Summary
Dragon Ageis a bit of a black sheep atBioWare. There can be no doubt about that after so many comments from former devs over the years. Just recently, Dragon Age lead writer David Gaider claimed thatMass Effect was always preferred by EA, and that the series has come close to being cancelled multiple times. It was apparently so bad thatthe Dragon Age and Mass Effect teams at BioWare didn’t even get along.
Dragon Age veteran Mark Darrah has also been critical of BioWare and EA’s handling of the Dragon Age franchise, and recently claimedin a new video on his YouTube channelthat the team behind the series was being “jerked around” and “getting no support” after being shifted to help ship Mass Effect: Andromeda back in 2017.
Darrah goes on to explain that even when Mass Effect: Andromeda shipped and his team returned to Dragon Age, the series was “still not getting adequate support”, despite assurances from higher ups that it was incredibly important and that the team was going to “get what we needed”. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen either.
Dragon Age Veteran Says BioWare And EA Were Too Focused On Anthem
You may recall that the next game released by BioWare after Mass Effect: Andromeda was the equally disastrous live-service shooter Anthem. According to Darrah, both BioWare and EA were too focused on Anthem to give Dragon Age the support it needed, even going so far as to bring back Casey Hudson without Mark Darrah’s knowledge.
After finding out about Hudson’s return, Darrah sent some emails to the higher ups predicting that Hudson would have everyone turn their attention to Anthem and that EA would “starve Dragon Age out even further”, despite previous assurances that the series would get the support it needed. Turns out, he was right on the money.
Eventually, a lot of the Dragon Age team was shifted onto Anthem, including all the developers that Darrah took over to help on the shipping of Mass Effect: Andromeda. In fact, Darrah claims these developers were “lied to” and told that the Dragon Age team didn’t want them anymore, which he says was a “complete fabrication”.
Dragon Age was once again running without a leadership team, thanks to everyone being moved onto Anthem, and the Dragon Age project ended up shifting dramatically thanks to EA’s demands that it be turned into a live service game. He claims that 2017 damaged the trust between him, BioWare, and EA, and that the studio had been “digested” into the overall EA culture. Sounds like we were lucky to get Dragon Age: The Veilguard at all.
