Dragon Age: The Veilguard was not a success for the publisher EA. The company believes it has found the reason for the failure. However, a series veteran who was not involved in part 4 contradicts this. He also advises to take a closer look at a much more successful role-playing game.
What about Dragon Age: The Veilguard? A recent investor call showed that the fourth part of the role-playing series was not a success for the publisher EA. Sales figures were about 50% below expectations.
The release was accompanied by some controversy. The game itself received mostly good reviews from the press.
Recently, EA cited the misalignment of the title as a reason for the flop. As a purely single-player experience, The Veilguard lacks the shared world aspect of an MMO. Furthermore, there are no live service contents, a roadmap, or anything of the sort.
The author of Dragon Age: Origins, the first offshoot of the series, was not involved in part 4. However, he has heard EA’s statements and responded to them.
A good piece of advice to EA
Who is it about? David Gaider was a key figure involved in Origins. He was the lead writer and responsible for the concept of the world of Dragon Age.
In 2016, he left Bioware after 17 years. During this time, he worked on other well-known titles in addition to Dragon Age. For example, Baldur’s Gate 2, Neverwinter Nights, or Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.
What does the author say? In response to EA’s statement about The Veilguard’s failure, Gaider posted a statement on Bluesky. In it, he tries to put himself in the position of the producers at EA. They may not know much about games but have a greater understanding of numbers.
Live-service games are successful, which is why companies like EA tend to adopt this approach. Gaider admits that he can somewhat understand this—provided that one does not understand much about games.
When a single-player game like The Veilguard flops, one wonders why that is and why such titles are still released at all.
There are certainly all sorts of lessons a company can draw from a game like The Veilguard, but “maybe it should have been a live service” as a conclusion seems a bit shortsighted and selfish to me.
David Gaider via Bluesky
Choosing live service to make more money goes against the needs of the players. In this context, Gaider has a good piece of advice for the publisher.
What is the advice? Gaider ends his statement with an important tip:
You have an IP that many people love. Deeply. At its peak, it sold well enough to make you happy, right? Look at what it did best when it sold best. Follow Larian’s lead and build on that. The audience is still there. And they are waiting.
David Gaider via Bluesky
Gaider refers here to the success of Baldur’s Gate 3 and its studio Larian. After all, the role-playing game hardly followed any gaming trend and focused on pure single-player qualities. The core and identity of the IP did not get lost in the process.
Therefore, Dragon Age: The Veilguard may have strayed too far from its target audience. Long-time fans were not completely satisfied with the reorientation. However, perhaps new players enjoyed it. At least that was the conclusion of MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus: The latest Dragon Age in review: The Veilguard is the ideal Dragon Age for anyone who does not know Dragon Age at all
