their console
Love your stuff man, been following you for a while. Can't wait to see your Starfield content; hopefully that will bring out some of the beloved Matty skits that we all miss.
I'm glad your health is back on track!
The BioWare that made dragon age origins isn’t alive anymore and that makes me sad because it never felt that we had a successor to origins, on paper we did, but dragon age 2 was riddled with so many problems and inquisition just didn’t feel like the same grim dark world that I grew up loving in origins.
Honestly, out of the 3 dragon age games I really only liked origins, it’s sad that BioWare is dead now because I’ll always wonder what could have been.
Hopefully new BioWare can make a good game that will attract a whole new generation of dragon age fans, it just won’t be my dragon age, and that’s okay.
Well I hope the game turns out alright and not the worst thing sense Fruitcake . I feel for those who lost they're jobs and it always sucks when its talented people that leave too
It won't
@@Kat1kafka No one asked
@@jimmythegamer2231 the game is gonna be trash
I find it amusing that you assumed that the people being laid off were coming from the middle of the chain of command that this would allow for better managed projects. That is not how layoffs generally work.
Yes, they actually do work like that sometimes
@@jimmythegamer2231 not in this industry lmao
Letting go some of the key writing talent doesn't make much sense for an RPG dev. But what do i know, maybe they have become complacent...
Hearing that dragon age origins camp theme in the background hits hard
Something something quality something something layoffs. Sounds like my management 😂
I'm convinced that DA:D is just a giant joke. There is no game, this is all a giant prank being pulled by Bioware.
After all the BS we've seen game companies pull, how can you still feel okay with playing devil's advocate? I mean sure maybe downsizing the amount of people in the kitchen might be beneficial in some way but I can guarantee you a good amount of people that got laid off were people that were lower on the totem pole and actually doing the "cooking"... The overpaid/higher-level management and leadership who are responsible for Bioware's current state? Chilling in their job security lmao. And NONE of this will help Bioware become the old Bioware we all loved. It's not happening.
In theory, reducing the chain of commands might be healthier. Unfortunately I'm finding difficult to believe that these layoffs were targetting redundant managing roles. Writers, senior devs, 3d artists... these roles were most likely the most affected.
Not to even mention that the Agile Methodology they're hinting at here does NOT require a small team. This was unavoidable, not to restructure and refocus the studio but to save as much money as possible on a global EA scale.
bioware is just husk of it’s former self but i truley hope dreadwolf proves me wrong
I don't really see this as positive at all. They cut veterans who genuinely wanted to work on the series especially people like Mary Kirby who has wrote multiple characters and some of the lore. Even if dreadwolf is good there's a future without writers who genuinely knew the series ins and outs. I don't think that's a good thing at all. I hate to see anyone lose their job but to see them cut devs who knew the franchise from the beginning instead of the Devs leaving on their own wishes seems like an incredibly bad move on bioware and EA's part. I still want to see what dreadwolf is at the end of the day but I don't see much of a future for dragon age after that.
Despite what I think about it Inquisition was well received and sold well….Idk how they’re dropping to ball so hard behind the scenes knowing that. I want Dreadwolf to be good so bad.
Many companies in tech/gaming overhired during Covid so this is no surprise. Hopefully, we hear from BioWare soon on a DA release date.
Many of these employees have been on for over a decade though
The release date could be 10 years from now and the game still wouldn’t be half as good as origins or bg3 lol. Which is crazy because the blueprint is right there. Incompetence
I don't care about dragon age anymore. Nothing can convince me Bioware is capable of making a good game again.
Dragon Age is my favorite video game franchise and even I’ve stopped caring…
Sad news but on another note I like the split screen format Matty!
I would put money 💰 on the fact the layoffs won't affect anyone at the executive and management level, won't affect anyone from marketing or financial, but 90% of layoffs will happen to creative/design departments as per usual with big corporations who vastly undervalue their creative departments
“when you’re trying to get back to your old self” 12:50 if that’s their goal the LAST thing they would do would be firing OG writers.
I know you're busy, Matty, but this video needed far more scrutiny and the usual critical eye. What positions were let go? If they're just animators, testers, etc. then that's not slimming down the pipeline of communication. What about this in context with the other recent firings or leaves?
Just because Bioware got out ahead of this news, doesn't mean they're not trying to spin it.
Not shocking in the least, Violate of the past is dead and gone. Hollowed out and mutilated by E.A I have no anticipation for Dragon age nor Mass effect, as a life long fan this breaks my heart.
From rumours it looks like it’s been delayed to 2025…
I just really REALLY HOPE they don't mess up MASS EFFECT 4!!!!
There could be a shift in the features of the game based on the recent success of Baldur's Gate 3. It seems they haven't even put pencil to paper in Mass Effect planning.
This was a pretty optimistic take. Normally when companies do reorgs, it’s not the senior leadership that takes the hit. It’s not the managers. The managers will get demoted and the people doing the work get let go. “Increasing efficiency” or “streamlining” just means they wanted to save money by eliminating paid humans that do work. It’s about the bottom line, not the product.
I predict DA4 will be a buggy, incoherent mess. They will have fired devs familiar with the code and replaced them with people building on code they didn’t write and can’t ask anyone about. If they currently have a problem with competing visions and are this far into production, that means it will cost a fortune to rewrite for the winning vision so they will take parts of the old visions and paste them into the new vision. Or they will be forced to strip down real content and give us fluff like the multiple areas in Inquisition that do not have anything at all to do with the actual story.
