Welcome back!

Sign in or create an account to enjoy GINX perks, enter competitions and access exclusive features.

GINX TV > News > Dragon Age: The Veilguard

EA CEO Comments That Dragon Age: The Veilguard Marks Developer BioWare's Return "To Strength"

EA CEO Andrew Willson explained how the recent wave of strong reviews for Dragon Age: The Veilguard has "energized" the team at BioWare "by what they have delivered."
EA CEO Comments That Dragon Age: The Veilguard Marks Developer BioWare's Return "To Strength"
(Picture: Bioware / Electronic Arts)

Electronic Arts (EA) CEO Andrew Wilson provided some final comments on the upcoming release of BioWare's Dragon Age: The Veilguard before its anticipated launch during an Investors' Earnings Call event. While the publisher had since released EA's second quarter (Q2) Financial Results, the earnings call was also a prime opportunity for himself and other EA executives to address questions, concerns, and comments on the studio's financial report, current and upcoming projects, and more in a Q&A session.

Wilson noted that during Q2, the studio had "delivered another strong quarter with record net bookings," and while Q3 is pretty early to predict, EA is largely looking to continue success with College Football 25, The Sims 4, and Dragon Age: The Veilguard. The Veilguard is scheduled for a spooky Halloween release (31st October 2024) for consoles and PCs; Wilson expressed his optimism about the game's potential successes while reflecting on the troubled past of its developer, BioWare, ahead of the game's release.

As the review embargo had recently lifted for BioWare's Dragon Age: The Veilguard this past week, which saw the game amassing mostly positive reviews ahead of its global release, EA opted to host their recent earnings call where Wilson offered comments (h/t Yahoo Finance) on BioWare's tumultuous years following Anthem and The Veilguard. Not mincing his words, Wilson responded to a question on the return to form for BioWare following Anthem and what the future holds for The Veilguard and the Dragon Age franchise.

Regarding the development team utilization of LoRA that has helped BioWare to ship out EA's strongest title released, Wilson commented that while the studio had helped other EA studios and built various games like Anthem over the past decade, which didn't work out as anticipated, a noticeable shift happened at the studio "which was BioWare really returning to BioWare type games, really returning to BioWare's strength."  But on what is motivating BioWare on the cusp of breakout success with the Veilguard in relation to RPGs over the past decade, Wilson expressed that, indeed, the game "has breakout potential."

This opportunity to bring in incredibly high-quality, creative storytelling set in an amazing world with rich characters living out those stories, you are able to capture that moment in entertainment success almost certainly follows. And we see that in the context of movies, and we're seeing in the context of TV seasons, and we see in the context of video games.

He further added that the team at BioWare had ensured with the additional time given due to the "internal delays," they were able to "make sure the world was rich, and the characters were interesting, and the story was compelling" in a market that Wilson deemed "has limited competition for this category of game given some of the moves that have happened across the broader industry." Granted, the generally positive reviews have been welcoming, but it's "too early to predict the outcome." However, "the team feels really energized by what they have delivered."