Former Dragon Age staff seek further compensation following layoffs

A group of former BioWare staff members has launched a lawsuit to seek better severance pay from the maker of Mass Effect and Dragon Age.

50 staff were let go in August, as part of a move the company said would make the studio “more agile and more focused”. Several veteran team members were included in the cuts, including two writers who had each worked at the studio for over 20 years.

Now, a group of seven people – with an average of 14 years at BioWare between them – have requested further compensation from the company, with a payout calculated to take their years of service into consideration.

“In light of the numerous recent industry layoffs and the fact that BioWare’s NDAs prevent us from showing any of our recent work on Dragon Age: Dreadwolf in our portfolios, we are very concerned about the difficulty many of us will have finding work as the holiday season approaches,” one of the former employees said in a statement shared by lawyers acting on behalf of the group (via Ethan Gach).

“While we remain supportive of the game we worked so hard on, and of our colleagues continuing that work, we are struggling to understand why BioWare is shortchanging us in this challenging time.”

The group claims their severance packages amount to “unreasonably poor treatment” as they were “signficantly” less than the one month of pay per year of service that courts have previously granted other employees determined to have been “terminated without cause”.

Announcing the layoffs last month, BioWare said the changes were part of a “long-term vision that will preserve the health of the studio and better enable us to do what we do best: create exceptional story-driven single-player experiences filled with vast worlds and rich characters”.

Full production on Dragon Age: Dreadwolf and early work on the next Mass Effect game are both continuing.

Eurogamer has contacted EA for comment.