Andrew Wilson, the CEO of EA, the parent company of BioWare, claimed that the developer’s upcoming game Dragon Age: The Veilguard has “breakout potential.”
A screenshot from Dragon Age: The Veilguard (2024), BioWare
In the company’s Q2 2025 Earnings Conference Call, Wilson shared his optimism that the game will perform well. He said, “It’s an amazing time at EA. And in two days, we will launch Dragon Age: The Veil guard. It’s been 10 years since we launched its predecessor Game of the Year Winner Dragon Age: Inquisition.”
He continued, “Early critic scores are strong and reflect the high-quality depth and detail in niches action pack adventure. We expect Dragon Age to be a great example of how our blockbuster storytelling engages and connect fans in truly unique ways.”
A screenshot from Dragon Age: The Veilguard (2024), BioWare
In the Q&A portion of the call, Wilson was asked by Raymond James Financial Group Analyst Andrew Marok, “I have seen some very strong reviews so far. But as far as you can tell, what drives that kind of breakout success we’ve seen in some single-player fantasy games in the last couple of years? And how do you feel that Veilguard might compare along those lines?”
Wilson responded, “I certainly think Veilguard has breakout potential. Again, 10 years ago, Dragon Age: Inquisition won Game of the Year and was a very strong performer for us in the conduct of our business. This is entertainment. And so while much of our business has moved to live service moment-to-moment, deliver innovation and creativity for a deeply engaged community over the course of time, this opportunity to bring in incredibly high quality, creative storytelling set in an amazing world with rich characters living out those stories you’re able to capture that moment in entertainment. Success almost certainly follows.”
A screenshot from Dragon Age: The Veilguard (2024), BioWare
He explained, “And we see that in the context of movies, and we’re seeing in the context of TV seasons, and we see in the context of video games. When we think about what we have with Veilguard right now, we have a storied studio in BioWare. We have a storied IP in Dragon Age. We have a team that took extra time to make sure the world was rich and the characters were interesting and the story was compelling. I think we are going into a market that has limited competition for this category of game given some of the moves that have happened across the broader industry.”
“And so while I think it’s too early to predict the outcome, the critical reviews have been incredibly strong. The team feels really energized by what they have delivered. And my sense is that, yes, it has breakout capabilities,” he reiterated.
A screenshot from Dragon Age: The Veilguard (2024), BioWare
While Wilson claims the game has “breakout capabilities,” EA’s Chief Financial Officer Stuart Canfield shared that the company was “maintaining our assumptions for our upcoming Dragon Age: The Veilguard launch this week and our partner title slated to launch in Q4.”
He later added, “Turning to Q3, We expect net bookings of $2.4 billion to $2.55 billion, up 1% to up 8% year-over-year, largely driven by the launch of Dragon Age and continued growth in our EA Sports FC franchise.”
A screenshot from Dragon Age: The Veilguard (2024), BioWare
Of note, Wilson’s comments are very similar to Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot’s comments ahead of the release of Star Wars Outlaws. If you recall, Guillemot told investors, “What we have factored in is a strong launch for Star Wars Outlaws that reflects the fact that it is among the most awaited games of the industry this year and a really strong, positive community sentiment. And also, the fact, that we are coming with the biggest marketing campaign ever, so far, for [an] Ubisoft game. So that’s what we’ve been factoring in the second quarter.”
Fast forward a few months and Ubisoft revealed that sales for the game were “softer than expected” and they were cutting their net booking projections for its Q2 from €500 million to €350-370 million.
It’s rumored that the game only sold 1 million copies in its first month after investors were expecting at least 5 million copies sold.
A screenshot from Star Wars Outlaws (2024), Ubisoft
In another similarity, Ubisoft buttered up YouTubers by flying them out to Disneyland in California in order to convince them to give positive reactions and reviews of the game. BioWare and EA did something similar by having creators and streamers get to play around 7 hours of the game to share their initial reactions.
