Official Report On Dragon Age's Troubled Development

[Sphinx]

Some employees jeeringly referred to the next Dragon Age as “Anthem with dragons,” which worried fans after I reported on the game at Kotaku. Enthusiasts of the series wanted another single-player game, not a repeat of BioWare’s biggest mistake.

Then, last summer, BioWare laid off 50 people, including veterans with decades of experience. McKay told me the reduction, which arrived during a period of widespread layoffs across the video-game industry, “was all about focus at that time.

The game is so important to BioWare’s future that the company brought in its second team, which has been incubating a new Mass Effect, to help out during the final stretch of development. The Mass Effect team played a major role in finishing and polishing Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Other companies across EA, such as its Motive studio in Montreal, also supported the game.

Now, the company will look to see how players react to the next Dragon Age — and, McKay hopes, “bring BioWare back into the conversation as a top game studio.”

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

 

[BloodyMAry]

Yeah no shit, that's why I've been so surprised at how polished it is. I was truly expecting this game to be a technical mess on day one and was hoping for a bit of enjoyment, but they really were able to turn it around.

Having a great time so far and runs shockingly well on my PC. Whatever the used did to do lighting and hair is working like a charm too.

 

[Visibly Shaken 2 Core]

The troubled development does make me a bit worried about the financial evaluation of this project. Will EA hold all those start-stop years against DA:V's ROI calculations for example.

 

[Partypopper]

Past rumors and leaks said the EA basically wrote off whatever development went into the past iterations of Dragon Age and Veilguard, which was a clean start. We have no idea of any assets or ideas kept from the previous iterations. Still, if it only took about four years to create what we have now, then I would consider that a good development and the budget should be reasonable.