At the start of the year, BioWare general manager Gary McKay promised an “amazing future” for Dragon Age and Mass Effect. Hopefully that extends to outside studios helping work on the Dragon Age franchise.
Kotaku reports that Dragon Age 4’s QA team is unionizing over a combination of concerns. These developers are embedded at BioWare but employed by Keywords Studios, and their work has ranged from Mass Effect: Legendary Edition to Star Wars: The Old Republic’s Legacy of the Sith expansion to the upcoming Dragon Age title, at present. These QA testers have been around the block, but concerns about BioWare’s return-to-office demand sparked a unionization effort — covid cases still average 1,000 per day in Alberta, Canada, where BioWare is located.
Sources tell Kotaku that these health concerns, along with poor compensation and no paid time off (even during required COVID quarantines), are what drove the unionization movement. The group’s union application will be reviewed by May 3, at which point a vote can be held. The next Dragon Age is reportedly on track to release in 2023, so the team may see better pay and benefits during the home stretch of development.
Unionization has been an appealing move for much of the games industry lately. A GDC 2022 survey showed that developers are much more interested in labor movements than other ventures like NFTs.
