Dragon Age has survived Blights, civil wars, and the collapse of the Chantry, but it couldn't survive EA mismanagement. BioWare has been decimated by layoffs and, with the series ending on a whimper, it feels like the book has finally slammed shut on Thedas. There have been countless discussions, op-eds, interviews, and angry internet forums debating what exactly went wrong, but former producer Mark Darrah has an interesting insight into the bureaucracy that had The Veilguard in a chokehold.
"The project ran without its most senior leadership when I was on Anthem, from 2017 until 2019," Darrah said in a new YouTube video, explaining how senior staff were stretched thin at BioWare (via GamesRadar+). "The game spent a lot of time really close to its perceived release date. The game changed release dates a lot of times, and the consequence of that is that the team always was quite close to its current release date."
Crucially, The Veilguard began development right as EA was pushing for annual releases, with Inquisition, Mass Effect: Andromeda, Anthem, and Dragon Age 4 slated to come out year-after-year starting in 2013. Gargantuan RPGs with intricate party relationships, romance, political intrigue, branching stories, and world...
