Dragon Age Co-Creator Offers EA Some Advice: Follow Baldur’s Gate 3 Developer Larian’s Lead
Former BioWare developers have offered their thoughts on Dragon Age: The Veilguard and recent comments from the CEO of EA about its relative failure.
During a financial call, EA boss Andrew Wilson said Dragon Age: The Veilguard failed to "resonate with a broad enough audience."
Last week, EA restructured Dragon Age developer BioWare to focus on Mass Effect 5 only, meaning some who worked on The Veilguard were moved to projects at other EA studios, while other staff were laid off.
The decision followed EA’s announcement that Dragon Age: The Veilguard had underperformed on its expectations for the long-awaited action RPG. EA said Dragon Age "engaged" 1.5 million players during its recent financial quarter, which was down nearly 50% from the company's projections.
IGN has chronicled some of Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s development challenges, including layoffs and the departure of several project leads at different stages. According to Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier, BioWare staff believe it was a miracle Dragon Age: The Veilguard released a complete game “after EA forced live-service into it, then reversed course.”
Wilson, however, suggested BioWare’s role-playing games need to have “shared-world features and deeper engagement alongside high-quality narratives” to reach the success EA demands.
“In order to break out beyond the core audience, games need to directly connect to the evolving demands of players who increasingly seek shared-world features and deeper engagement alongside high-quality narratives in this beloved category,” Wilson said.
“Dragon Age had a high-quality launch and was well-reviewed by critics and those who played. However, it did not resonate with a broad enough audience in this highly competitive market.”
Most took Wilson’s comments to mean that if Dragon Age: The Veilguard had “shared-world features" and “deeper engagement,” it might have sold more copies. But, as IGN has reported, a development reboot, backed by EA, saw Dragon Age shift from the
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