EA has released a new financial earnings call for the third quarter of the 2024-25 fiscal year, and in the call, CEO Andrew Wilson expresses what appears to be a theory as to why Dragon Age: The Veilguard flopped.
Recently, EA admitted that Veilguard and flagship sports game EA Sports FC 25 had both "underperformed", and in the new call, Wilson seems to draw a link between Veilguard's failure and its lack of "shared world elements".
He says EA's games need to "directly connect" to players, who he says "increasingly seek shared world features and deeper engagement". That's likely a reference to Veilguard's nature as a single-player-only title, rather than a game with multiplayer elements.
At one stage, it was reported that a version of Dragon Age: The Veilguard (which didn't have its name yet at this point) which would incorporate live service elements was in development.
However, this version was subsequently scrapped (assuming the reports of its existence are correct), leading to The Veilguard's single-player focus. It seems that EA's management now regrets getting rid of those live service elements.
There is, of course, no guarantee that Veilguard would have performed any better if it did have...
