The future of BioWare has never looked murkier.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard proved the latest highly divisive release from a studio that hasn't had a launch unmarred by controversy since Mass Effect 2 in 2010. Over which time a huge number of key developers have left or been unceremoniously laid-off.
Now BioWare, formerly always a multi-project studio, has focused all its efforts on only one: a new Mass Effect sequel, hoping to dispel the lasting shadow of Andromeda and forge a new path forward for the series.
But that new structure will make the project "less messy", according to Mark Darrah—a longstanding BioWare veteran who served as executive producer on Dragon Age until he left in 2020, and consulted on Dragon Age: The Veilguard.
In an interview with YouTuber MrMattyPlays, he describes how past BioWare projects have struggled against and "cannibalised" each other, hampering key titles and in some cases preventing proper post-launch support as staff have been swiftly moved off projects deemed to be struggling in development or failed at release.
Without those internal rivalries and that split focus, better results may be possible, even with a much reduced workforce… in theory.
He goes on to suggest that some of the failings of the latest Dragon Age could actually benefit the project—offering examples of what needs to be done differently.
"To be frank the Mass Effect team is going to be able to point to The Veilguard and say 'we should steer away from some of these things, because look what happened'," he says. "I would honestly encourage that team to scapegoat Veilgard as much as they need to to get what they need from the organization."
This certainly feels like Darrah's thinking of the live service flip-flopping that reportedly dogged The Veilguard's development, and ultimately resulted in a game that in many areas felt flawed or undercooked. But he leaves the answer on an uncertain note about whether this one project strategy will be good for BioWare long-term.
"We are in a world where the problem with being single project is you have this sort of boom and bust thing happening, where you get really big and then and then you have to slim down," he says. "Now EA seems to be trying to move to some sort of model where people flow within the overall organization a lot more. So maybe that will be fine. Maybe that'll work out great, but it remains to be seen."
Of course Darrah no longer works at BioWare, so to an extent any comments he has should be taken with a pinch of salt—but he was there for decades, and has continued to work with the studio since, so he's certainly someone to take seriously.
I can't say I'm filled with optimism, however—though maybe I'm still just bummed out by Darrah's bleak (but likely accurate) assessment of the future of Dragon Age. If the right lessons are learned from The Veilguard, the new Mass Effect could certainly be a better prospect, but the key problem remains—it's been far too long since we've seen a spark of that classic BioWare magic. The biggest question for me is: does it still exist?
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