Skip To...
It’s a bad time for the Dragon Age franchise right now. The most recent reports about Dragon Age: The Veilguard paint a grim picture of the future of the beloved RPG; its publisher, Electronic Arts (EA) has since been crediting the game for the corporation’s stock price drop.
EA isn’t wrong, of course. Dragon Age: The Veilguard apparently only “engaged” 1.5 million players and missed nearly 50 percent of its sales expectation to be considered profitable. Reportedly, the budget for the game was $250 million, and if we do a quick math, the 1.5 million copies “sold” would only translate to earnings of around $90 million, which is far from a break-even. It could be lower when you consider free trials and subscription services.
It’s not just Dragon Age: The Veilguard at fault, apparently. EA’s EA Sports FC 25 also reportedly underperformed and was even considered a big culprit behind EA’s lower expectations for 2025. As a result, EA’s share price dropped by seven percent.
We can only imagine what went on at the executive meetings and behind EA’s closed doors. Still, Dragon Age: The Veilguard‘s director quitting BioWare (EA’s subsidiary) right before the news of the franchise’s failure made it easy to assume how much forehead and temple rubbing is going on right now in the publishing studio.
As an aftermath of Dragon Age: The Veilguard and EA Sports FC 25‘s failure, EA is lowering its outlook and earnings expectations. This reminds me of the time when an EA executive notably implied that single-player games were dead back in 2010 before they started doing well again with the Star Wars Jedi Survivor series (which copied Souls games).
Now, some worrying signs point to how EA could be reconsidering its stance on AAA single-player games once again.
Mass Effect 5 Doesn’t Seem to be a Priority
Given how Dragon Age: The Veilguard underperformed and how Mass Effect: Andromeda also flopped bad enough to get its own DLC canceled, BioWare is most notably out of its element right now. Even old BioWare veterans had to clarify what was going on.
Mark Darrah, Dragon Age‘s Executive Producer has stated that while Mass Effect 5 is in its pre-production stage, it’s still somewhat in a state of limbo. BioWare’s full effort isn’t being directed at the Mass Effect sequel yet and it appears some BioWare devs are even getting shuffled around in EA’s other games.
One big piece of evidence for this is how Harel Eilam, Dragon Age: The Veilguard‘s Economy Game Designer, has now been transferred to DICE’s upcoming Battlefield as a Narrative Designer. Eilam did mention how this assistance to Battlefield is part of EA’s Rotational Experience Program.
Coincidentally, Mark Darrah mentioned that when BioWare makes games, they usually direct all dev efforts to one game at a time. If other BioWare devs like Harel Eilam are assisting with Battlefield and other EA projects at the moment, where does that put Mass Effect 5? It wouldn’t be surprising if EA has lost confidence in BioWare at this point, but this doesn’t mean it is the single-player RPG format at fault.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard is One of the Few AAA Single-Player Games that Flopped This Decade
Black Myth: Wukong, Metaphor: ReFantazio, Granblue Fantasy: Relink, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Like a Dragon, or even Stalker 2, I could go on all day about successful single-player games in 2024 alone. The point is that Dragon Age: The Veilguard was an isolated case and not the norm for single-player games.
Both EA and BioWare need to take a step back to understand this, and understanding it goes beyond copying the trends and mechanics that made other single-player games successful. Trend-chasing didn’t exactly go well for Star Wars Outlaws, for example.
One thing that might have caused the failure of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, in a nutshell, was that it was hardly a Dragon Age game. Selling it to Dragon Age fans was already an impending disaster before the game was even released. Hopefully, EA or BioWare won’t repeat that same mistake with Mass Effect 5.
AAA Live-Service and Multiplayer are Riskier
With EA seemingly trying to shift focus to Battlefield by transferring a BioWare dev to the project, it appears to be banking yet again on another risky prospect. Battlefield 2025 or the upcoming Battlefield sequel is multiplayer and doesn’t have a high chance of thriving in today’s multiplayer landscapes given how Call of Duty is always dominating.
What exactly will the new Battlefield do to appease both consumers and investors? The most obvious answer, of course, is to yet again copy tried-and-tested trends like battle passes, skins, and seasons while also charging a full price. Just like what Battlefield 2042 did… before it flopped and was considered a low point for the franchise.
Granted, it’s unfair to be judging the upcoming Battlefield this early. So EA should then take notes from its other failure in 2024, which is the soccer/football game, EA Sports FC 25. Even a live-service multiplayer soccer game couldn’t score a goal for EA.
Hence dismissing the potential of single-player games in favor of further multiplayer experiments could be further detrimental to EA’s reputation. Besides, both EA and BioWare already have plenty of material for their do’s and don’ts with Dragon Age: The Veilguard and Mass Effect Andromeda; they already know what to correct to avoid repeating the same mistake thrice.
It seems at this point, too much rests on Mass Effect 5‘s shoulders, which is all the more reason for EA to put more faith in the single-player format. But for EA and BioWare to succeed there, they will need to respect and channel Mass Effect‘s roots for real this time, and not just for damage control.
