Dragon Age: The Veilguard director Corinne Busche is reportedly leaving EA-owned BioWare.
Eurogamer reported that Busche, who was game director on Dragon Age: The Veilguard from February 2022 to its launch last year, is set to leave the studio in the coming weeks. IGN has asked EA for comment.
There have been questions over Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s success ever since its release in October last year. Eurogamer reported that while Busche is leaving the studio, it is otherwise unaffected by any other changes.
Busche joined BioWare in 2019 after a stint at Maxis, where she helped design the systems on various The Sims projects. As part of IGN’s article, ‘How BioWare Finally Got Dragon Age to the Finish Line After a Tumultuous Decade,’ we detailed the game’s near decade-long development, which included a major reset that saw it shift from the skeleton of a multiplayer game with repeatable quests, a tech base, and the outline of a story, to a full-blown single-player RPG. Busche, as director, helped get Dragon Age: The Veilguard over the line during its final few years of development.
Eurogamer reports that Busche’s exit from BioWare is unrelated to Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s commercial performance. EA has yet to say whether sales and revenue met or exceeded expectations. The company is expected to report its Q3 2025 financial results on February 4.
Meanwhile, BioWare has confirmed it has no plans for Dragon Age: The Veilguard DLC. Rather it has turned its attention to Mass Effect 5, which the studio has teased at various points over the years but is yet to properly reveal.
In August 2023, coincidentally the same month that Larian’s all-conquering Dungeons & Dragons RPG Baldur’s Gate 3 released, BioWare laid off around 50 workers, including longtime veterans like narrative designer Mary Kirby, who had been with BioWare since Dragon Age’s inception.
At a higher level, the layoffs came amid an internal shakeup at EA that effectively resulted in it being split into sports and everything else. That summer, rumors spread within BioWare that it was about to be acquired. Star Wars: The Old Republic was allowed to go third-party, ostensibly so that BioWare could focus on Mass Effect and Dragon Age.
BioWare’s rollercoaster ride continued through Dragon Age’s reveal in 2024. Reactions to the initial reveal trailer were negative, sending the studio scrambling to release an early gameplay tease just days later to placate fans. The name change from Dreadwolf to The Veilguard wasn’t particularly well-received either. After that, though, impressions were generally positive.
Dragon Age fans are now left wondering, will BioWare be given the chance to follow up The Veilguard with another Dragon Age sequel?
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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