Latest news with #TheVeilguard
Forbes
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
New Report Details 'Dragon Age: The Veilguard' Failure, Raises Questions About Bioware's Future
Dragon Age: The Veilguard If there's a AAA game that bombs hard in the market, you can bet that Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier will eventually figure out why that happened. And now Schreier has just published his post-mortem on what went on with Dragon Age: The Veilguard, the 2024 release that only got half the players EA wanted, resulted in mass layoffs, and appears to have killed the IP altogether. Some of this has been known to some extent, some is definitely new. I highly recommend you read the whole piece here. One throughline is something we've heard about in bits and pieces before. Because development on Dragon Age: The Veilguard spanned 10 years, it got caught up in live service/multiplayer trend-chasing. When the game was being conceived, of course, the idea was to make it another traditional single-player RPG. But as games like Destiny were starting to take off, multiplayer games rose in popularity. So, there was a pivot to that format. Then, later, when it wasn't working, they had to pivot back to a regular RPG but without being able to start over, just hammering the multiplayer stuff to try to fit into the single-player mold again. The result of that was a mish-mash of pieces that were pulled from both types of games. Other issues compounded this, like the change in tone to be more 'snarky' than the series had been traditionally, and a lack of significant choices. Things like the big 'which city to save' choice was jammed into the game late in production. FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder There are also segments about how BioWare brought in Mass Effect team members to try and salvage what had become a mess, but there was only so much they could do. Dragon Age: The Veilguard The end result of all this is harrowing. The piece ends with Cowen analyst Doug Creutz saying, '[I]f they shuttered the doors tomorrow I wouldn't be totally surprised. It has been over a decade since they produced a hit.' That's true. It really has been since Dragon Age: Inquisition, given that Anthem and Mass Effect: Andromeda were in the middle. Now, The Veilguard is another miss. As big as Anthem? Perhaps not, but it did kill a brand that BioWare had worked on since 2009. If the next Mass Effect game does not land (which still does not have a release date), Cowen may be right, and there's little reason to think that EA would want to keep the now miss-producing studio in operation. Check out Jason's full piece here, which has a lot more detail on the situation. I can't say I'm surprised about any of this. Even if I personally liked the game more than most, it was easy to see the overall reception after release was poor, and clearly something had gone wrong in development. Many things, it turns out. Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, Bluesky and Instagram. Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
Yahoo
07-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
As EA hints The Veilguard's low sales could be due to a lack of live service elements, former Dragon Age lead calls out "silly" demands to "fundamentally change the DNA of what people loved"
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Three months have now passed since BioWare finally saw the long-awaited release of its new RPG Dragon Age: The Veilguard, and the game has reportedly failed to meet EA's sales expectations since then – series veterans say that doesn't mean it should've launched as a live service title. Speaking in a recent online thread after EA's quarterly earnings call in which the publisher insisted that The Veilguard "did not resonate with a broad enough audience" to meet sales expectations, former creative director Mike Laidlaw appears to disagree with games going the live service route to ensure financial success – a sentiment fellow BioWare veteran David Gaider shared himself following EA's conference. Bluesky Bluesky "Look," writes Laidlaw, "I'm not a fancy CEO guy, but if someone said to me 'the key to this successful single-player IP's success is to make it purely a multiplayer game. No, not a spin-off: fundamentally change the DNA of what people loved about the core game' to me, I'd probably, like, quit that job or something." He continues his thoughts in separate replies, stating that he's "just thinking out loud, of course." Laidlaw doesn't sugarcoat his words, though: "Who'd be silly enough to demand something like that? ...twice." It's an understandable stance to take, especially when considering EA's own implications during the company's quarterly earnings call, as well as the layoffs across BioWare following The Veilguard's underperformance. Despite not hitting sales expectations, however, EA admitted the RPG "was well-reviewed by critics and those who played." As layoffs reportedly hit BioWare, Former Dragon Age writer tells fans not to worry: "DA isn't dead because it's yours now"
Yahoo
07-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Dragon Age: The Veilguard was loved by "those who played," EA insists, but "it did not resonate with a broad enough audience"
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Three months have now passed since BioWare finally saw the long-awaited release of its new RPG Dragon Age: The Veilguard – and despite favorable reviews from critics, EA states that the game failed to reach a "broad enough audience." Dragon Age: The Veilguard reportedly didn't meet its publisher's expectations, with sales previously said to be "down nearly 50%" from what EA had initially hoped for and subsequent layoffs reported across BioWare. Speaking in a recent earnings call, EA CEO Andrew Wilson confirms as much, explaining that the overall sales EA's published games saw this past quarter didn't hit "the financial performance we wanted or expected." He goes on to name The Veilguard. Describing the company's "blockbuster storytelling strategy," Wilson says that Dragon Age "had a high-quality launch and was well-reviewed by critics and those who played" – but this wasn't enough to keep the title afloat. "However," he admits, "it did not resonate with a broad enough audience in this highly competitive market." Later on during the financial call, chief financial officer Stuart Canfield agrees that The Veilguard "underperformed." "Historically," Canfield describes, "blockbuster storytelling has been the primary way our industry brought beloved IP to players." This approach didn't work for The Veilguard, with Canfield noting a changing market. "The game's financial performance highlights the evolving industry landscape and reinforces the importance of our actions to reallocate resources towards our most significant and highest potential opportunities."A majority of the call is spent discussing EA Sports FC 25, but as a longtime fan of the Dragon Age series myself, EA's words on The Veilguard are difficult to process – as are the recent developer layoffs. Our own Dragon Age: The Veilguard review dubbed the game a "true return to RPG form for BioWare," with many others expressing a similar sentiment, and believing it was one of the best RPGs of 2024. As layoffs reportedly hit BioWare, Former Dragon Age writer tells fans not to worry: "DA isn't dead because it's yours now" Sign in to access your portfolio
