Dragon Age’s former lead writer thinks the series is probably dead, but he’d be happy to take it off EA’s hands and ‘go somewhere dark and dangerous’ with it

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Dragon Age’s former lead writer thinks the series is probably dead, but he’d be happy to take it off EA’s hands and ‘go somewhere dark and dangerous’ with it

PC Gamer · 1 month ago

David Gaider, who led development on Dragon Age, has expressed deep scepticism about the franchise's future under Electronic Arts. He describes a pattern where the series persistently faced internal pressure and potential cancellation despite routinely outperforming sales projections. Gaider attributes this instability to EA's sustained misreading of Dragon Age's identity and appeal, exemplified by marketing campaigns that misrepresented it as provocative teenage entertainment rather than the nuanced fantasy RPG it was intended to be.

The disparity between EA's treatment of Dragon Age and Mass Effect reveals this fundamental divergence in corporate confidence. Mass Effect received patience and understanding when sales varied, whereas Dragon Age encountered constant scepticism. EA's current response to The Veilguard's weak performance—attributing it to insufficient live-service mechanics—suggests the company continues to misdiagnose why the franchise's audience engaged with it in the first place.

  • Former Dragon Age lead writer David Gaider believes EA has effectively killed the franchise through years of mismanagement and fundamental misunderstanding of the series
  • EA repeatedly marketed Dragon Age as edgy teen-oriented content rather than a sophisticated fantasy RPG, whilst giving more favourable treatment to Mass Effect
  • EA recently blamed The Veilguard's underperformance on missing live-service features, suggesting the company still doesn't grasp what audiences valued about the franchise

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