EA has closed its BioWare San Francisco studio, according to media reports, and laid off around 30 employees in the process.
The studio, formerly known as EA2D, was responsible for titles such as Mirror's Edge 2D and Dragon Age Legends. The online portion of the latter was closed down last year as part of EA's move away from browser games and into the mobile space.
According to a report from Games Radar, and corroborated by IGN, it was "too expensive" for EA to keep BioWare San Francisco running in the Redwood Shores, CA area.
This is the latest in a string of layoffs at EA. Just last month the company let go of numerous staffers at its Los Angeles and Montreal studios, as well as other locations.
Sounds like visceral is in trouble too. At what point does the game industry just collapse? I already avoid Facebook because of almost daily posts from friends about layoffs.
I played Dragon Age Legends, I enjoyed the game but the monetization model was horrid. Like all recent EA FTP games. Sadly, the whole studio suffers because of one or two people.
Well, let's read into this part a little bit: '(it was) "too expensive" for EA to keep BioWare San Francisco running in the Redwood Shores, CA area.'
My guess would be they are planning, much like Gameloft does, to open studios in very cheap areas where they can pay much lower wages, such as: Vietnam, Thailand, China, etc.
Anyhow, good luck to those that were cut. I hope you land on your feet quickly.
My guess would be they are planning, much like Gameloft does, to open studios in very cheap areas where they can pay much lower wages, such as: Vietnam, Thailand, China, etc.