- EA aimed to produce a billion-dollar IP with Dragon Age in 2016.
- The publisher hoped to release three new games for the series, with just 18 months of development in between.
- These plans were abandoned once the gaming giant shifted focus to Anthem and saw how lucrative live-service gaming could be.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s failure has potentially sealed the IP’s fate for good. While fans are unhappy to see how EA’s legendary IP has been treated recently, it seems the publisher’s plans were much grander than anybody anticipated.
In a new video, a former BioWare developer revealed how EA intended to make billion-dollar IPs all the way back in 2016, and one such IP was Dragon Age.
Why it matters: Not many franchises can claim the prized $1 billion target. Because Dragon Age had a history of critically acclaimed releases and BioWare’s leadership behind it, EA believed it was possible to achieve for the series.
During his latest video, former Dragon Age boss Mark Darrah discussed thirty years of the series. He reflected upon different stages of the franchise and noted that EA was aiming for bigger and bigger games by 2016.
EA pushes for franchises to be bigger. They want billion-dollar franchises.
-Mark Darrah
This meant that, like other franchises, the publisher wanted Dragon Age to become a billion-dollar IP, and Mark Darrah was tasked with plotting a course to achieve this goal. He noted that the main idea was churning out games one after another.
Joplin, the codenamed next entry, was meant to arrive soon after 2016, followed by two sequels, each arriving 18 months after the last release.
Did it get Dragon Age to be a billion-dollar franchise? It got it closer than you would think.
-Mark Darrah
Unfortunately, things fell apart when EA became one of the many publishers to chase the live-service trend. The development of Mass Effect Andromeda and Anthem also led to the studio diverting resources away from Mark Darrah’s Joplin team.
The franchise was effectively sidelined to focus on other IPs and wouldn’t receive another title until eighty years later, in 2024.
This is not the first time a publisher has dreamed of a billion-dollar franchise before completely failing to read the room. Warner Bros. hoped for a similar outcome with Rocksteady’s Suicide Squad, a game that led to $200 million in losses.
The latest RPG release in EA’s IP saw a similar outcome, completely missing its financial targets.
What are your thoughts on the publisher’s goals? Do you think EA could have achieved its goals with a proper plan? Let’s discuss this in the comments and on the Tech4Gamers Forums.
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[Senior News Reporter]
Avinash is currently pursuing a Business degree in Australia. For more than 5 years, he has been working as a gaming journalist, utilizing his writing skills and love for gaming to report on the latest updates in the industry. Avinash loves to play action games like Devil May Cry and has also been mentioned on highly regarded websites, such as IGN, GamesRadar, GameRant, Dualshockers, CBR, and Gamespot.
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