BioWare General Manager Addresses Fans in 'State of BioWare' Blog Post

Gary McKay, general manager at BioWare, published a post on the official BioWare news blog outlining the studio's plan for 2022.

The post, published today on Jan. 6, included McKay's take on the challenges of his tenure over the last year with its challenges and how BioWare plans to rise and meet those tasks. He went over milestones the studio accomplished in spite of the novel coronavirus pandemic and reaffirmed several projects scheduled for release in early 2022.

"It’s been just over a year since I took over as General Manager of BioWare," he wrote, "I wanted to take the opportunity to look back on 2021, talk about where we are as a studio right now, and share some thoughts and plans for the future."

"State of BioWare Address" Lays Out Studio Plans for 2022

"It has been an absolute joy to lead a studio with so many unbelievably talented people, a team that always pushes the envelope through innovation and an unflagging pursuit of quality." He began, noting that two team members recently reached a quarter-century milestone with BioWare.

McKay also touched on the success of Mass Effect Legendary Edition—which released last May. The team is proud, he wrote, to be responsible for "one of the highest-rated games on console" and feedback from both fans and news outlets has been "insanely positive."

Of course, given the significance of the global pandemic crisis, BioWare did not go unscathed. It, like many other studios, had its collection of challenges from learning a new way to structure work-and-life balance to adopting different strategies of communication across the board. Regardless, the team held strong, both online and in the real world, despite being scattered across the continent.

He continued, "But that’s had its upsides, too. We’ve come together as a studio to help each other out, even in our personal lives. We show up for each other and pull together as a team...The pandemic has also taught us a lot about how we can work together, even while working across North America from hundreds of different locations."

To that end, McKay announced BioWare will be using a hybrid work-from-home model to give its employees flexibility in their schedules and opportunities. They've also expanded their hiring pool from "people willing to relocate to Austin and Edmonton" to "new talent from anywhere in North America."

As far as new projects go, Star Wars: The Old Republic has its next major expansion, Legacy of Sith, on track and scheduled for release in February. Mass Effect's next venture is also in the works of which McKay pointed to the N7 Day poster released last November for clues. Dragon Age has its own team of "veteran...talented developers working on the next iteration of the franchise."

McKay ended the post by sharing how excited he was for fans to see the full breadth and width of what BioWare was capable of—and, of course, wishing everyone a happy New Year.