Despite a decade of anticipation from Dragon Age fans, EA confirmed that Dragon Age: The Veilguard failed to meet the company’s financial expectations during a recent earnings call. EA CEO Andrew Wilson said that The Veilguard’s underperformance is a reflection of the “evolving industry landscape.” EA’s CFO Stuart Canfield went one step further and seemed to suggest that The Veilguard would have performed better if it was a live-service game. Now, a former Dragon Age developer has shared his response to EA.
Ex-Dragon Age creative director Mike Laidlaw posted his thoughts on Bluesky, where he facetiously asked “Who’d be silly enough to demand something like that? …Twice.” At one point during its development, The Veilguard was going to be a live-service title before the decision was made to reverse course and go back to a single-player experience.
“Look, I’m not a fancy CEO guy,” wrote 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,’ to me, I’d probably, like, quit that job or something.”