“It's A Sad End, But In My Opinion, At Least We Got One”: What Dragon Age Devs And Creators Have Said About The End Of The Series

By 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Rhiannon Bevan

Published Apr 29, 2025

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The past few months have been among the worst ever to be a BioWare fan, which is really saying something. After Drago❀n Age: The Veilguard failed toౠ meet EA’s sales expectations, it quickly became apparent that 1⛎68澳洲幸运5开奖网:we 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 as 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dragon Age: Origins. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网: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, with the state of BioWare in the 2010s. Right now, though, it certainly seems that something went wrong, or rather, th💮at this was just the accumulation of years of mismanagement and a team that has always had to prov✤e 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, he 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:released a video in which he said that the developers being targeted with hate might not necessarily be responsible ဣfor 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 re🌳sponsible 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."

An edit of three Dragon Age characters from left to right: Cole, Rook, and Anders. The background is the art for Dragon Age 2, with dragon wings and character silhouettes

DLC Wouldn't Have Fixed Dragon Age: The Veilguard, But It Deserved Some Anyway

Dragon Age: The Veilguard was never going to be one of those games that gets "fixed" with updates, but DLC could've let the devs tell their own stౠory.

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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 br𒀰ought 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 pre🍒viouꦡs 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 expl🌄ain some of its differences from previous entries.

And yet, it goes much higher t🌳han Darrah. Shortly after launch, creative director John Epler , “The hardest critique you can get on something creative is the critique you fundamentally agree with but also know ಞexactly 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 for something and 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 frustratin🍸g stꦗories at [BioWare] ive heard [sic],” content 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 has what 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. Caitie also 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 Busche shoulder so much blame.

"Th🏅e DA team a♎bsolutely knew what we wanted" - Ghil Dirthalen, content creator

Fellow content creator and council member Kala Edwards a similar sentiment. “Idk just thinking about what Dragon Age could have looked like if i🉐ts 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 Insa💟nity, 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 com💧munity bears a lot of resentment right now for how it all went down, but we all loved the series and the comm💛unity 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 deli💦ver, referring to the years spent on Anthem.

“It was like watching BioWare crash out through an identity crisis, willfully and proud🌟ly 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 echo sentiments𝔉 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, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:writers being undervalued - have plagued the company for some time. Just look at how ꧋longtime writers🌃 were laid off before Veilguard even launched.

For now, we have to wait and see what BioWare will look like going forward. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网: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 cou🐟ld have done better ﷺas a live-service. It remaiꦯns to be seen if that sentiment seeps into BioW🐻are’s work once again, despite the disastrous results the first time around.