Warren Spector Blasts EA Exec Pay After BioWare Shutdown

Deus Ex creator Warren Spector has returned to LinkedIn with a second, sharper message about EA’s closure of BioWare, shifting his focus from grief to anger over what he sees as a complete absence of accountability at the top of the games industry. While his first post two weeks ago used blunt language to call out the decision, his follow-up digs into specific dollar figures that make the situation look considerably worse.

Executives Profit While Studios Close

Spector said some readers responded to his initial post by arguing that shutting BioWare down was a sound business decision, and that reaction appears to have sharpened his frustration. His core complaint, as he explained in the new post, is not simply that BioWare closed, but that the executives responsible for the conditions leading to that outcome face no personal consequences. “If executives misread the market, over-hire, or make decisions that result in under-funded, over-funded, poorly-marketed games, do they lose sleep, let alone jobs?” he wrote, before asking: “Is there ANY accountability left in this world?”

To back that point up, Spector published the total compensation figures for EA’s top leadership in its 2026 fiscal year, as reported by PC Gamer:

These figures represent steep increases from the prior year. CEO Andrew Wilson’s package jumped from $30.5 million in fiscal 2025 to $38.65 million, with part of that raise tied to meeting milestones for the Battlefield 6 launch. That raise arrived shortly after EA laid off staff at Criterion, DICE, Ripple Effect, and Motive, the studios that worked on that same game.

BioWare’s Situation Grows More Complex

The fallout from BioWare’s closure extends beyond executive pay criticism. According to GamesRadar, BioWare co-founder Trent Oster has said that rescuing Mass Effect 5 from cancellation would require more than $200 million, since fans would expect full AAA-level production. Meanwhile, GameSpot notes that EA has continued to sell Mass Effect-related products even after ending the franchise’s future.

There is also a documentary dimension to the story. IGN reports that BioWare’s final years were captured on film and will be released as a documentary, a detail that Rock Paper Shotgun described with appropriate irony, noting that it’s simultaneously interesting and deeply sad.

A Broader Industry Pattern

Spector made clear that his frustration reaches beyond BioWare specifically. The layoffs and studio closures of recent years have hit the industry hard across the board, but he singled out BioWare as the moment it became personal for him. His repeated question about accountability is one that many developers and players have been asking for years, and the compensation figures he posted give that question a very specific, numerical answer about where the money actually goes when studios are shut down.

Sources: PC Gamer, GamesRadar, Rock Paper Shotgun, GameSpot, IGN