Former Dragon Age lead developer Mark Darrah spoke about the difficulties BioWare faced during the creation of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, as well as the reasons that ultimately led to the game's unsuccessful commercial launch in late 2024.
According to Darrah, between 2017 and 2019, the project had virtually no experienced leaders. At the same time, some key BioWare employees, including Darrah himself, were transferred to work on Anthem. This significantly complicated the development of The Veilguard and deprived the team of the necessary stability in the early stages of production.
The situation was exacerbated by the approach to postponing the release. Instead of giving developers a significant additional period for a complete overhaul of the project, the release date was constantly shifted in small steps. As a result, the team almost always felt that the release was imminent.
Because of this, developers did not have the opportunity to stop and critically rethink the project. The team could not put aside the current version of the game for long, rework fundamental systems, or completely revise individual decisions — because another release date was constantly looming.
Darrah also noted a larger problem for BioWare: it was extremely difficult for the studio to fit the development of huge and complex RPGs into EA's desire to regularly release new projects. The company's previous games — Dragon Age: Inquisition, Mass Effect: Andromeda, and Anthem — also faced numerous delays, and these problems gradually accumulated.