Ex-BioWare Lead Says The Dragon Age Team Didn't Feel Supported During Veilguard Development
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It's no secret that the game that would become Dragon Age: The Veilguard had a troubled development. However, every time a new story comes out about how studio in-fighting and corporate favoritism affected the project, it feels like more of a miracle that the fantasy RPG got out the door looking like a classic BioWare game. Mark Darrah, the former executive producer of the Dragon Age series, has released a new YouTube video in which he discusses how a few events in 2017 fundamentally changed the trajectory of the RPG studio and how, according to him, Dragon Age was thrown under the bus in more ways than one during this time.
Darrah's 16-minute video runs down how things shifted at BioWare in the months leading up to Mass Effect: Andromeda's launch in 2017, a period of change that he calls 'the most impactful 12 months' in the studio's history. In late 2016 Darrah, who had been working on Dragon Age, began instead leading the team that would oversee the closing months of the sci-fi RPG's development cycle. He explains that his transfer felt like a blow to the Dragon Age team, which was then working on one of the early iterations of the fantasy series' fourth entry, as Darrah had been a key member of its leadership. However, Darrah thought that by helping ship Andromeda, he could then see the resources dedicated to the game reallocated to help the Dragon Age team develop the fantasy RPG. But unfortunately, that's not what happened.
'My feeling at the time was the Dragon Age team was feeling jerked around,' Darrah says in the video. 'They were feeling like we were getting no support from BioWare or from [publisher] EA, which was basically true.'
Darrah says his coming on to help with Andromeda was irregular at the time, as it was the first time the studio had a 'leadership discontinuity,' in which a person in charge of one project that was in active development left it to work on another. Darrah says the short time he spent working on Andromeda didn't ultimately have much of an impact on Dragon Age's development, but it did set a precedent establishing that leadership could be moved around within the company, even if they were in the middle of directing something else. This move contributed to a perception that Dragon Age wasn't a priority within the company.
Darrah goes on to explain how the relationship between BioWare and EA changed at this time, as the studio started reporting to a different arm of the publisher. Prior to this, BioWare was 'strangely' reporting to higher-ups in the company's sports section, a group which Darrah described as 'benignly disinterested,' allowing the studio to work more autonomously. Then, when things shifted in 2017, BioWare started reporting to a branch of EA that was 'hyper interested' in the decision-making process. According to Darrah, this change in leadership was likely part of why the studio moved on from Andromeda so quickly, canceling the game's planned DLC and putting the sci-fi series on ice.
'The group that we reported into had very little stake in either the success or the failure of [Mass Effect: Andromeda], and they had a lot more incentive for BioWare to move on to the next thing that they could tie themselves to and show themselves as having influence on the development of,' Darrah said.
As BioWare geared up for the next game, the much-maligned looter shooter Anthem, Darrah says he received 'assurances' from EA and BioWare leadership that Dragon Age was important to the company, but not the kinds of developers and resources that would back those statements up. And it was all made a lot more complicated by the return of ex-Mass Effect director Casey Hudson, who rejoined the company as its general manager in 2017. Darrah says he learned about Hudson's return at the same time as the rest of the company, despite being a senior member of BioWare's leadership team. He says he considered the decision to bring Hudson back without consulting him a sign of 'an immense amount of disrespect,' and he sent emails shortly after the announcement that said he expected Hudson would make a call to 'starve' Dragon Age of resources as the studio went all-hands-on-deck on Anthem. Darrah was once again reassured by leadership that Dragon Age was important to the company and that they were committed to him leading the project.
'As we all know, that's not what happened at all,' Darrah says. 'In very short order, in basically exactly the way that I predicted, Anthem was seen as needing greater leadership support, and myself and some other very senior people, and a large percentage of the Dragon Age team, was moved onto Anthem.'
This was followed by the scaling down of BioWare's Montreal studio, which saw many staff members moved to other teams across the EA umbrella. Darrah says that the Montreal team had 'basically been lied to' and were told that the Dragon Age team 'didn't want' them. He also claims that he was trying to get the next Dragon Age past a certain development threshold which he hoped might allow him to retain those developers, but EA higher-ups who were local in Montreal wanted those people, and 'proximity is a powerful tool.'
