EA Thought Core Audience Would Always Buy Dragon Age No Matter What, Says Former Writer

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EA Thought "RPG Nerds" Would Buy Veilguard And Was Shocked By Last Year's Failure!

Story Highlight
  • Following the failure of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, a former writer has discussed EA’s confidence in the franchise.
  • The publisher attempted to appeal to a wide audience and expected core fans to always buy new games.
  • It believed that the traditional RPG mechanics of older Dragon Age games were slow and needed to be changed.

Dragon Age: Veilguard marked one of the industry’s more surprising failures last year. Although BioWare is now moving forward with the development of Mass Effect, the team’s morale has taken a major hit, with various developers also leaving the studio.

Discussing the Dragon Age franchise and EA’s past failures, a former writer of the franchise has revealed that EA falsely believed a chunk of the RPG audience would always show up to play Dragon Age.

Why it matters: This belief is partly why the publisher was so surprised when Dragon Age: The Veilguard failed to perform as expected.

BioWare Battlefield
BioWare’s Veilguard Was A Failure EA Didn’t See Coming

David Gaider, the former lead writer of Dragon Age, recently discussed EA’s thought process behind moving the franchise from an RPG focus to a more action-adventure-focused experience.

As per David Gaider, EA believed the slower mechanics of games like Dragon Age: Origins were cumbersome and not well suited to a broader audience. The publisher believed these mechanics appealed more to hardcore RPG fans, whom it described as “RPG nerds.”

EA was of the belief that these “nerds” would always buy new entries belonging to RPG franchises, so the publisher attempted to attract a broader audience. The same philosophy was applied to Dragon Age: Veilguard, but EA was proven wrong last year.

You didn’t have to worry about the nerds. You didn’t have to appeal to them.

-David Gaider

Dragon Age: The Veilguard was a major departure from the series’ core ideas in many ways, and the game suffered as a result of this approach.

Many criticized the game’s poor writing and minimal RPG elements. The title also became controversial due to its dialogue, much of which contradicted the series’ traditionally darker themes.

Dragon Age The Veilguard Featured
Dragon Age Is Unlikely To Return Anytime Soon After Its Latest Failure

Following recent events, fans hope that EA has learned that appealing to a different audience is not always the best idea. Perhaps the next Mass Effect won’t make the same mistake.

What are your thoughts on Dragon Age: The Veilguard nearly a full year after its launch? Let’s discuss in the comments and on the Tech4Gamers Forums.

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