Following on from Mass Effect: Andromeda’s fairly disappointing launch, it was reported that sequel plans would be put in hiatus and that the studio behind the game, Bioware Montreal, would be disbanded and merged with other parts of Bioware. Now EA has officially confirmed that Bioware Montreal will merge, though the team will be staying close to home, merging with Jade Raymond’s Star Wars studio, EA Motive.
EA Motive formed a couple of years back when Jade Raymond, jumped from working on Assassin’s Creed at Ubisoft to working on Star Wars for EA. Right now, EA Motive is working on an unannounced Star Wars game.
EA confirmed this change for Bioware Montreal in its latest quarterly earnings call, during which CFO Blake Jorgensen said: “We’re building out a new studio in Montreal, as we’ve told everyone. And we’ve hired over 100 people into that studio that are brand-new to EA. This is to build the new IP around Jade Raymond’s team that she’s been building. I was in that studio last month. And it’s a wonderful new addition to our team. And we brought our BioWare Montreal team into that same facility. So they now all sit in one new studio together.”
It is worth noting that Bioware Montreal and EA Motive shared an office floor in the same building already. So while the two teams are now merging, much of the talent involved won’t need to relocate.
KitGuru Says: With Bioware Montreal now merged with a new studio to help out on new projects, it seems doubtful that we will see any single player Mass Effect Andromeda DLC. I do hope that the franchise will return some day though.