BioWare’s Dragon Age series has suffered. Following the successful original game, a sequel was rushed out. Then Dragon Age: Inquisition became BioWare’s best-selling game of all time, only to be followed up by a major failure, Veilguard.
Right now, BioWare is working on a brand-new Mass Effect game, returning to the Commander Shepard story for a new entry. As for Dragon Age, despite prior successes, the fantasy RPG series appears to be on ice once again, and creator Mark Darrah has little faith it’ll return.
Speaking to us on an upcoming episode of the FRVR Podcast, Darrah explained that the current structure of BioWare likely means that Dragon Age will be left to the wayside. After Inquisition released as the studio’s best-selling game ever, it took a decade for The Veilguard to release, despite Darrah trying to get another game made.
“I think it was happening because of EA’s complicated relationship to shipping games at all,” Darrah said. “Someone once described to me EA as a hedge fund with a video game hobby that it wished it didn’t spend so much money on. And I think that remains true.”
Following the worrying sales of Veilguard, Darrah doesn’t see anyone trying to get a new Dragon Age game. “I have no concept of who could, would, possibly pitch that at EA,” he told us. “EA owns a frightening number of IPs that are dormant…
“What I’ve heard is if you go and decide you’re going to make a [game based on an IP]… the instant you’re about to start, suddenly like three different people who think they control it come out of the woodwork and essentially like rip you apart and chew you up and spit you out.”
This means that if someone other than BioWare was to make a Dragon Age game, BioWare executives might step in to make sure their IP stays with them. Of course, that would mean that BioWare itself would be left to make another game in the series, which Darrah doesn’t see happening, at least anytime soon.
“The problem is I don’t know who at BioWare would pitch a Dragon Age,” Darrah said. So the other option is somebody else within the EA organisation decides they’re gonna pitch a Dragon Age and, what I expect would happen if they try to do that, is somebody at BioWare would essentially become one of those people jumping under the vents to rip that person apart. I suspect that it wouldn’t happen for a variety of reasons”.
Darrah does believe there is a possibility this could change depending on the outcome of the ongoing EA acquisition by Saudi investment groups, although even then it seems unlikely. “IF you’re in the Saudi investment, do you want a Dragon Age game to exist? I could argue yes and no… do you want BioWare at all in this world?”
Nevertheless, there is still a hunger for a new true Dragon Age game from fans, especially after The Veilguard. Unfortunately, a new game in the series likely won’t happen for a long time, if it ever happens at all.
