“With the latest PSSR update, Silent Hill f now delivers an even smoother gameplay experience than before,” said Konami’s production team. “Fine details – from swaying blades of grass to shadows cast across the ground – are rendered with greater clarity, deepening immersion in the fog-shrouded Japan of the 1960s.” A short new trailer highlights the difference between the current PSSR and its upgraded version with the latter pretty much eliminating any flickering.

Ninja Theory head, Dom Matthews, noted the team’s excitement to collaborate with Sony while also being impressed by “the quality of particle effects with this latest update, helping to bring key gameplay moments to life through enhanced visuals.” Remedy’s graphical technical director, Tatu Aalto, also noted how the improved image upscaling resulted in “efficient stochastic sampling without sacrificing image stability” and how it “responds quickly to visibility changes in games, keeping motion clear while improving temporal stability.” The result is even “better, more stable image quality” in Control and Alan Wake 2.

Those worried that Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth on consoles would never fully depict the beauty of its characters’ hairstyles should also rejoice. Director Naoki Hamaguchi notes how “fine details such as character’s hair are naturally restored.” Of course, “less flickering and afterimage feeling” is also a bonus. You can also expect sharper edges for wildlife scenery in Nioh 3, whether it’s foliage or various flowers.

And while Capcom didn’t provide any additional comments on the technology, it will be available for Monster Hunter Wilds and Dragon’s Dogma 2. Resident Evil Requiem was the first title that leveraged Upgraded PSSR, and the results have been quite stunning thus far. Stay tuned for more details on other titles that will implement it in the coming weeks.

Well, don’t worry if you didn’t, because Dragon Age Day – December 4th, for those keeping track – came and went without so much as a muster from BioWare. Why? You can thank a little game called Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

Ah, The Veilguard. Years and years in development across different iterations – starting as a heist-focused title with branching decisions and where player choice factored heavily into the plot, before reportedly turning into a live-service game to follow in Anthem’s disastrous footsteps. When Anthem failed to deliver, someone at Electronic Arts finally asked, “Why is our single-player RPG studio making terrible live service games?” it shifted back to single-player, but still allegedly retained several of the same elements.

This meant a more constrained plot and a narrative that had nothing to do with the previous greats, peddling an action RPG gameplay loop bereft of much tactical thinking. That Veilguard.

More than a year ago, I remember sitting down and reviewing the title. It didn’t offend me too greatly – maybe because of a cold at the time – but not for lack of trying. The characters, the combat, the exploration, the decisions, the dialogue – all of it left me wondering if this was it. Was this really what so many others were praising before launch? We can forget whether it’s what the fans wanted, hindsight being 20/20 and whatnot.

What really cemented that Electronic Arts and BioWare were done with the franchise as a whole, at least for the time being, is creative director Jon Epler revealing – not even a week, but two days later – that there wouldn’t be DLC. Instead, the studio would focus all resources on the next Mass Effect. Confounded by The Veilguard’s ending and wondering where the story could go next? You can keep wondering, probably into the 22nd century, because no answers are coming anytime soon.

The team did release a few patches for the game, but not to add any new content. Bug fixes and little touches – Harding has arrows in her quiver now, hurray – abound alongside a new appearance for Rook that resembles the N7-armor clad protagonist in the next Mass Effect. What crackling fixes did Patch 2 bring? Well, two, but at least one of them reduced the likelihood of crashes during shader compilation.

By Patch 3, Photo Mode got some new filters, weapons received new icons, and you could now bind arrow keys to input mappings. Patch 4 was decidedly more ambitious, adding Hawke’s outfit from Dragon Age 2 and two new complexions for the Qunari. You could also turn off bloom, and the pause screen now has a “Take Photo” button. By Patch 5, released almost three months later, BioWare finally decided to add recommended levels to side quests, finally warning you if you’re too underleveled for a task. You know, the option that other action RPGs, from The Witcher 3 to the Horizon series, had at launch.

