Dragon Age: The Veilguard Has Been Redesigned Because Devs Focus on Things „They've Had Success In”
There isn't much in Dragon Age: The Veilguard from the previous online version of the fourth installment in the series, as the developers didn't make much progress when the new DA was still supposed to be a service game.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard did not retain much of the earlier, "live-service" version of the fourth Dragon Age. The project formerly known as Dreadwolf has significantly changed following the decision made by Electronic Arts in 2021.
Just a reminder: according to previous reports (which were confirmed by BioWare this year), the new Dragon Age started life as a live-service game. However, following the failure of Anthem, EA dropped from those plans, leaving Veilguard to offer "only single-player goodness."
Although in theory a live-service game could also be a great RPG, the difference between a typical "single-player" title and a GAAS (Game As A Service) production is huge. So it's no surprise that director Corinne Busche and BioWare manager Gary McKay told IGN just how much work went into this concept change.
Not a restart, but significant changes
An important difference was the approach to companions, who would not be as important in a multiplayer game. In the end, in a game-as-a-service, interactions with other players would be more important.
Despite this, McKay emphasizes that the change in concept occurred so early in the development process that it is not possible to talk about a "reboot" of the new Dragon Age.
I don't consider this a reboot. No, I don't perceive it that way at all. It was more about making sure that we are focused on utilizing and relying on the things that we consider a success, the things that we were good at, and learning from what we saw as certain challenges.
Nevertheless, Busche recalls that when the concept changed to a strictly single-player game, some of the dialogue lines had already been recorded and a preliminary outline of the plot already existed. Less progress has been made in the gameplay design - all current systems have been developed from scratch, although BioWare was probably thinking about certain mechanics before 2021.
So it seems that by 2021, the studio had not made significant progress on the game. In 2018, it was reported that a skeleton crew was working on the title, and in 2020 the game was supposed to enter the alpha phase. Fortunately for the developers, although many ideas - sometimes even almost finished ones - are thrown away during the development of each game, in fact wasting time on such rejected ideas does not usually have a good effect on the team's morale.
Ultimately, Dragon Age: Veilguard is meant to be a return to the roots and a classic, single-player game in the style of older installments. Fans still have their concerns, even after the recent materials, which are significantly better than the first trailer. Especially in the context of some more coldly received information from the creators.
Dragon Age: Veilguard will be released on October 31, 2024, on PC, Xbox Series X/S, and PlayStation 5.