'If you are someone who's been mad at me since 2017 because you feel like I abandoned you in Montreal, know that that's not what happened,' Darrah says. 'Know that I fought with every tool that I knew how to wield to try and keep you, but the organization had no interest in that occurring.'
Whatever the circumstances, Darrah says EA wasn't interested in helping the Dragon Age team grow; it wanted Anthem to get off the ground and be a huge live-service hit for the company. Darrah hypothesizes that, at this point, management pivoted the Dragon Age project into the now-scrapped live-service game as a 'rationalization' for removing many members of the team and putting them to work on Anthem. Now that the next Dragon Age was going back to the drawing board, it could be argued that the project didn't need that big of a team in its early production stages. The move also resulted in a longer 'leadership discontinuity,' as Darrah worked on Anthem until the game shipped in 2019.
'I talked a fairly long time ago about how EA buys studios and then consumes them and they start to lose their culture into the overall EA culture,' Darrah said. 'To me, it feels like 2017 is when EA finished digesting BioWare, which they had bought nine years earlier in 2008.'
Darrah acknowledges that much of his story might sound like a series of events that affected him personally rather than the studio at large, but a handful of ex-BioWare employees have shared the video on social media and corroborated the events described. Darrah's claims also line up with Kotaku's previous reporting on Anthem's development, in which sources told us about how the loot shooter took up much of the company's resources, further complicating the development of what would eventually become Dragon Age: The Veilguard.
Darrah left BioWare in 2020, but returned to consult onThe Veilguard in 2023. After 10 years of tortured development, that game finally launched in 2024 as a single-player, story-driven RPG and was divisive in the ways Dragon Age games often are. In January, BioWare was restructured to be a one-game studio, resulting in layoffs for some of the company's veteran talent. The team that remains is working on Mass Effect 5.
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- Yahoo
New Live-Action ‘CoComelon' Series ‘The Melon Patch' to Launch in September on YouTube
The series surrounds Ms. Appleberry with co-teachers and special guests A new live-action 'CoComelon' series will launch on YouTube in September, expanding the world of one of the most popular kids TV brands with a new educational show, TheWrap can exclusively reveal. 'The Melon Patch' will launch on Sept. 23 with 25-minute episodes available bi-weekly. The concept puts the character of Ms. Appleberry (Allie Rivera Quiñonez) front and center as she's joined by co-teachers for a mix of songs and learning. There's Mr. Doodad (David Reynolds) the imaginative art teacher, Ms. Twist (Jordyn Waldo) the energetic dance and movement instructor and Mr. Acorn (Jalen Jaleel) the nature and exploration expert. More from TheWrap Crunchyroll Sets Layoffs Due to Restructuring: 'Not a Cost-Cutting Measure' HBO's 'Task' Teases FBI Raids, Coke Busts and Moral Ambiguity in First Trailer Seth Rogen Blames 'Friends' for Fans Thinking 'Platonic' Will Get Romantic | Video 'Upload' Season 4 Trailer Reveals Which Nathan Survived and Evil AI Ashley Griffiths ('Alma's Way,' 'Blaze and the Monster Machines') serves as head writer and Shannon Flynn ('Blippi's Job Show,' 'Sesame Street') is the show's director. Per the official synopsis, each episode of 'The Melon Patch' blends music, storytelling, movement, and art into fun segments that keep little learners engaged while exploring milestones like bath time, textures, big feelings and the joy of music. 'With 'The Melon Patch,' we've created a joyful space where kids can learn through music, play, and the warmth of a teacher they know and love, Ms. Appleberry,' said Nicole Rivera, Senior Creative Executive at CoComelon. 'She helps make every lesson feel like an adventure, blending songs, stories, and real-life learning in a way that's as fun as it is meaningful.' The show, which hails from Moonbug, comes on the heels of Moonbug's expansion of the wildly popular Blippi brand onto Netflix with the launch of 'Blippi's Job Show' earlier this year. This is the second-ever live-action 'CoComelon' show after the spinoff 'CoComelon Classroom' launched in 2024. A CG-animated 'CoComelon' feature film is also underway at DreamWorks Animation, set to be released by Universal Pictures in 2027. The post New Live-Action 'CoComelon' Series 'The Melon Patch' to Launch in September on YouTube | Exclusive appeared first on TheWrap.
