Baldur's Gate 3 boss says BioWare "led the way in making RPGs big

Larian Studios boss Swen Vincke has reacted to the shutdown of original Baldur's Gate developer BioWare by EA.

News dropped earlier this week that EA is laying off 400 employees following its August acquisition. As part of these layoffs, the legendary RPG studio behind Mass Effect, Dragon Age, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, BioWare, will be shut down, and development of the next Mass Effect game will be canceled.

In a Twitter post, Vincke reacted to the news, saying, "This is not something I ever expected to see." He adds, "Larian and Bioware started their trajectories in the games industry at the same time and Bioware led the way in making RPGs big."

Notably, BioWare developed the original Baldur's Gate and its sequel, Shadows of Amn, with Larian taking over the series for Baldur's Gate 3, which was released in 2023.

Vincke notes, "It's almost unimaginable" that from here on out "the name BioWare won't show up anymore when discussing upcoming RPGs," adding, "What a loss for all of us." He then thanks the studio for "all the games," "the many hours of gameplay," and "all the stories," before saying, "You can be damned proud of what you achieved," and expressing his hope that all the affected developers "land well."

While the studio's last couple of games didn't go down as well – with Dragon Age: The Veilguard famously going through a troubled development, culminating in a rushed effort following a pivot from a multiplayer project that EA had requested the studio create – BioWare is undoubtedly one of the most impactful RPG developers of all time, and paved the way for games like Baldur's Gate 3. And shuttering the studio now will once again result in years of knowledge being lost as the development job market grows increasingly small.