Ex-Dragon Age Dev: ‘I’d Quit’ If You Forced A Single Player RPG To Go Live Service – Forbes
Dragon Age: The VeilguardOne of the wildest executive takes in recent memory has been making the rounds after EA CEO Andrew Wilson stated that he believed the reason for Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s failure and lack of appeal was because it didn’t have the “shared world” aspects that modern gamers were looking for.Gamers found fault with many aspects of Veilguard from its aesthetic to its writing to its combat, but absolutely no one agrees that what it was missing was some sort of “shared world” or live service component. Now, ex-BioWare devs of Dragon Age fame are free to comment on how ridiculous that notion is. Here is former Dragon Age creative director Mike Laidlaw (via Eurogamer) on the concept:”Look, I’m not a fancy CEO guy,” said Laidlaw. “But if someone said to me, ‘the key to this successful single-player IP’s success is to make it purely a multiplayer game. No, not a spin-off: fundamentally change the DNA of what people loved about the core game.’ I’d probably, like, quit that job or something.”Dragon Age: The VeilguardThere were similar thoughts from ex-BioWare dev David Gaider, referencing what Larian did with Baldur’s Gate 3:”My advice to EA (not that they care): you have an IP that a lot of people love,” Gaider says. “Deeply. At its height, it sold well enough to make you happy, right? Look at what it did best at the point where it sold the most. Follow Larian’s lead and double down on that. The audience is still there. And waiting.”In terms of “the audience is still there, and waiting,” as it relates to Dragon Age, it simply does not seem like that’s going to happen. Reports say that the Dragon Age brand is effectively dead at EA after how Veilguard performed compared to the original trilogy, and the focus now shifts to Mass Effect 5 as what may be the last hope for a beleaguered BioWare after now three underperforming massive AAA games. There is now concern, of courses, that some sort of live service concept could in fact be injected into Mass Effect 5 if EA genuinely believes that a “shared world” is what this genre needs.This is not a unique concept to the industry. While some places seem to “get it” like FromSoft, Larian and CDPR, notably some of the best studios in gaming, others do not. WB games looked at the huge success of single player RPG Hogwarts Legacy, and the spectacular failure of the live service Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, and they said they…would double down on more live services. These executives are simply out of touch with reality, and failure after failure, they still do not seem to actually understand what potential players of these games actually want.Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, Bluesky and Instagram.Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.One Community. Many Voices. Create a free account to share your thoughts. Our community is about connecting people through open and thoughtful conversations. We want our readers to share their views and exchange ideas and facts in a safe space.In order to do so, please follow the posting rules in our site’s Terms of Service. We’ve summarized some of those key rules below. Simply put, keep it civil.Your post will be rejected if we notice that it seems to contain:User accounts will be blocked if we notice or believe that users are engaged in:So, how can you be a power user?Thanks for reading our community guidelines. Please read the full list of posting rules found in our site’s Terms of Service.
