EA Dragon Age: The Veilguard

[Sithborg]

Yeah, they fired a ton of people at Bioware. And EA is being cowards at the number.

 

[DKDetective]

Yeah, they fired a ton of people at Bioware. And EA is being cowards at the number.

Hopefully, Archetype will pick up a ton of the veterans. EA created this mess by trying to force live service games on BioWare. They lost a lot of experienced talent during the Anthem debacle and the development of this game was so messed up by cancelling the original single player version in favour of a co-op live service game and then ordering them back to a single player game halfway through development.

A lot of the maps and quests felt very MMO-ish with the artificial boundaries, lack of choice, and heavy combat focus.

 

[Gee]

****ing EA laying off people for their screw-ups.

In the near future, I won't be surprised to see a tomb erected with BioWare's name on it right beside the ones of Maxis, Westwood and Visceral at the EA cemetery.

 

[MagnarTheGreat]

 

[AndrewGilkison]

Yeah, Dragon Age is dead.

 

[psylockolussus]

An end of an era.

 

[Deck Rickard]

****.

 

[MagnarTheGreat]

You might see the old DA games again as a remaster or remake in the future but new entries are likely not happening before that.

 

[DKDetective]

You might see the old DA games again as a remaster or remake in the future but new entries are likely not happening before that.

The remakes/remasters are even unlikely given the fact that they were built on BioWare's proprietary engines and the people who know how they worked are pretty much all in the wind now.

 

[Mani-Man]

What a shame.
I just finished Veilguard and have been pretty happy with it.
The Final 3-4 hours are pure Dragon Age imo.

Its a shame how EA handled this IP and that it may now be dead.
So much potential, such a incredible world built.

 

[MagnarTheGreat]

It sure sounds like Electronic Arts thinks cutting Dragon Age: The Veilguard's live service components was a mistake

CEO Andrew Wilson said Veilguard "had a high quality launch and was well-reviewed," but failed to "resonate" with gamers who want "shared-world features."

www.pcgamer.com

Wrong answer.

 

[AndrewGilkison]

"failed to resonate with gamers greedy EA shareholders who want "shared-world features" Fixed

 

[Gee]

"I'd probably, like, quit": former Dragon Age leads react to EA's suggestion The Veilguard should have been live-service

Former Dragon Age lead developers have reacted to the suggestion by publisher EA that the series' most recent entry wou…

www.eurogamer.net

"Look, I'm not a fancy CEO guy," former Dragon Age creative director Mike Laidlaw wrote on social media, "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."

Laidlaw worked on the Dragon Age series from its creation, and was set to serve as director on what became Dragon Age: The Veilguard, up until its live-service pivot. It was at this point that Laidlaw did indeed quit BioWare, after more than 15 years, to go elsewhere.

"Just thinking out loud, of course," Laidlaw continued. "Who'd be silly enough to demand something like that? ...Twice."

 

[AndrewGilkison]

EA really thought turning Dragon Age into a live service would make it a billion dollar franchise.

These people don't have a clue.

 

[MagnarTheGreat]

It sure sounds like Electronic Arts thinks cutting Dragon Age: The Veilguard's live service components was a mistake

CEO Andrew Wilson said Veilguard "had a high quality launch and was well-reviewed," but failed to "resonate" with gamers who want "shared-world features."

www.pcgamer.com

Wrong answer.

For a fraction of the budget of Dragon Age, Warhorse Studios new sequel single-player RPG just launched to a million sold on Day 1. I don't like the guy that co-founded the studio or some of the general vibes driving the game, but the point is that EA could have done a lot better than their contemporaries if they really thought things through. What do these types of players like? The old Dragon Age games that sold well, The Witcher, Baldur's Gate, Elden Ring, stuff like that. They don't want a Disneyfied Dragon Age that cost a bajillion dollars or a yet another player-versus-player looter live service game.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 sells more than 1 million copies in just 1 day

Warhorse's weird medieval RPG has come a long way.

www.pcgamer.com

 

[Mani-Man]

I keep saying the game looks visually like how japanese would make a western fantasy rpg look...but that is wrong and it makes so much more sense saying it looks like a live service game visually.
It explains the vibe i get of the look so much better when you consider that it was meant to be Dragon Age mixed with how typical live service games look.
Fortnite meets Dragon Age or so.

 

[Punisher_MAX]

I've only ever played DA2, but Dragon Age to me feels like it should lean into Dark Fantasy a la Witcher than whatever the colorful/bright images i've seen from Veilguard.

 

[DKDetective]

I keep saying the game looks visually like how japanese would make a western fantasy rpg look...but that is wrong and it makes so much more sense saying it looks like a live service game visually.
It explains the vibe i get of the look so much better when you consider that it was meant to be Dragon Age mixed with how typical live service games look.
Fortnite meets Dragon Age or so.

Yeah, it didn't look or feel Japanese to me at all. Rather, the impression I got was very MMO, online play with the checkpoint saves and very artificial feeling vertical maps with weird traversal elements like zip lines. The art style felt like something designed for an MMO where it can scale a low lower res for people with poor rigs/internet and that is bright and colourful so that you can tell who is who when there are dozens of players on the screen.

 

[AndrewGilkison]

The looting in Veilguard did feel very mobile game'ish where you break the thing you are trying to loot.

