Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s fraught development process is now well known, with publisher Electronic Arts yanking developer BioWare back and forth between its trademark story-driven RPG structures and a live-service multiplayer game nobody asked for. Thanks to a new report from Bloomberg, we have a fresh glimpse into some of the late-stage changes the fantasy RPG went through, ones that probably helped some of its more impressive moments land, including its Mass Effect-style finale that puts your companions in the line of fire.
Much of the Bloomberg story recounts previous reporting on how Veilguard was subject to multiple pivots from on high throughout its beleaguered development, shifting from a single-player RPG that would continue the story of Dragon Age: Inquisition to a multiplayer game with replayable quests and a fixed cast of characters whom the studio couldn’t kill off lest it break the live-service structure. In 2020, BioWare pivoted back to the single-player RPG that would eventually launch on Halloween 2024, but according to Bloomberg’s story, the developer was forced by EA to restructure the live-service version of the game into a single-player, story-driven RPG, rather than being able to go back to the drawing board and start fresh.
Bloomberg says that early playtesters lamented a lack of distinct choices and consequences in earlier builds, and this led to the late implementation of key moments like choosing between saving either Minrathous or Treviso from a dragon attack, leading to the other metropolis being overtaken by the Darkspawn’s blight for the remainder of the game. Another collection of substantial and consequential choices appeared in The Veilguard’s finale, where the player’s decisions can possibly result in the deaths of their entire party. Apparently, this segment came after BioWare brought in the studio’s Mass Effect team to help get the game across the finish line, which resulted in an “overhaul” of the game’s final missions.
As the Mass Effect directors took control, they scoffed that the Dragon Age squad had been doing a shoddy job and began excluding their leaders from pivotal meetings, according to people familiar with the internal friction. Over time, the Mass Effect team went on to overhaul parts of the game and design a number of additional scenes, including a rich, emotional finale that players loved. But even changes that appeared to improve the game stoked the simmering rancor inside BioWare, infuriating Dragon Age leaders who had been told they didn’t have the budget for such big, ambitious swings.
This aligns with previous reporting and statements from BioWare veterans, who have stated that the Dragon Age and Mass Effect teams had a tense relationship, and the fantasy team felt it didn’t receive the same level of support as the sci-fi team from BioWare and EA leadership. The irony is that this change created one of the best sequences in The Veilguard, one that managed to surpass some equivalent moments in Mass Effect.
Following The Veilguard’s disappointing sales, BioWare was restructured to focus on one game at a time, resulting in layoffs for veteran talent. The combined studio is currently working on the fifth Mass Effect game.