BioWare Is Returning To Its Strengths With The New Dragon Age, Says EA CEO

As Dragon Age: The Veilguard looks forward to its release tomorrow, EA CEO Andrew Wilson has spoken up about the current state of BioWare following Anthem’s critical failure. The statement has arrived as part of a recent investors call that also reports “strong” Q2 financial results for the company. Apparently, BioWare is changing course after its last game, going back to what made it so popular in the first place.

BioWare has rallied around what made BioWare a fan-favorite studio and a fan-favorite brand and the types of games they make – incredibly rich worlds, incredibly nuanced characters, really powerful and compelling stories with comaraderie and friendships and relationships, and decisions that matter in the context of gameplay. And I think it’s been that return to what made BioWare great and giving the studio time to deliver against what makes BioWare great in the context of the Dragon Age world is what amounts to Dragon Age: The Veilguard” (h/t IGN). 

Despite selling 5 million copies in lifetime sales and BioWare claiming that it’s the “biggest thing” the developer has ever done (not the best), Anthem failed to live up to expectations, teaching the developer a hard-learned lesson.

“Don’t try to do a bunch of different things you don’t have the expertise to do. A lot of the people on this team came here to build a story-focused, singleplayer,” said Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s Creative Director, John Epler.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard Releases Soon; Early Reviews Already Look Great

I’m not quite sure as to what the future of the Dragon Age franchise will be and whether BioWare will even be developing another title down the road. As per multiple major Dragon Age content creators, including Mapo, The Veilguard is supposed to be a “love letter” to fans of the franchise. 

Anyhow, BioWare’s next project is most likely the new Mass Effect, something that it’s been keeping behind the curtains for quite some time now. We’ve yet to observe a release date for the forthcoming RPG and the game seemingly is still in pre-production. 

Dragon Age: The Veilguard releases on October 31, 2024, for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. The game was formerly titled Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, having gone through multiple periods of troubled development, but is now looking forward to a stable launch.