Former BioWare Writer Says EA Always Treated Dragon Age as a Second-Class Franchise

Dragon Age lead writer David Gaider, who left BioWare years ago, says the series was perpetually on the chopping block during his entire tenure — and Dragon Age: The Veilguard's poor commercial performance may have finally finished it off. Speaking to PC Gamer, Gaider believes the franchise could be dead.

Gaider says EA consistently treated Mass Effect as the favored IP, even though early Dragon Age games outsold it. The studio saw Mass Effect as a "slick, modern RPG" that was easy to market, while Dragon Age was dismissed internally as "old-fashioned" and story-heavy — any success it had was written off as a fluke. "Throughout the entire time I was there, we were always one breath away from the project being shelved," Gaider told PC Gamer. "The thing that happened is that we kept releasing games, and it would sell much better than they thought it should, and it kept surprising them." Despite that track record, EA's skepticism apparently never went away.

The Veilguard launched in late 2024 and failed to meet EA's sales expectations, triggering significant layoffs at BioWare. EA kept a small core team, but their mandate is the next Mass Effect — not another Dragon Age. The broader picture at EA is turbulent: the company announced a $55 billion leveraged buyout last year, backed by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners, and Silver Lake. That deal leaves EA carrying roughly $20 billion in debt, and multiple analysts have flagged BioWare as a potential sell-off candidate as EA looks to service that load.

Gaider says he would return to Dragon Age under one condition — full creative control and no EA involvement. He wants to go back to the series' roots, take it somewhere "dark and dangerous," and make choices that would genuinely upset players. Whether anyone gives him that opportunity is another question entirely.