Summary
Dragon Age: The Veilguardreportedly caused infighting at BioWare, according to a new exposé detailing the game’s troubled development. Apart from generating friction between BioWare’s internal teams,Dragon Age: The Veilguardis said to have contributed to several executive departures from the studio.
The latest entry in theDragon Agefranchiselaunched for the Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and PC at the tail end of October 2024. Three months later, BioWare parent company Electronic Arts reported that the game fell short of sales expectations, reaching approximately 1.5 million players by early 2025—half of the publisher’s initial projection. As a result, and withEA Sports FC 25also underperforming, the company missed analyst expectations for its fiscal year 2025 by around $200 million, posting $2.22 billion in revenue. With EA also reducing its forecast for the following fiscal year, its shares dropped 18% on the back of the confirmation that the newestDragon Agegame had underperformed.
Long beforeEA labeledDragon Age: The Veilguardas a flop, the project was already facing significant challenges. Additional details on these troubles have now emerged via a new report byBloomberg’s Jason Schreier, whose sources allege the game’s development caused substantial internal friction at BioWare.
Mass Effect Team Reportedly Revamped Dragon Age: The Veilguard
One of the issues materialized in 2023, when the BioWare leadership addeditsMass Effectteamto the project in an attempt to push it over the finish line. Upon joining, the new directors criticized the existing work, which had already endured two reboots—first to reimagine it as a live-service title, and later to salvage a single-player RPG from its remains. At this point, they started excluding the leadership of theDragon Ageteam from key meetings and taking matters completely into their own hands, Schreier’s sources claim.
Dragon Age Team Was Reportedly Frustrated With Mass Effect Team’s Leeway
TheMass Effectteam revamped several aspects of the game and is, e.g., largely responsible forDragon Age: The Veilguard’s dramatic finale, which was praised by fans and critics alike. While the outcome was well-received, its context reportedly caused internal tension. The resources allocated to theMass Effectteam were said to be unavailable to the originalDragon Agedevelopers. This wasn’t the first instance of such disparity. “It always seemed that, when theMass Effectteam made its demands in meetings with EA regarding the resources it needed, it got its way,” formerDragon Agelead writer David Gaider—who was not involved inThe Veilguard—told Schreier Meanwhile, theDragon Agetime “always had to fight” for any ask, as per the same source.
It always seemed that, when the Mass Effect team made its demands in meetings with EA regarding the resources it needed, it got its way.
When EA mandatedThe Veilguardbe reworked into a live-service game in 2017, creative director Mike Laidlaw resigned in protest. Corinne Busche, the director who ultimately oversaw the twice-rebooted project through to completion, also left the company in January 2025.
