Jason Schreier Reveals Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s Failures

Oh,
look,
Jason
Schreier
has
gone
and
done
a
journalism
again!
Yes,
the
gaming
industries
greatest
knower
of
things
the
gaming
industry
wished
he
didn’t
know
has
been
hard
at
work,
this
time
lifting
the
lid
on

Dragon
Age:
The
Veilguard.

Now,
Schreier
has
penned
an
article
largely
confirming
what
had
been
assumed
via
years
of
leaks
and
rumours:
The
Veilguard’s
developement
was
a
disaster,
most
of
which
stemmed
from
it
being
pivoted
back
from
a
live-service
multiplayer
title
to
a
singleplayer
RPG.

“According
to
interviews
with
nearly
two
dozen
people
who
worked
on Dragon
Age:
The
Veilguard,
there
were
several
reasons
behind
its
failure,
including
marketing
misfires,
poor
word
of
mouth
and
a
10-year
gap
since
the
previous
title.”
Schreier
says.

Much
of
the
article
lays
the
groundwork,
going
over
the
inception
of
Dragon
Age:
The
Veilguard
and
speaking
about
EA’s
infatuation
with
live-service
games
such
as
Destiny.

In
2017,
EA
made
the
call
to
pivot
the
next
Dragon
Age
to
a
live-service
game.
The
announcement
to
the
rest
of
the
Bioware
team
was
made
by
Mike
Laidlaw,
who
brought
in
bottles
of
whiskey
and
informed
them
they
he
was
leaving
Bioware.

Eventually
EA’s
live-service
love
soured
and
The
Veilguard
was
flipped
back
to
being
a
singleplayer
RPG.
But
instead
of
binning
what
they
had
and
designing
the
next
Dragon
Age
from
the
ground
up,
the
team
was
told
to
“change
the
game’s
fundamental
structure
and
recast
the
entire
story
on
the
fly”.

It
gets
worse,
though:
“They
were
given
a
year
and
a
half
to
finish
and
told
to
aim
for
as
wide
a
market
as
possible.”

The
team
thought
they
had
just
one
year
to
get
the
game
out
of
the
door,
not
nearly
enough
time
to
do
much
of
anything.
But
each
time
the
game
would
be
delayed
by
a
few
months.
It
wouldn’t
be
enough
time
to
evaluate
or
go
back
and
improve
what
they
had
already
done,
so
they
just
had
to
keep
moving
forward.

According
to
Schreier,
alpha
testing
in
2022
showed
that
the
biggest
issue
was
a
lack
of
choice
and
consequence.
Sources
told
him,
though,
that
the
game’s
multiplayer
beginnings
didn’t
allow
for
those
kinds
of
choices.
So
it
was
delayed
again
while
the
“team
shoehorned
in
a
few
major
decisions,
such
as
which
of
two
cities
to
save
from
a
dragon
attack.”