This week, Electronic Arts delivered its financial results from the quarterFor which he has been preparing investors for bad news for several weeks. While EA Football Club has missed expectations, the company apparently expected more than the RPG Dragon Age: The Veilguard, after its success, failed to manifest itself in the success of sales. During quarterly gains, Wilson hypothesized that the market had changed and that consumers want more live service mechanisms in their games while stopping just at the age of the Dragon Age: the Veilguard to thought.
“In order to break beyond the basic audience, games must connect directly to the evolutionary requirements of players who are increasingly looking for features of the shared world and a deeper commitment alongside high quality stories in this category Beloved, “said Wilson on the call.
In a separate but likely thought, Wilson commented on the age of the dragon: the veilguard specifically. “Dragon Age had a high quality launch and was well revised by criticism and those who played. However, this did not resonate with an audience sufficiently wide on this highly competitive market. »»
In the ten years interceiving from Dragon Age: the release of Inquisition, It was reported by the former producer of Bioware Mark Darrah This Bioware developer had been responsible for making the latest Dragon Age title more of a live service game by EA with multiplayer examinations. The game, which was then known as Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, was restarted to remove the aspects of the live service, a change that Wilson seems to believe was an error.
Wilson is right to say that a lot of money is underway in live service titles currently. Games like Fortnite have produced more than $ 40 billion in revenues according to EPIC’s accounts, which indicates that there is an appetite for this kind of public thing. But does that mean that everyone makes a solo RPG should pivot, as Wilson says, the features of the shared world? Or a multiplayer concentration that the veilguard possessed? The figures are not quite bare either.
The modern analog closest to the Dragon Age as a series is probably Baldur’s Gate 3 in Larian, a series that will occur by Bioware. In 2024, Larian announced that Baldur’s Gate 3 sold 15 million copies without any integration of live services. It is three million more than the best -selling title in Bioware, Dragon Age: Inquisition.
Another recent example of live hybridization with solo games is Warner Bros. ‘Suicide Squad, based in the popular Arkham universe and closely corresponding to WB films of the same name. Although WB did not give direct numbers for the title, he called “disappointing” sales. This presents a solid argument according to which to force this model on a market which does not want it to not guarantee success. After all, is there a lot of crossing between the public of Fortnite and Dragon Age?
We do not know how these lessons or the words of Wilson will affect EA games in the future. The publisher said that the only upcoming Bioware project in the foreseeable future will be a new mass effect, But the structure and even the design philosophy behind him have not yet been nailed. Given Wilson’s comments this week, it seems likely that the hybrid model will be at least a fundamental consideration for the title.
