Mass Effect 5 is "still in pre-production" says director as BioWare shifts full focus to the sci-fi RPG amid dev reshuffles and reported layoffs

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It was confirmed last week that "many" BioWare employees have been shifted to other teams within EA

BioWare
(Image credit: BioWare)

Amid changes at BioWare as the studio shifts its focus to Mass Effect 5, while shuffling some devs to other EA studios and reportedly laying some off, the project director of the upcoming sci-fi RPG has clarified that the game is "still in pre-production."

Last week, BioWare general manager Gary McKay said that considering Mass Effect 5's current "stage of development," the team doesn't "require support from the full studio," noting that "many colleagues" had been matched up with other EA teams with open roles. In a statement sent to IGN, a BioWare spokesperson confirmed that with Dragon Age: The Veilguard now shipped, "the studio's full focus is Mass Effect." The spokesperson didn't provide comment about the reported layoffs, however – Bloomberg has since claimed that less than 100 employees are left at BioWare.

In a Twitter thread responding to this news, the project director of the upcoming Mass Effect game, Michael Gamble, has clarified what stage of development the RPG is currently at and it sounds like it's still quite a ways off being completed. "As the notes have said, we are still in pre-production," Gamble writes. 

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Considering how little we know about the game, it makes sense. Hell, we still don't know if it'll pull a Witcher 4 or Switch 2 and be given the "unofficial" name that everyone's been using for it – Mass Effect 5 – or be called something else entirely. 

As for the current team size, this lines up with comments made by former BioWare executive producer Mark Darrah, who claimed in a video after The Veilguard's release that Mass Effect 5 "isn't ready to suddenly have a team of 250, 300 people working on it." In the same video, he said that he believed that since the project wasn't "up and running at full speed" yet, "there is a need to find other work for them within the rest of the EA organization while the Mass Effect team figures out what Mass Effect is going to be, figures out the structure, and then gets ready to ramp up to a much bigger team size."

As layoffs reportedly hit BioWare, former Dragon Age writer tells fans not to worry: "DA isn't dead because it's yours now."

Catherine Lewis
Catherine Lewis
Deputy News Editor

I'm GamesRadar+'s Deputy News Editor, working alongside the rest of the news team to deliver cool gaming stories that we love. After spending more hours than I can count filling The University of Sheffield's student newspaper with Pokemon and indie game content, and picking up a degree in Journalism Studies, I started my career at GAMINGbible where I worked as a journalist for over a year and a half. I then became TechRadar Gaming's news writer, where I sourced stories and wrote about all sorts of intriguing topics. In my spare time, you're sure to find me on my Nintendo Switch or PS5 playing through story-driven RPGs like Xenoblade Chronicles and Persona 5 Royal, nuzlocking old Pokemon games, or going for a Victory Royale in Fortnite.