BioWare’s ‘Mass Effect’ and ‘Dragon Age’ Teams Struggled to Get Along, Claims Former Developer

A former BioWare developer has shared that there was significant tension between the teams working on the studio’s two biggest franchises: Mass Effect and Dragon Age. David Gaider, the creator of Dragon Age and former lead writer at BioWare, discussed his experiences at the company before he left in 2016.

According to Gaider, the staff working on these two franchises didn’t get along, creating a divided environment within the studio.

Gaider said, “For a long time it was basically two teams under one roof: the Dragon Age team and the Mass Effect team. Run differently, very different cultures, may as well have been two separate studios. And they didn’t get along.“

The company was aware of the issues between the teams, and BioWare made several attempts to fix the friction, mainly by moving staff between the two teams more often. However, Gaider felt these efforts didn’t work, and it became clear when he joined the Anthem team after finishing his work on the Mass Effect trilogy.

Gaider recalled, “The team didn’t want me there. At all.” He had been asked by BioWare management to help write the story for Anthem, which was initially conceived as a “hard sci-fi” game, like the movie Aliens. However, Gaider’s writing style seemed out of place for the team, and he faced criticism for it.

Gaider explained, “I kept getting feedback about how it was ‘too Dragon Age’ and how everything I wrote or planned was ‘too Dragon Age’… the implication being that anything like Dragon Age was bad.”

Both needed a Lead Writer. Mass Effect Andromeda was just gearing up, and while I liked everyone out in Montreal I didn't really want to move. So I joined the new project that the former Mass Effect team in Edmonton was cooking up – the one that became Anthem but, at the time, was code-named Dylan.

— David Gaider (@davidgaider.bsky.social) April 14, 2025 at 6:33 AM

Despite following orders from the company, Gaider was met with resistance from the Anthem team. “This was a team that didn’t want to make an RPG. Were very anti-RPG, in fact. Yet they wanted me to wave my magic writing wand and create a BioWare quality story without giving me any of the tools I’d need to actually do that.“

Eventually, Gaider left BioWare after 17 years. He had hoped for a creative director position on a different project after Anthem, but after some blunt conversations about his future, he realized it was time to move on. “I had no idea where I was going to go or what I was going to do, but I wanted OUT,” Gaider said.

After leaving BioWare, Gaider went on to work on Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical at Summerfall Studios. The game was released in 2023 and received positive reviews. His next project, Malys, is a demonic deckbuilder.

Meanwhile, BioWare continued working on Anthem for years, but the game was a critical and commercial failure when it was released. Since then, BioWare released Mass Effect: Legendary Edition in 2021, which was well-received. They also released Dragon Age: The Veilguard, which received positive reviews but didn’t sell as well.

Now, a smaller BioWare team is focused on developing the next Mass Effect, first announced in December 2020.

Have something to add? Let us know in the comments below!