EA CEO Andrew Wilson has recently commented on the financial underperformance of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, noting that the game failed to "resonate with a broad enough audience." This statement comes in the wake of a significant restructuring at BioWare, the developers behind Dragon Age, who are now focusing solely on Mass Effect 5. As part of this shift, some team members who worked on The Veilguard have been reassigned to other projects within EA's studios.
The decision to restructure follows EA's acknowledgment that Dragon Age: The Veilguard fell short of their financial expectations. Despite engaging 1.5 million players in the recent financial quarter, this number was nearly 50% below what the company had projected. The development of The Veilguard was fraught with challenges, including layoffs, the departure of several project leads, and significant shifts in the game's direction, as chronicled by IGN and Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier. Schreier noted that BioWare staff considered it a miracle that the game was released at all, given the mid-development pivot from a live-service model back to a single-player RPG.
During a recent investor-focused financial call, Wilson elaborated on the need for role-playing games to incorporate "shared-world features and deeper engagement" alongside high-quality narratives to appeal to a broader audience. He suggested that had Dragon Age: The Veilguard included these elements, it might have achieved greater commercial success. However, this view seems at odds with EA's earlier decision to support BioWare's major reset of Dragon Age from a multiplayer framework to a single-player experience.
Fans have expressed concerns that EA may be drawing the wrong conclusions from The Veilguard's performance, particularly in light of the recent success of other single-player RPGs like Larian's Baldur's Gate 3. With Dragon Age seemingly on indefinite hiatus, attention now turns to the future of Mass Effect 5.
EA CFO Stuart Canfield addressed the restructuring of BioWare, which has seen the studio's workforce reduced from 200 to less than 100 people. He emphasized the evolving landscape of the gaming industry and the need to focus on high-potential opportunities. This move aligns with EA's broader strategy, where single-player games represent a small fraction of their revenue. The majority (74% in the last year) comes from live service games, driven significantly by titles like Ultimate Team, Apex Legends, and The Sims. Upcoming projects like Skate and the next Battlefield are also set to follow the live service model.