Furthermore, BioWare and EA have been accused of manipulating the review scores and even coordinating with many reviewers to give positive reviews.
A screenshot from Dragon Age: The Veilguard (2024), BioWare
YouTuber Fextralife accused BioWare of attempting to manipulate reviews by not handing out review codes to creators critical of the game.
He observed that a number of potential players expressed they would wait for reviews before they decided to purchase this game. He then noted that EA likely observed this too and said, “is, EA’s marketing team probably saw this and decided that they needed to make the reviews as positive as possible trying to exclude those that might give the game a seven or an eight while also reaching out, finding press and content creators that would maybe give the game a nine or above.”
“Just think about this for a second if you’re on the EA end and you’re trying to manipulate review scores because you want high review scores, what are you going to do? You’re going to research press and content creators and what they usually give to games score-wise to give you a general idea of how they’re going to review your game,” he added.
After noting how Fextralife never gives 9s or 10s, he said, “You’re about to get a bunch of reviews that have been curated by the publisher for their likelihood of being extremely positive in an attempt to manipulate your view of Dragon Age: The Veilguard. They want you think there is a universal consensus that the game is amazing thereby convincing you that you should try it, but also influencing future review scores as it’s difficult to be the outlier. If you’ve ever done a review for a game or something, you’ll realize that if you’re the only giving a high review when everyone else is giving it a low review score, it’s difficult. Or if you’re the only one giving it a low review score and everyone else is giving it a high review score, it’s a very difficult position to be in.”
“So if you see a bunch of positive review scores come out today, think about all the people that are going to be playing afterward and how much pressure they’re going to feel to give the game slightly better score than they would have given it just to avoid maybe some undue pressure. And sometimes that doesn’t even happen consciously. It’s just done subconsciously.”
A screenshot from Dragon Age: The Veilguard (2024), BioWare
Next, he noted, “I want to be very clear, here. That I don’t think the press and creators publishing their videos early are going to be lying. These reviewers have been screened to maximize the chances that you’re seeing positive reviews. There will probably be some exceptions, of course, I don’t think everyone’s going to give the game a positive review.
“But EA is banking that those are few and far between in an attempt to keep the aggregate score of the game high,” he added.
A screenshot from Dragon Age: The Veilguard (2024), BioWare
Following this accusation by Fextralife, former World of Warcraft Team Lead Mark Kern aka Grummz made his own, but did so while observing that many outlets that reviewed the game used the same language that the game’s Creative Director used on Blue Sky.
Epler wrote, “so 5 years ago, when i first re-joined the project as Narrative Director after a hiatus on Anthem, I was asked my goals for the project and one of the ones I put was ‘i want to see the phrase ‘a triumphant return to form for BioWare’ in at least one review’ excited to finally mark that goal done.”
He added in another post, “this project has been both the greatest privilege and the hardest dev cycle of my career to say i’m proud of this team would be an understatement, and to say i’m thrilled at the reviews would be similar whew.”
John Epler on Blue Sky
Kern shared these posts from Epler alongside screenshots from Metacritic and what appears to be a Google search where it shows numerous outlets describing Veilguard as a “return to form.” That just so happens to be the phrase that Epler said he wanted to see in at least one review.
Kern wrote, “We need to talk about CAPTURED gaming JOURNALISM and how CORRUPT it’s become. Dragon Age Veilguard is ASTROTURFING articles and reviews now, parroting the lead narrative designer of the game. Look at these reviews and articles that all repeat the same phrase and ask yourself what is going on.”
We need to talk about CAPTURED gaming JOURNALISM and how CORRUPT it’s become.
Dragon Age Veilguard is ASTROTURFING articles and reviews now, parroting the lead narrative designer of the game.
Look at these reviews and articles that all repeat the same phrase and ask yourself… pic.twitter.com/o3ejdlpyLx
— Grummz (@Grummz) October 29, 2024
What do you make of Wilson’s comments?
