Dragon Age fans are concerned that layoffs at developer BioWare are evidence that the 🐻series' future is uncertain - and a single former member of staff ap✨pears to be the catalyst for much of that sentiment.
Last night, BioWare said that it had laid off 50 developers to help "ensure Dragon Age: Dreadwolf is an outstanding game." Among those laid off was Mary Kirby, a BioWare veteran who has been at the studio since 2006, since the inception of th♏e Dragon Age series. In the past 17 years, she contributed to all three games and their DLC, and is cons﷽idered to be the driving force behind one of the series' most beloved characters, Varric Tethras, and some of its best quests.
The response to the layoffs, and Kirby's dep🌺arture, has been unsurprisingly negative. More than the traditional outpouring of sympa🐓thy that usually accompanies events like this, however, there's a tangible sense within the entire Dragon Age community that this might be a death knell for the series as a whole.
Dragon Age creator David Gaider that Kirby's departure was "incredibly sad," and mওany fans on social media have echoed that sentiment. Others are shocked at the decision to part with one of the studio's best writers, highlighting the importance of Kirby's work across those characters and queꦑsts.
On Reddit, one Dragon Age fan that Kirby's departure was "deeply sadd🗹ening," and that "on a personal level it's just really damn disheartening to see such talent and passion that helped make me and many others fall🦂 in love with the world get fucking laid off." Others have how few writers now remain at the studio who have worked across the entire Dragon Age series.
Several suggest that the writing may be on the wall for the entire Dragon Age series, pointing out that parting ways with experienced writing staff doesn't bode well for DLC, let alone subsequent games. BioWare has made no secret of the fact that its next game after 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Dragon Age 4 is 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Mass Effect 5, and that could easily mean our next return to Thedas is the best part of a decade away. Revivals of long-dormant franchises happen all the time, so it's hard to say that we'd nev🌳er see Dragon Age again after Dreadwolf, 𒀰but it's clear that fan's hopes are not high.
Dragon Age fans feel like Dreadwolf is only getting further away.
I'm GamesRadar's Managing Editor for news, shaping the news strategy across the team. I starte🦂d my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I've run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularlyꦑ find me playing League of Legends or Steam's latest indie hit.
