Dragon Age Veteran David Gaider Suggests Focusing on Baldur’s Gate 3 for the Series’ Future, Not Live-Service Models

During EA’s recent earnings call, the company seemed to suggest that Dragon Age: The Veilguard might have had better sales if it retained its original live-service elements. Not everyone agrees with this perspective. The game, alongside EA Sports FC 25, failed to meet EA’s targets, leading to changes and cuts at BioWare.

David Gaider, a key figure in the Dragon Age series and creator of much of its lore, shared his thoughts on this issue in a conversation on Bluesky. Although he understands why some executives might view live-services as a lucrative trend to follow, he feels strongly that this approach doesn’t align with Dragon Age’s core essence.

“There are definitely many lessons to glean from a game like Veilguard (though I haven’t played it myself, so I’m relying on what others have said),” Gaider expressed. “But suggesting that ‘it should have been live service’ seems narrow-minded and self-serving.”

Gaider went on to advise EA, “You’ve got an intellectual property that people are genuinely passionate about. At its peak, it sold enough to keep you satisfied, right? Reflect on what it did best during its most successful period. Take a cue from Larian and focus on that. Your audience is still out there, and they’re waiting.”

Baldur’s Gate 3 serves as an excellent example of how single-player games, when built around a strong vision and given an appropriate development timeframe, can be just as successful as the top live-service games dominating the market today.

Gaider also tackled the issue of those criticizing the game with the term “wokeness,” a term he dismissed as not being constructive criticism. “For those who complain about games being ‘woke,’ there are successful and unsuccessful games in that category. The failures are often attributed to being ‘woke,’ but that says more about the critics than the game itself,” he noted.

As for the future, we’ll have to wait and see what lies ahead for both Dragon Age and Mass Effect, with the latter now becoming the primary focus for the newly streamlined BioWare team.