Warren Spector questions accountability after BioWare closure and EA executive pay
Spector says the closure hit him harder than earlier layoffs, and points to CEO Andrew Wilson's fiscal 2026 pay of $38.65 million.
Warren Spector, the designer behind Deus Ex, has posted a follow-up on LinkedIn two weeks after criticising EA's decision to close BioWare, saying the closure hit him harder than other layoffs and that he remains angry. He argues that the executives who make decisions leading to studio closures rarely face consequences, and he called out EA's 2026 fiscal-year pay, with CEO Andrew Wilson at $38.65 million and several other senior leaders earning between $8.3 million and $13.7 million. The sources note these packages are not directly tied to the BioWare closure, and that Wilson's increase was partly awarded for the launch of Battlefield 6, which came shortly after layoffs at several EA studios. For developers and founders, the episode underlines how rarely shareholders push back on executive pay, with a 2020 analysis finding a failure rate of only about 2.7% for such proposals.
Why it matters
The argument turns on who bears the cost of studio closures. Spector's complaint is that the executives who make those decisions rarely face consequences, and the pay figures give readers a concrete reference point for that claim. The sources say these packages are not directly tied to the BioWare closure, so the link is one of perception rather than cause. Shareholder votes on pay are rarely defeated, which is why the issue tends to stay with public criticism rather than changing how boards are held to account.
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