And then, it happened – EA decided to restructure BioWare and eliminate roles, whether moving employees to other projects or laying off those who worked on The Veilguard. Heartless, especially the latter? Sure, but considering a week prior, when it revealed how much it underperformed, reaching 1.5 million players in the past quarter, when the publisher expected twice as much, it’s somewhat understandable.

As of February 2025, BioWare reportedly consists of fewer than 100 developers. EA CEO Andrew Wilson said that one reason for the underperformance is that “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,” instead of simply catering to their “core audience.” You’ll be shocked to hear this, but former writer David Gaider later revealed that Electronic Arts never really knew what it wanted to do with the series, and that it would often prefer Mass Effect when it came to marketing and resources. The Veilguard would be added to PlayStation Plus Essential in March, as if EA was waving the white flag and not expecting any more sales.

By June, a new report by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier outlined the problems, development flip-flops, internal strife and changes that The Veilguard went through. In a way, it’s somewhat miraculous that the team, which also saw numerous departures and changes throughout its lifespan, managed to cobble together anything and ship a video game. A pyrrhic victory, though, considering that the title killed any interest in the series, both from players and the higher-ups. Oh, and by August, it debuted on Game Pass, for those who still cared.

Last month, Mass Effect executive producer Mike Gamble assured fans on N7 Day that the next game was still coming and that the team was excited by what it’s building. “When we’re ready, it’ll be a lot of fun to show,” he promised. Some hidden artwork even depicted a Krogan civil war, with Gamble further teasing that all previous reveals would someday connect. So at the very least, BioWare seems to be making some headway with Mass Effect after announcing earlier this year that it hadn’t even entered full production.

It’s just remarkable that the latest Dragon Age could launch after so long, and one year later, its own day passes without so much as a whisper. No blog post looking back on the series’ highlights and how they’re proud of what they achieved with The Veilguard, along with some acknowledgement of how it may have disappointed some. I’d be surprised if anyone was left from the original team to write it, honestly, but again, you can’t really blame BioWare for pretending the series doesn’t exist. For all we know, it may be at the behest of Electronic Arts, which wants to pretend the disaster never happened, much less entertain any sentiment of a future.

And it’s a shame because at one point, Dragon Age: Origins earned the highest praise possible for an RPG series. Fast forward about 15 years to the launch of The Veilguard, and what’s left isn’t a shadow of everything that made the first game so unique, interesting and beloved. It may as well have been a different game entirely – the way it treated iconic characters like Morrigan, Varric, Dorian, Isabela and even The Inquisitor certainly saw to that.

Despite its issues, The Veilguard taught us a lot. It showed just how much publisher meddling can result in a series’ downfall. It proved once again that the live-service push by many companies is equally as dangerous. But perhaps most importantly, it taught us that a cohesive vision for a project, one where everyone from the engine team to the artists and writers, is what ultimately makes for great games. Maybe it wouldn’t have sold as well, much less matched Inquisition’s 12 million-plus units sold, but it certainly would have left fans with something more than…this.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

August 20th sees the arrival of Goat Simulator Remastered for Game Pass Standard. Persona 4 Golden is also out on the same day for Ultimate, PC Game Pass and Standard subscribers on cloud, consoles, and PC. Herdling launches on August 21st for Ultimate and PC Game Pass, followed by Gears of War: Reloaded on August 26th for the same.

August 28th marks the arrival of Dragon Age: The Veilguard for Ultimate and PC Game Pass via EA Play. This follows its addition to PlayStation Plus Essential last March. Despite a prolonged development cycle, the long-awaited sequel in the fantasy RPG series underperformed according to Electronic Arts, reaching 1.5 million players in its release quarter.