 

[psylockolussus]

Dragon Age: The Veilguard a PS Plus Monthly Game Just 5 Months After Launch - PlayStation LifeStyle

Sony announced its next slate of PS Plus monthly games, and it includes Bioware's recently release Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

www.playstationlifestyle.net

 

[MagnarTheGreat]

Former Dragon Age lead writer says being at BioWare was "glorious," but under EA it "surrendered more and more of its independence until we got to where we got to"

David Gaider recalls the storied RPG developer's good and bad days

www.gamesradar.com

Dragon Age legend says even if he didn't leave BioWare 9 years ago, he still would have dipped over EA's live service Dragon Age push: "What a devil's contract that would have been"

David Gaider wasn't hanging around for the Thedas battlepass

www.gamesradar.com

Dragon Age maestro says EA always spoke about a hypothetical 'nerd cave' full of diehard RPG fans who would "always show up," so you "didn't have to try and appeal to them"

Maybe they were right, but they shouldn't have said it

www.gamesradar.com

 

[AndrewGilkison]

Former Dragon Age lead writer says being at BioWare was "glorious," but under EA it "surrendered more and more of its independence until we got to where we got to"

David Gaider recalls the storied RPG developer's good and bad days

www.gamesradar.com

Dragon Age legend says even if he didn't leave BioWare 9 years ago, he still would have dipped over EA's live service Dragon Age push: "What a devil's contract that would have been"

David Gaider wasn't hanging around for the Thedas battlepass

www.gamesradar.com

Dragon Age maestro says EA always spoke about a hypothetical 'nerd cave' full of diehard RPG fans who would "always show up," so you "didn't have to try and appeal to them"

Maybe they were right, but they shouldn't have said it

www.gamesradar.com

I guess not enough of them "showed up" to buy Veilguard and keep it afloat. Taking your core audience for granted is a great way to lose them.

 

[Gee]

^Non-paywalled link, by the way. Good read, though not surprising. The part about the internal division between the ME and DA teams is interesting.

In 2023, to help finish Dragon Age, BioWare brought in a second, internal team, which was working on the next Mass Effect game. For decades there’d been tension between the two well-established camps, known for their starkly divergent ways of doing things. BioWare developers like to joke that the Dragon Age crew was like a pirate ship, meandering and sometimes traveling off course but eventually reaching the port. In contrast, the Mass Effect group was called the USS Enterprise, after the Star Trek ship, because commands were issued straight down from the top and executed zealously.

As the Mass Effect directors took control, they scoffed that the Dragon Age squad had been doing a shoddy job and began excluding their leaders from pivotal meetings, according to people familiar with the internal friction. Over time, the Mass Effect team went on to overhaul parts of the game and design a number of additional scenes, including a rich, emotional finale that players loved. But even changes that appeared to improve the game stoked the simmering rancor inside BioWare, infuriating Dragon Age leaders who had been told they didn’t have the budget for such big, ambitious swings.

“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,” said David Gaider, a former lead writer on the Dragon Age franchise who left before development of the new game started. “But Dragon Age always had to fight against headwinds.”

The next ME could be BioWare's last chance...

In May, the company relabeled its Edmonton headquarters from a BioWare office to a hub for all EA staff in the area.

 

[AndrewGilkison]

After reading that article, it does paint a clearer picture as to why the higher ups "prefer" the Mass Effect team over the Dragon Age team. The ME team just seems better organized and has their **** together. Like, who would you give YOUR money to? The well oiled machine with strong leadership, or the band of "pirates" with weak leadership?

 

[Deck Rickard]

EA Publisher Guy: So, you have a Dragon Age sequel for me?

BioWare Developer Guy: Yes sir, I do. It’s called “Dragon Age: The Veilguard.”

EA Publisher Guy: “The Veilguard?” I guess I just thought that this one would be called “Dreadwolf” because of how we revealed at the end of the last game that Solas is actually the Dreadwolf and we built the Dreadwolf up to be the next big bad and we even publicly announced that the game would be called “Dreadwolf.”

BioWare Developer Guy: Yeah, we were definitely building towards that and I’m sure a lot of the fans were looking forward to that. So I figure the best thing to do is just… ya know, completely subvert expectations.

EA Publisher Guy: That might be tough to do with everyone wanting to see that story pay off.

BioWare Developer Guy: Actually it’s going to be super easy. Barely an inconvenience.

EA Publisher Guy: Oh, really?

BioWare Developer Guy: Yeah, we’re just gonna brush Solas off to the side early on so we can introduce a much more intimidating enemy.

EA Publisher Guy: And who is this new, scary enemy?

BioWare Developer Guy: Oh, just some vague, faceless Elven gods or something.

EA Publisher Guy: Oooohhh vague Elven gods are tight! So what’s the gameplay like in this thing?

BioWare Developer Guy: So, you know how at the beginning of Inquisition, there’s that long, tedious intro sequence where the player has very little choice or free will and you’re just fighting through waves of enemies until you get to the boss?

EA Publisher Guy: Yeah… I know a lot of players didn’t care for that sequence and felt that the game didn’t really get good until they got to the open world portion.

BioWare Developer Guy: Right, so I figured that this time around, that bottleneck gameplay from the Inquisition intro would just, ya know, kinda be the whole game.

EA Publisher Guy: Don’t you think it would be better to do something similar to the open world format, since that’s what people really seemed to like?

BioWare Developer Guy: Listen, I’m gonna need you to get all the way off my back about this.

EA Publisher Guy: Okay let me get off of that thing! How about the combat? I know that one of the other criticisms of the previous games is that the combat felt a little dated.

BioWare Developer Guy: Yes, absolutely. So we thought we would copy the combat style of God of War.

EA Publisher Guy: Well, people do love God of War! Especially the last two games.

BioWare Developer Guy: Right! But more importantly, they also loved God of War back when it was on the PS3. And that’s the quality of the graphics this next gen game will have.

EA Publisher Guy: Oh, okay. And you know, if people don’t like it, we can just blame it on it being a single-player game. No one plays those anymore.