EA has historically struggled to view "super nerdy" games like Dragon Age: Origins as something that has serious mainstream potential, according to former BioWare executive producer Mark Darrah. The industry veteran identified this as the key reason why the Dragon Age series has consistently struggled to establish an identity.
Darrah joined BioWare in 1997, two years after the Canadian studio’s founding, starting as a lead programmer. Over the next 24 years, he held various roles, becoming a project director and executive producer after Electronic Arts acquired the company for $775 million in 2007. In December 2020, BioWare announced that Darrah and general manager Casey Hudson were leaving the studio. This was around the time that Dragon Age: The Veilguard was in development as a live-service game code-named "Morrison" after its initial version (Joplin) was canceled.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard Underperformed EA's Expectations
Recent reports indicate that Dragon Age: The Veilguard has underperformed in sales, failing to meet its publisher EA's expectations.
EA Executives Struggled to See Mainstream Potential in 'Super Nerdy' Games Like Dragon Age: Origins
Reflecting on his time with the company in a new interview with YouTuber MrMattyPlays, Darrah opined that the Dragon Age series has consistently struggled to find backing at Electronic Arts. He noted that the publisher prioritizes mainstream success, and that it often failed to see how the franchise could fit such ambitions. "It has historically been hard for corporate people, people who come from the sports side of the organization, to look at a game like Dragon Age: Origins, which is super nerdy, not very attractive-looking, and say, 'Oh, this is a mainstream game,'" Darrah said. "They don't see it; they look at Mass Effect, they can see it."
Darrah identified this consistent push toward more accessibility and mainstream appeal as the core reason why the series struggled to settle on an identity, both in terms of gameplay and setting. His comments are underlined by the fact that Dragon Age: The Veilguard is a high fantasy ARPG instead of a dark fantasy CRPG like Origins, while The Inquisition's gameplay loop is significantly different from the other three mainline entries. The Inquisition is also by far the most successful installment in the franchise in terms of mainstream success, with multiple GOTY award wins and 12 million lifetime sales to its name.
Darrah's remarks about EA executives being more bullish on Mass Effect than Dragon Age align with a mid-2025 report from Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, which claimed that Dragon Age: The Veilguard caused infighting at BioWare. The Mass Effect team within the studio, brought in to help push the game over the finish line in 2023, was reportedly given access to greater resources than the Dragon Age team officially in charge of the game, which is said to have caused friction within BioWare. The purported infighting happened years after Darrah left the company.
It has historically been hard for corporate people, people who come from the sports side of the organization, to look at a game like Dragon Age: Origins, which is super-nerdy, not very attractive-looking, and say, 'Oh, this is a mainstream game.' They don’t see it. They look at Mass Effect, they can see it.
Dragon Age: Origins Wasn't Planned to Start a Franchise
In January 2025, EA said that Dragon Age: The Veilguard reached around 1.5 million players in its first two months, noting that it had underperformed expectations. Prospects for another installment now appear slim. Darrah noted that the series itself was never originally intended to exist, as Dragon Age: Origins was conceived as a standalone game. "There's a lot of threads that are cast out [in DA: Origins] that kind of had to be abandoned because, you know, there could be werewolves all over the world; there might be a civil war happening underground in Orzammar," he explained. "Like there's a bunch of stuff that's just like, was great to put out in a game that you never had to come back to, but then when we did come back to it, you had to sort of recover from that."
Dragon Age: The Veilguard
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 80 /100 Critics Rec: 71%
- Released
- October 31, 2024
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ // Blood, Nudity, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, Violence
- Developer(s)
- BioWare
- Publisher(s)
- Electronic Arts
WHERE TO PLAY
- Engine
- Frostbite
- Genre(s)
- RPG
