Ex-Bioware lead says he’d have ‘quit’ if EA mandated live-service elements

Ex-Bioware lead Mike Laidlaw has said that he would have quit the company if he was told that he had to shift the Dragon Age series focus from single-player experience to games as a service.

Earlier this week, EA CEO Andrew Wilson commented on Dragon Age The Veilguard’s soft sales, which some have interpreted as Wilson saying that the game needed live-service elements to succeed.

“To break beyond the core audience, games need to directly connect to the evolving demands of players who increasingly seek shared-world features and deeper engagement, alongside high-quality narratives in this beloved category,” said Wilson during an investor call.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard was reportedly initially conceived as a live-service product before development changed gears mid-production, towards more of a traditional Bioware experience.

Among those who’ve criticized Wilson’s comments is Bioware lead Mike Laidlaw, who has said that if he was given feedback similar to the thoughts expressed by Wilson, he’d have quit the company.

“Look, I’m not a fancy CEO guy, but if someone said to me ‘the key to this successful single-player IP’s success is to make it purely a multiplayer game’,” Laidlaw said on BlueSky.

“No, not a spin-off: fundamentally change the DNA of what people loved about the core game, to me, I’d probably, like, quit that job or something.”

EA recently lowered its revenue forecast for its current business year, partly due to what it called the underperformance of EA Sports FC 25 and Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

The fantasy RPG “engaged” around 1.5 million players during its first two months of availability, which EA said was nearly half of its expectations.