Following layoffs at BioWare that saw the exit of many key developers of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, one former writer on the series has moved to reassure fans by saying: “DA isn’t dead because it’s yours now.”
This week, EA restructured BioWare to focus on Mass Effect 5 only. Some who worked on Dragon Age: The Veilguard were moved to projects at other EA studios. Some revealed they were laid off and were now seeking work.
The decision followed EA’s announcement that Dragon Age: The Veilguard had underperformed on its expectations for the long-awaited action RPG. EA said Dragon Age “engaged” 1.5 million players during its recent financial quarter, which was down nearly 50% from the company’s projections.
Notably, EA did not say the 1.5 million number was unit sales (Dragon Age: The Veilguard was also available as a part of EA’s Play Pro subscription service). Additionally, it’s not clear whether EA is counting a free trial of the game that was available through the cheaper EA Play subscription in the 1.5 million number either.
Either way, EA’s announcement, its restructure of BioWare, and confirmation of layoffs have combined to create the sense within the Dragon Age fandom that the series is pretty much dead. There is no DLC planned for The Veilguard, and BioWare’s work on the game came to an end last week with what sounded like its last major update.
But Dragon Age: The Veilguard senior writer Sheryl Chee, who was moved from BioWare to work on Iron Man at Motive, took to social media to offer words of hope.
“I’m now with Motive,” Chee began. “It’s been a hard two years seeing my team get chipped away and having to still keep going. But I’m still employed, so there’s that.”
Then, in response to a fan who lamented the death of Dragon Age, Chee replied to say the series now belongs to the fans who will keep it alive with their own contributions.
“So a cool French woman dropped a cool quote from Camus on me today: ‘In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.’ (I mean, who does resistance like the French, right?) We’re going through it right now. It’s a lot, everywhere…
“But DA isn’t dead. There’s fic. There’s art. There’s the connections we made through the games and because of the games. Technically EA/BioWare owns the IP but you can’t own an idea, no matter how much they want to.
“DA isn’t dead because it’s yours now.”
Then: “So someone just reposted my thing saying they’ll write a giant AU and that’s what I’m talking about. If DA has inspired you to do something, if it sparks that Invincible summer, then it’s done it’s job, and it has been my greatest honor to have been a part of that.”
Dragon Age began life with 2010’s Dragon Age: Origins, which was followed up just a year later by Dragon Age 2. Dragon Age: Inquisition released three years later, in 2014. But it took a decade for the latest sequel, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, to come out.
In September, former Dragon Age executive producer Mark Darrah, who left BioWare in 2020, revealed that Dragon Age Inquisition had sold over 12 million copies, and “massively” oversold EA’s internal projections for the game.
EA has yet to outright say Dragon Age is dead, but it’s hard to see a new game in the series any time soon, if ever, given what’s happened to BioWare itself and the full focus on Mass Effect 5. As for Mass Effect, EA said a “core team” at BioWare is developing the next Mass Effect game under the leadership of veterans from the original trilogy, including Mike Gamble, Preston Watamaniuk, Derek Watts, Parrish Ley, and others. “While we’re not sharing numbers, the studio has the right number of people in the right roles to work on Mass Effect at this stage of development,” EA told IGN.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
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