BioWare staff "loaned" to other EA studios may not be returning, new report suggests

"If they want to work at BioWare again, they would have to look for job openings and re-apply."

A new report now suggests that some BioWare staff "loaned" to other EA studios will not be returning.

Earlier this week, amid reports of potential layoffs at BioWare, studio general manager Gary McKay has confirmed "many" employees have now been moved elsewhere in EA following the completion of Dragon Age: The Veilguard - and that a remaining core team is fully focused on Mass Effect 5.

Now, however, Bloomberg is reporting that the "loans" made by BioWare to support EA teams elsewhere have now "morphed into permanent relocations".

According to Bloomberg sources and "people familiar with what happened", staff are no longer BioWare employees "temporarily on assignment elsewhere" but, in fact, now work for whichever EA subsidiary had borrowed them.

"If they want to work at BioWare again in the future, they would have to look for job openings and re-apply," Bloomberg stated.

"This was an unwelcome development for some of the employees, who now find themselves on brand-new teams at studios they’d never planned to join. Some had come to BioWare to work on storied role-playing game franchises and found the idea of working on action or sports games less appealing."

This means BioWare has seemingly halved its 200 headcount to around 100 in just two years.

Dragon Age and Mass Effect veteran Trick Weekes is among a group of BioWare veterans who recently announced they are now looking for work following the news that BioWare is downsizing.