Scandalous details of Dragon Age: The Veilguard - the desire to make Live-Service, constant quarrels and complete failure

After a decade of anticipation, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, released last autumn, was instantly labelled a failure by EA itself. Despite the fact that Dragon Age: Inquisition had won numerous Game of the Year awards ten years earlier, The Veilguard was not as well received by fans. And now, a new report sheds light on The Veilguard's troubled development and the reasons for its failure.

Here's What We Know

Jason Schreier from Bloomberg revealed the story of Dragon Age: The Veilguard. One of the most common phrases in the report is that BioWare was shackled by the initial plans to make The Veilguard a service game. Even switching back to a single-player game did not allow the team to restore the full stories and options that the previous instalments had. This clearly demonstrates how commercial decisions can stifle creativity.

The report also corroborates the story of former Dragon Age lead writer David Gaider, who previously spoke about tensions between the Dragon Age and Mass Effect teams at BioWare. Even when the two teams were united to work on The Veilguard, the "tribal" division remained.

"When Mass Effect directors took control, they mocked the Dragon Age team for doing shoddy work," the report says. Bloomberg also notes that the Dragon Age team was furious when the Mass Effect team was allowed to make "big, ambitious moves" while the former was told it didn't have the budget or time.

As a result, BioWare laid off some staff and redeployed some developers to other teams within EA. A much smaller BioWare team is currently working on the next Mass Effect game. This situation is a sad reminder that internal conflicts and priorities can have a devastating impact on game development, especially when creative vision conflicts with commercial goals. We hope that BioWare and EA will draw the right lessons from The Veilguard for future projects.

Source: Bloomberg