The past few months have been among the worst ever to be aBioWarefan, which is really saying something. AfterDragon Age: The Veilguard failed to meet EA’s sales expectations, it quickly became apparent thatwe won’t be getting any new games for some time.
However bad it’s been for us, it’s increasingly obvious that it is far worse for the creatives who brought us these games. Contrary to misinformation online, The Veilguard was not made by a completely new team and actually had many writers from previous entries, with some who have been with the studio as far back asDragon Age: Origins.They are all gone now.
“What went wrong with Dragon Age: The Veilguard?” is the question on everyone’s lips. Perhaps one day, we’ll get a big exposé,just as we didwith the state of BioWare in the 2010s. Right now, though, it certainly seems thatsomethingwent wrong, or rather, that this was just the accumulation of years of mismanagement and a team that has always had to prove itself to its publisher, EA.
What Went Wrong With Dragon Age: The Veilguard?
BioWare veteran and The Veilguard consultant Mark Darrah has hinted that there’s more to the story than meets the eye. Back in February, hereleased a videoin which he said that the developers being targeted with hate might not necessarily be responsible for the decisions that players took issue with.
“When you decided to personally attack that one specific person on social media, how certain are you that it was their fault, that they are responsible for that thing that you don’t like?” he said at the time. “You shouldn’t be certain, because you don’t know exactly what was going on within the project.”
Elsewhere in the video, he listed reasons why a game’s writing could fall short without necessarily being the writers' fault. This included the game direction being changed radically, leaving writers with little time to redraft characters, or an executive forcing a tone change mid-development. In his most specific example, Darrah brought up the possibility of a CEO’s nephew being brought in and forcing rewrites despite having no experience.
Now, these were all hypotheticals, and Darrah was not part of the writing team for The Veilguard. However, they do address criticisms that some of us had of the writing; that characters aren’t as fleshed out as those from previous games and that the tone is much lighter. So, these comments added to the intrigue as to what happened to The Veilguard during development.
We already know that Dragon Age 4’s development was restarted twice. The Veilguard rose from the ashes of a live-service version of the game, which might explain some of its differences from previous entries.
And yet, it goes much higher than Darrah. Shortly after launch, creative director John Eplersaid, “The hardest critique you may get on something creative is the critique you fundamentally agree with but also know exactly why it’s that way.”
Another games writer, Ann Lemay, then replied, “Bonus difficulty when you fought against it being that way and lost that fight,” to which longtime BioWare writer Trick Weekes responded with a shrugging GIF.
We don’t know what’s being referred to here, but either way, it’s clear that the team pushed forsomethingand just couldn’t get it.
Dragon Age Devs Reportedly Pitched Ideas That Were Rejected By Higher-Ups
Members of the Dragon Age Community Council have also commented on the game’s development. These fans were brought in to consult on The Veilguard mid-development, so they would have spoken to the team directly. They also allude to the team wanting to implement something that the fans were after, but not being able to.
“While it’s pissy o’clock, i just want to air out how many frustrating stories at [BioWare] ive heard [sic],”sayscontent creator and council member, Ghil Dirthalen, or Caitie. “The DA team absolutely knew what we wanted and pitched to deliver but was told no so many times.”
Caitie haspreviously explainedwhat some of these requests were, including a change of art style, going back to the usual four-person party size, and more world state reactivity. Caitiealso adds that everything was “a mess” before Corinne Busche took over as game director, saying: “The project really came together when she became the lead”. She’s, therefore, frustrated to see Buscheshoulder so much blame.
“The DA team absolutely knew what we wanted” - Ghil Dirthalen, content creator
Fellow content creator and council member Kala Edwardssharesa similar sentiment. “Idk just thinking about what Dragon Age could have looked like if its management and overhead put more care and attention into the series instead of undermining devs at every opportunity. Removing and moving management and not giving them the proper resources. Idk, what if.”
Content creator Lady Insanity, who was also part of the Council, expanded on these feelings. “I have infinite love and respect for many of the former Dragon Age devs,” she tells me. “It’s been about 13 years since I started making BioWare content and later joining their Creators program, and the team used to be so inspired and driven - happily talking to the community in their free time, and going above and beyond to keep the game’s essence alive.
“Over the years, it has been harrowing to watch that light burn out. The Dragon Age community bears a lot of resentment right now for how it all went down, but we all loved the series and the community around it to hell and back. It’s a sad end, but in my opinion, at least we got one.”
She also alludes to how this was not the first time BioWare had struggled to deliver, referring to the years spent on Anthem.
“It was like watching BioWare crash out through an identity crisis, willfully and proudly abandoning the reasons why people loved their games and upheld them as a safe space in the first place,” she tells me. “And evidently, permanently stunting themselves in the process.”
These comments on Anthem echosentiments shared by the previous Dragon Age lead, David Gaider. Here, he claimed that every Dragon Age game came close to being cancelled, despite the success, as EA favoured Mass Effect. In other words, the issues that appeared to have plagued The Veilguard - developers not being listened to,writers being undervalued- have plagued the company for some time. Just look at howlongtime writers were laid off before Veilguard even launched.
For now, we have to wait and see what BioWare will look like going forward.Mass Effect 5 is still happening, despite the layoffs and restructuring at the studio. As far as EA’s CEO, Andrew Wilson, is concerned,The Veilguard could have done better as a live-service. It remains to be seen if that sentiment seeps into BioWare’s work once again, despite the disastrous results the first time around.