"You know what a dreadwolf is, right? It's like a wolf, but you dread it."
This does not bode well at all. The fact that they fired Mary Kirby of all people is just baffling and pretty infuriating to me.
If Dreadwolf flops, I'm pretty sure Bioware will be done for, specially because people will absolutely compare it to Baldur's Gate 3, the game is destined to be scrutinized no matter what they do, perhaps Dreadwolf will be their last launch and after that they will merge within EA and someone else will take over their IPs.
Sad end to such an iconic studio, but it's been in a steady decline since ME3, even ME2 and DA2 suffered because of EA, but perhaps is the best at this point.
It's time for EA to shut them down and hand over that sweet IP to someone capable. This is what happens when you fill a team up with no-talent company yes men than have no clue on how to do anything.
Bioware needed to do this. You need a medium sized dev group not an over bloated bureaucratic slog of too many fingers for a better contiguous piece of art.
This is BS. Larian has 400 people working there in multiple studios and they made BG3. The idea that Matty and others are promoting here is just silly. There are tons of examples of this. This has nothing to do with streamlining and it would not surprise me if Bioware is completely gutted and extinuished in a few years and will people then say they needed more streamlining? This just a terriblly thought-out rationalisation for what has happened. They fired Mary Kirby; the creator of Varric and the Qunari; is that streamlining necessary? Give me a break.
It all falls back on management and how you lead a team. Laying off tons of people is not a positive. Any company can have make hundreds of employees work well together but only if the leads do their job and LEAD.
@@spellandshield idk I think it very much shows in BG3s writing. the inspiration for many beats feels like someone at a table saying ‘wouldn’t it be cool if this happened’ and nobody having a good reason or enough authority to say no. The whole story feels a bit like ‘and then, and then, and then’.
It doesn’t hold a candle to the writing in BG2, not even remotely close imo.
larian has 130+ more employees than bioware does, and theyre not having issues. just sounds like a excuse for bioware to fall back on because of higher ups bad decisions.
Did they need to lay off the people who led their best games' writing? Doesn't make sense, more likely the lay offs CAME from a bureaucratic decision maker at EA than an actual need to 'slim down'
I'll believe it when I see a proper Dragon Age and Mass Effect. Until then, BioWare is a company that will live only in nostalgia.
If BioWare cannot make DA DreadWolf as good as Baldurs Gate 3 as a big studio EA should sell them to a more competent publisher.
i read this myself a few days ago and was just wondering how long good oh matty would take to do a vid on it and i agree all the problems was down to bad management
In a dream world we would have gotten BG3 from Larian this year followed up by DA4 in the classic dragon age style and bioware formula next year.
I’m sorry but working for 9 years on a game doesn’t make me think way too big it makes me think incompetent
I just want a Neverwinter Nights 3 already, just give the IP to Larian so they can deliver it!
BioWare has been like a rockband that argued over a creative vision and after a time broke up and scattered to the four winds.
Matty lookin fully recovered
The only solution is for Xbox to buy EA
if dragon age dread wolf don't come out in 2024
at least we still have greedfall 2 and gothic remake right?😄
As someone who grew up playing the three Dragon Age games, I came to terms with the fourth one not looking too hot after playing Andromeda and witnessing the clusterfuck that was Anthem.
Matty always looks like a concerned parent in his thumbnails.
Oi, love the armored core shirt, did I miss your video on that or did you not do one?
I watched the history of Tomb Raider and you see that version of the Game Studio. It was rough really. Savage.
Sucks for the people laid off but I actually feel bad for Corinne Busche, the director because she was probably thrusted onto this project (in Feb 2022) and probably set as the 'fall guy' (or woman in this case) if DA:D turns to be a big mess (and being a Transwoman, sent Transphobic abuse her way). Was that Alpha leak with action-y combat before or after Connie was Director?
And back to people being laid off; the amount of talented who knew and stayed around for a long time are thrown under the bus by Management who seem to *hate* the fact that Bioware has done RPGs.
Dude what are you smoking in those opening 5 mins? Yeah sure slimming down is all well and good but did you actually look into who was let go? These aren't a bunch of easily replaceable nobodies. They fired mostly senior staff, massive talent including writers, the gal who wrote Varic ffs.. The talent pool at Bioware was already on life support. Now it's DEAD and BURIED.
I got some leaks but I can only say that Dragon Age Dreadwolf will come out sooner than GTA VI.
Among the fired employees are the lead writers for Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 and all three Dragon Ages. This doesn't really strike me as "streamlining", more like a continued separation from a successful past.
This is not a speed bump. This is Bioware's death knell
That last statement is just filled with corporate and buzz words, nothing in it inspire confidence or anything good imo.
And the worst is that among the people they layed off are 2 of their best writters since the first Baldur's Gate games...
I covered this myself, but that entire blog is making things sound overly positive. The uncomfortable fact no one wants to admit: Papa EA is taking Bioware down a road it took Westwood and many others (Just mentioning Westwood because I am missing a good C&C game but I digress). If Dreadwolf doesn't deliver? We won't see Mass Effect because Bioware will be right beside Westwood.
The reduction in force has nothing to do with efficiency and everything to do with Bioware not delivering on their recent big releases (Andromeda and Anthem) and EA not having confidence. And they cut millions of overhead with those 50 people. And then something else, we have seen way more Mass Effect stuff than Dragonage stuff. Weird since Dragonage is next up, perhaps as soon as 2024. What gives?
did you record this with a VHS handycam from 1995?