Electronic Arts -- known as simply as EA -- has confirmed that BioWare Montreal is in the process of merging with Motive Studios.

As you may remember, speculation about such a merger first surfaced earlier this year when the publisher moved several staff members from BioWare Montreal to Motive. At the time, it was thought to be the result of the poor reception to Mass Effect: Andromeda -- BioWare Montreal's latest project that hit back in March -- as well EA beefing up Motive for its work on Star Wars Battlefront 2 as well as on the unannounced Star Wars title headed up by former Uncharted director Amy Hennig and being co-developed by Visceral Games.

The news comes via the following statement provided by EA to DualShockers:

"The teams in EA Worldwide Studios are packed with talent, and more than ever, we’re driving collaboration between studios on key projects. With multiple major projects in development in Montreal, we are merging BioWare Montreal with Motive Studios. This is an ongoing process, but there are many exciting roles and opportunities for everyone on the team.

BioWare continues its work on new titles – including the highly-anticipated game, Anthem. What’s coming next for BioWare is very exciting, and we’re thrilled to have Casey Hudson returning to lead the studios in Edmonton and Austin."

Now what this merger entails is a bit more ambiguous. As mentioned in the quote above, BioWare will continue to work on the newly announced Anthem as well as on a new unannounced Dragon Age title with both of their studios in Austin and Edmonton. Meanwhile, there will still be a small team continuing to support the recent Mass Effect: Andromeda, but to what extent is a bit unclear.

At the moment it appears BioWare Montreal is no more -- or at least doesn't exist in the capacity it did. However, this could just be a resource repositioning as Star Wars Battlefront II development ramps up and the aforementioned new Star Wars IP moves forward.

Meanwhile, BioWare has Anthem and a new Dragon Age in the works, so it would make sense that work on Mass Effect might be lessened for awhile. Who knows. At this point it is all speculation. What is clear is that EA has merged BioWare Montreal with Motive Studios: but what that means going forward will require us to just sit back and see.