Dragon Age: The Veilguard Failed Because It Wasn't Live Service, EA CEO Seems to Suggest

According to Andrew Wilson, the CEO at EA, one of the reasons why Dragon Age: The Veilguard didn't meet its internal sales expectations could be because it didn't ship as a live service product. Speaking during the firm's recent quarterly earnings call, Wilson said the RPG "did not resonate" with an audience that "increasingly seeks shared-world features and deeper engagement".

While the CEO doesn't directly link the two points, his comments suggest that to sell the game beyond its "core audience", it needed to merge "high-quality narratives" with the "evolving demands of players", which are apparently those shared world mechanics and "deeper engagement". He continues: "Dragon Age had a high quality launch and was well-reviewed by critics and those who played; however, it did not resonate with a broad-enough audience in this highly competitive market."

Wilson's sentiment is shared by EA's chief financial officer Stuart Canfield, who himself added: "Historically, blockbuster storytelling has been the primary way our industry has brought beloved IP to players. The game's financial performance highlights the evolving industry landscape and reinforces the importance of our actions to reallocate toward our most significant and highest potential opportunities."

While the RPG eventually shipped late last year as a purely single player experience, there was a considerable period of time during development where Dragon Age: The Veilguard was actually planned to be a live service effort from team BioWare. It was altered back to being a single player title in early 2021 off the back of successes the publisher had with games like Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, combined with the failure of ANTHEM.