Report Sheds New Light on Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s Development Turmoil, Reveals Dialogue Rewrite Sparked by Forspoken’s Failure

A report has brought new clarity to Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s turbulent development, sparking worries about BioWare’s future.

In January, publisher EA stated Dragon Age: The Veilguard had "underperformed" by roughly 50% compared to its targets, just days after game director Corrine Busche confirmed her departure. At the same time, other BioWare employees working on the title were laid off. That same month, BioWare announced it had rolled out its final update for Dragon Age: The Veilguard, with no additional content planned or expected.

IGN had previously covered The Veilguard’s development, detailing its shift from a single-player experience to a live-service multiplayer game and back. Now, Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier has uncovered fresh details about the studio’s inner workings during the game’s creation, explaining why it ultimately disappointed fans with its absence of meaningful choices and consequences—hallmarks of BioWare’s most acclaimed titles.

Schreier revealed that many of The Veilguard’s flaws stemmed from its late shift back to single-player RPG mode, affecting its tone, dialogue, and the scarcity of impactful player decisions. One notable detail: BioWare grew uneasy after Square Enix’s Forspoken flopped, fearing The Veilguard’s trendy, sardonic tone might lead to a similar backlash. As a result, a “belated rewrite” of the dialogue was ordered to “make it sound more serious”—a move that created jarring tonal mismatches.

Internal teams also voiced concerns about how The Veilguard was being marketed (“an early trailer made the next Dragon Age look more like Fortnite than a dark fantasy RPG, raising alarms that EA didn’t understand how to promote it”).

EA declined to comment to Bloomberg on the report.

The fallout from The Veilguard’s underperformance has left a small team focused on Mass Effect 5, but doubts about BioWare’s long-term viability are growing. Dragon Age now appears to be dormant after The Veilguard’s failure—marking BioWare’s third consecutive misstep, following Mass Effect: Andromeda and Anthem. Could EA shut it down?

Bloomberg quoted TD Cowen analyst Doug Creutz as saying that while EA needs more than sports to thrive, “if they shuttered the doors [of BioWare] tomorrow I wouldn’t be totally surprised. It has been over a decade since they produced a hit.”

Check out Bloomberg's piece for the full story.