Mass Effect fans and devs use N7 Day 2023 to send a message to BioWare following layoffs and low severance pay
Nov. 7, 2023“N7 Day this year will be a reminder to BioWare of the importance of loyalty to your crew”
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Mass Effect fans are using the game’s annual day of celebration to send a message toBioWareafter it laid off several employees last month.
As all Mass Effect fans will know, November 7 marks ‘N7 Day’, where fans of the long-running series come together to celebrate the game, its characters, and everything in between. Things don’t feel quite as celebratory this year though, afterBioWare laid off 50 developers,“shortchanged” those former employees with low severance pay, andlaid off all unionized QA workersworking onDragon Age 4(at outsourcing company Keywords Studio) last month.
As reported by Kotaku’s Ethan Gach, seven of the 50 employees let go last month are in the process of suing BioWare and have released a statement (below), revealing that the company is going to court instead of negotiating a settlement. In the statement, the employees involved in the lawsuit mention N7 Day and ask fans to show their support by sharing memes and images relating to the layoffs using the #N7SeveranceDay hashtag.
“The developers involved in the lawsuit are hoping N7 Day this year will be a reminder to BioWare of the importance of loyalty to your crew,” the statement reads. Fans of Mass Effect have come together to take part in #N7SeveranceDay hashtag onTwitter, with one Twitter account, @N7SeveranceDay, leading the effort.
This is just one of the ways people are sending a message to BioWare on N7 Day. As also reported byGach, the former QA testers are planning to picket outside of BioWare today (November 7). EA has reportedly released astatementon the protest, writing: “We hope that Keywords and the union are able to resolve their differences but ultimately BioWare has no role in that process.”
The statement continues: “It is our view that any activities targeting our offices are misguided as BioWare is not involved in any way in the negotiations and Epcor Tower has never been a place of employment for Keywords employees.” According toGach, EA attempted to block the protest but the Alberta Labour Relations Board sided with the workers.
Find out everything you need to know about BioWare’s current project with ourMass Effect 5guide.
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After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at GamesRadar+ before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training. My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I’m also known to write about the odd Korean drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.
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