Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier talked with BioWare head Gary McKay about the development of Dragon Age: The Veilguard and the studio's reorganization.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard
- McKay, who was responsible for developing the FIFA franchise in the early 2000s, joined BioWare at the end of 2020. After a series of setbacks with Mass Effect: Andromeda and Anthem, he decided to change the studio’s approach to game development.
- At that time, EA wanted to turn the new Dragon Age installment into a live-service game, which did not sit well with some employees and McKay himself.
- Over several months, he negotiated with the company's top management, eventually convincing them to reboot the project. The success of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, which restored the publisher's faith in single-player games, partly helped this decision.
- McKay decided to focus all BioWare's efforts on the new Dragon Age: to achieve this, he canceled the Anthem reboot and transferred the development of Star Wars: The Old Republic to Broadsword studio.
- The layoff of 50 employees last year was also partly related to the new strategy. According to McKay, managing a smaller team allows for assigning the right people to the necessary positions without worrying about part of the staff being idle.
- Thanks to a series of management decisions, BioWare managed to complete a playable version of Dragon Age: The Veilguard earlier than any other game. This gave the studio extra time for iterations and polishing the project, with support from a small team working on the next Mass Effect.
- As Schreier notes, The Veilguard’s commercial success is crucial for BioWare's future. However, McKay did not disclose the criteria by which the company would recognize the game as a hit. Electronic Arts has also not yet reported on the new Dragon Age's metrics.