David Gaider, the original creator of the Dragon Age series, has said in a new interview with PC Gamer that he will never play the latest entry, Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Gaider explained that the franchise was "his baby" and that, having handed it over to a new team, he had no wish to see how it had been changed — describing his reluctance as "totally selfish" and applying regardless of whether the game turned out well or badly. His comments carry weight because he shaped much of the series, and they arrive amid speculation that The Veilguard, which proved commercially and critically disappointing, may be the last Dragon Age game.

Gaider was a lead writer on the first three titles — Origins, Dragon Age II and Inquisition — and invented Thedas, the setting for the whole series, having earlier worked on BioWare classics such as Knights of the Old Republic and Neverwinter Nights. He suggested that publisher Electronic Arts had set the development team up to fail, arguing that EA's business model treats any game falling short of a fixed sales target as a flop, leaving the studio "essentially dead" in the publisher's eyes. The article, which mixes reporting with the writer's own critical opinion of The Veilguard, notes that BioWare has not produced a hit in over a decade and is now seen as being on precarious ground.