James ✨

EA employees are speaking out about mismanagement, GenAI push and BioWare’s closure🚀 ✅Employees report that the "do less, better" mantra has simply resulted in handling the same workload with fewer staff. ✅Upper management is heavily promoting generative AI (specifically Claude), telling staff that adoption is mandatory for the future. ✅Workers believe the technology is being pushed to test how drastically EA can cut headcount while maintaining output. BioWare’s Decline & Closure ✅BioWare was repeatedly forced to abandon its strengths (narrative choice, consequences, companions) to chase unprofitable live-service and multiplayer trends, wasting significant resources. ✅Studio leadership grew overly reliant on user experience research (UXR) and fear-driven decision-making, stifling creative risk-taking before the studio's closure. Source: Vertical Slice Disappointed, but definitely not surprised. So much of what’s said reflects very much how many of us felt, as it was quite obvious for the last 10-15 years. Risk-averse development, “do less” mentality, cost-cutting..etc. I feel really bad for the studios and talents that had to be suffocated under EA’s mentality. It’s obvious what kind of people they were ever since they tried to gaslight gamers into thinking single player gaming to be dead.