David Gaider, the lead writer of the original Dragon Age trilogy, has shared his thoughts regarding the recent closure of studio BioWare. Fans and numerous former BioWare developers have been open about their feelings about the shutdown, with Gaider being the latest among them.
Fans of games like Dragon Age and Mass Effect have been worried that BioWare would be closed for quite some time now. EA declared Dragon Age: The Veilguard to be a sales disappointment in its eyes, and the studio saw cuts to the team prior to 2026. Unfortunately, that concern became reality on October 21, when EA revealed it was closing the studio.
Dragon Age Lead Talks About BioWare’s Closure
Now, David Gaider, the writer behind the Dragon Age trilogy, and a developer of numerous other BioWare games, has commented on the studio’s abrupt closure. Speaking with PC Gamer, Gaider explained that he was more saddened about the closure than he thought he’d be, given that he departed the studio a decade ago. He shared praise for the studio’s work, saying that “no other studio in the world did it better” when it was at its peak, and that it was leaving behind an undeniable influence on gaming. While he noted that it was predictable that this would happen, given that numerous studios have closed and teams have been cut all across the industry, the closure was nonetheless done unceremoniously, and it hit him hard.
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Gaider added that the release of Baldur’s Gate 2: Shadows of Amn was his fondest memory working at BioWare. He fondly recalled the excitement of the community following the game’s launch, and how it impacted the development team after so much hard work and anxiety about the state of the game. While it was the first released game he ever worked on, he feels that experience cemented his future, saying “I knew that day… I would indeed be doing this for the rest of my life.” While he would ultimately leave BioWare in 2016, he still works in the industry to this day at Summerfall Studios, which he co-founded.
Gaider’s comments follow those of Casey Hudson, who was a similarly major member of the BioWare team around the same time. Both members worked on Baldur’s Gate 2, Neverwinter Nights, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, but moved in different directions after that, with Hudson leading the Mass Effect trilogy. Hudson also expressed gratitude for his time working on classic BioWare games, and expressed that its legacy would live on through the games it produced over the years. Hudson notably left BioWare in 2014, though he returned in 2017 and remained there up until 2020.
While the loss of BioWare is tragic, it’s just the latest in a series of game studio closures, with estimates indicating at least 10,000 jobs have been lost in the industry over the course of 2026 alone. Studios like Bluepoint Games, Rec Room Inc., Build a Rocket Boy, and three branches of Ubisoft have all shut down over the course of the year thus far, to name just a few. With two months yet to go before the year’s end, it’s possible that more may join the list before 2027 arrives.