San Francisco Chronicle
2 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Aging is the real killer in Bay Area author's latest serial killer tale
According to popular fiction, being a serial killer is troublingly easy, a game played by people with near-supernatural intelligence and abilities. But Samantha Downing knows the truth. 'Killing people is hard work,' the Novato-born novelist says. 'Besides the actual physical work of murder, there's the cleanup and technology to deal with, along with setting up an alibi and dealing with the police. It's a young person's game.' But while pop culture abounds with actively homicidal anti-heroes in the prime of their lives (look no further than the currently airing 'Dexter: Resurrection' for a slew of 'em), we hear less about killers in the senior set. This, even though America's aging population is one of the greatest social forces of our time. Downing changes all that with 'Too Old For This,' her latest thriller. Like Hannibal Lecter, the arguable gold standard of killers for whom you root, Lottie Jones spent much of her youth killing people who were rude to her. Also like Lecter (who, based on his age in 'Silence of the Lambs' would be 84 today), she's a senior citizen, a 75-year-old with many of the infirmities that come with age. So when Jones has to return to her old ways — this time, to keep her murderous past under wraps — it's a lot tougher than she expected. But unlike Lecter, Jones is willing to set aside her ego and sense of self to get what she wants. In her case, that means leaning into society's low expectations for the elderly to avoid suspicion, by feigning borderline dementia and adopting a walker-aided shuffle when under scrutiny. 'Lottie knows that older women are invisible in society,' Downing says. 'She isn't as physically capable as she used to be, and she uses it to her advantage the same way a lot of younger women act like they can't lift something or open a jar.' A sharp woman's willingness to play the old and doddering crone has a rich history in crime fiction: Agatha Christie's famous detective, Miss Marple, is a great example of how ladies with grey hair are so frequently underestimated when murder is afoot. It's far rarer that we see imaginary men take that route, notes true crime author Sara DiVello, the interviewer behind YouTube series ' Mystery and Thriller Mavens.' 'When men know what they're doing — which often involves being dispassionate and calculating — people say they're strategic visionaries, they're geniuses. When women are capable, they're hated, they're feared. If you're too old to be cute, then you have to be unthreatening. You have to hide who you are if you want to get ahead. It's infuriating' Like DiVello, Lottie has been enraged by this inequity for years, often to the point of murder. So there's a pleasant symmetry to how she turns that bias to her advantage when she has to start killing again. The idea for a less able killer came to Downing during a health crisis of her own. 'I was always really healthy and fit,' the 56-year-old says. But a serious illness temporarially limited her mobility. 'I couldn't be active, and had to adapt and adjust to a new reality. I hated it and was so angry, so I channeled it all into Lottie. I'd been writing a different story about a much younger protagonist who didn't have any of these problems, and I threw it all away.' Downing, who has since made a full recovery, says the experience provided her with an important subtext for her book. 'I like to use serial killing as a vehicle to tell a story,' she says, citing filmmaker George Romero, whose 'Night of the Living Dead' series revolutionized the horror genre. 'He used to say that the zombies don't matter, and that he's interested in telling a human story about how people react to the zombies.' So for Downing, 'This isn't a thriller about serial killers. This is a thriller about aging,' with Lottie's dismemberments of various victims broken up by visits to the doctor for medication adjustments, joint pain, and conflicts with members of her church group. Sure, fears that she might get caught hang over Lottie every step of the way, but so do her worries over how long she can live independently — and what she'll do when she can't. Downing's unflinching look at the specific anxieties faced by a woman who is aging alone is unusual for the genre, and it's a telling reveal of societal biases that Lottie's sometimes-desperate calculations around how long she can afford to keep living are some of the most unsettling in the book. Most of us can talk about murder all day long. It's entertainment, right? But far fewer of us make cocktail party chit-chat about how those last years before one's natural end of life might play out. In many ways, the same skills that made Lottie a successful killer are what will help her navigate that time most of us prefer not to think about. 'She can look directly at things that most people want to avoid,' Downing says. 'That's one of the benefits of being a sociopath. You know how to make a really, really good plan.'
