Dragon Age: The Veilguard may have impressed critics when it released late last year, and while a lot of fans have enjoyed the game, there simply weren't enough sales to satisfy EA, nor was there enough of the original magic to make fans believe the franchise was well and truly back.
In a new Bloomberg report compiling dozens of interviews with present and former BioWare staff, the story of The Veilguard's troubles has been unveiled. Our tale begins in 2017, where - following the success of titles like Overwatch and Destiny - EA became infatuated with the idea of live-service games.
It didn't help that Mass Effect: Andromeda, releasing in the same year, was a laughing stock to fans of the acclaimed sci-fi series. And so, EA decided that the team working on the new Dragon Age - codenamed Joplin - would then be making a live-service game.
This was much to the chagrin of the franchise's veterans. The game's creative director Mike Laidlaw resigned, as did Casey Hudson and Mark Darrah in later years. Following Anthem's failure, in 2020 the game was shifted back to being single-player. The major problem then was that BioWare had to build The Veilguard from the bones of the multiplayer game, meaning things like meaningful choices, decisions, and more were left mostly by the wayside.
And so, the end result was Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Hopes now lie with BioWare's return to Mass Effect, but we can only hope that behind the scenes, things aren't nearly as turbulent as they were with Dragon Age's comeback.