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Dragon Age: The Veilguard is one heck of a mixed bag—receiving a spread of good and bad praise from critics, some resentment from its fans, and apparently falling far from the mark financially. It’s also done now, with no plans for major DLC in the pipeline—sort of a first for the series, overall.
That, according to BioWare veteran Mark Darrah, presents a first for the studio as a whole. Darrah, a consultant on Dragon Age: The Veilguard who served as an executive producer at the studio for 24 whole years before that, posted a video to his YouTube channel (via GamesRadar) that paints a fascinating picture of the company’s history and the unusual position it’s now in.
“We’re entering into an unprecedented time for BioWare,” Darrah says, one that can all be summed up by a single chart created by a member of Darrah’s community and shared in the video. It almost looks like a funnel if you squint at it right, with a flurry of projects—a “many irons in the fire” approach, as Darrah dubs it—slowly narrowing to a single point as Veilguard tapers off.
“In arguably the most slow and painful way possible, BioWare is figuring out that it simply can’t do more than one project at a time anymore,” Darrah explains, citing the gnarly stumbles of games like Anthem, as well as complete departures—like Star Wars: The Old Republic being ferried off to Broadsword.
This led to a scenario where, “for the first time since arguably 1995, maybe not even then, BioWare is only working on a single project. Which is Dragon Age: The Veilguard … everyone is singularly focused on [it].” This is a problem because, well, you’ve got a bunch of developers with nowhere to go. When it comes to Veilguard, Darrah notes that it was “already up and running at full speed, it was able to suck in every available resource [and] it had existing infrastructure”.
“Right now,” however, Darrah points out “there’s no plans for DLC, there’s only Mass Effect. So everyone at BioWare will be working on Mass Effect … But, of course, Mass Effect isn’t ready to suddenly have a team of 250, 300 people working on it.” He states that you can see this when tracking BioWare employee’s works on social media, with some going to work into Mass Effect, and others “moving into other parts of the EA organisation, because Mass Effect isn’t ready for them.”
Which begs the question—is this sudden, single focus a good or a bad thing? The Veilguard was subject to a bunch of shifts in direction, with live service ambitions and the like dropped partway through development, and a considerable changing of hands. Mass Effect 5, if we’re being optimistic, serves as a brand new start.
The answer, alas, isn’t so simple. “BioWare, for the first time maybe ever, is singularly able to focus on a single project … which is making the best Mass Effect it possibly can,” Darrah says. However, he cautions, it presents a logistical ache.
Developers going to other parts of EA won’t be so easily nabbed again, if they find themselves elbow-deep in work by the time the horns are sounded for their prodigal return: “The thing that remains to be seen is whether or not BioWare will be able to get its people back when it looks for them … if they are easily removed from wherever they are temporarily being placed.”
Either way, I wish them luck. I had my own withering views on The Veilguard, like its often clunky dialogue—but I do want the studio to find its footing again. I’m always going to be crossing my fingers leading up to any big release because, well, hard work going to waste is a sorry thing.
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Kurt Indovina
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