Of course, several titles will be leaving Game Pass on August 31st. Check them out below:

• Ben 10 Power Trip (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Borderlands 3 (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Paw Patrol: Mighty Pups Save Adventure Bay (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Sea of Stars (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• This War of Mine: Final Cut (Cloud, Console, and PC)

1. Duke Nukem Forever (2011)

Absurdly long development times are perceived as harbingers of doom nowadays, and 2011’s Duke Nukem Forever serves as the poster boy of such a perception. Development spanned 15 years for Duke Nukem Forever, and it’s still in the Guinness Book of World Records today for that reason. Not releasing an entry in over a decade will no doubt poison a franchise, but the game’s quality also failed to garner optimism for ole’ Duke. For one, Forever’s design was outdated without actually, you know, being good. The pacing tries to ape Duke Nukem 3D, but falls on its face due to the lack of viscerality the former had and the incredibly repetitive level design. Duke Nukem Forever soured players with its cringy humor too, yet I believe it could’ve been charming if some creativity was put into it. Remember how cool it was to run into a corpse of Luke Skywalker in Duke Nukem 3D? Or the unique visual aesthetics of levels like the “Escape From LA” stage to the 2001 Monolith on the moon? Duke Nukem Forever failed to use its raunchy referential charm in creative and fun ways, leading to a boring time embarrassingly cringing at the screen for many players.

2. Dragon Age: The Veilguard

Another 4th game in the respective series with a troubled dev cycle was Dragon Age: The Veilguard. While The Veilguard didn’t bomb quite as hard as Duke Nukem Forever, its tone is similarly to blame for its meager performance. Unlike the gritty (and very bloody in the case of Origins) realistic medieval tone of the previous Dragon Age games, The Veilguard is lit up in bright purples and sanitized almost like an ‘E for everyone’ title at times. Even the enemy designs lean in the cartoony direction with dragons that hardly instill any sense of fear or urgency. But it’s the awkward writing and dialogue that really disappointed a lot of fans. Instead of working you way through an origin story through blood, sweet, and tears, your character is just instantly accepted as ‘the hero’ of the narrative. Teammates rarely argue with you and often feel more like cheerleader social workers than elite warriors. At least the combat feels satisfying, but many have lamented the series distancing away from RPG mechanics since Inquisition, and The Veilguard is the series at its most streamlined and RPG-lite.

3. Mirror’s Edge Catalyst

Unlike Duke Nukem Forever or The Veilguard, Mirror’s Edge fans don’t mind a return to the series in the style of Catalyst. The main reason Mirror’s Edge has been dormant since 2016 is because DICE and EA have been focusing almost exclusively on reviving the Battlefield franchise. And thanks to recent gaming trends of big companies not giving small series’ a chance, it’s unlikely we’ll see another Mirror’s Edge title. But Catalyst didn’t exactly do everything right. The story was incredibly bog-standard, with characters that fell flat for a majority of players. The main reason to play the game was the excellent parkour movement, and that’s something Catalyst opened up substantially thanks to its more open structure. However, many locations felt copy-pasted, adding a sense of bloat that didn’t exist in the first game. Catalyst is still recommended by fans of the short-lived series, but its bump in quality from the first game, as well as DICE being busy elsewhere, doesn’t leave a lot of room for a series return.

4. Bionic Commando (2009 reboot)

Bionic Commando’s gritty 2009 reboot effectively killed the franchise due to a paltry 27,000 US units sold in its first month. Capcom’s top brass criticized the outsourced dev team for being difficult to work with, affirming their hesitancy to outsource overseas that would reverberate throughout the company for years. We previously cited Bionic Commando as an example of nonsensical story twists in games, and for good reason. This reboot is laughably campy despite its attempt at high stakes grit. The dude’s arm is his wife for crying out loud. But it wasn’t just story that players couldn’t take seriously, it’s also the janky movement with the arm rope slinging and the average shooting and combat mechanics. I’m glad the Bionic Commando reboot exists, if for the memes and campy ‘B-movie’ quality alone, but it also helped convince Capcom to shelf the series, and that’s a shame considering how iconic the original 2D titles were.

5. Saints Row (2022)

It’s been three years and I still haven’t encountered anybody who likes the Saints Row reboot. On paper, the ingredients for a decent Saints Row experience are there. But the exucation is severely half-baked. The open world design is uninspired with a plethora of repetitive side missions. Even the humor is disappointing, something the series always differentiated itself with. Saints Row was always known as the more goofy GTA, with well-written gags and scenarios that managed to get a chuckle out of gamers. But the reboot is anything but that, going for a more serious tone in-between jokes that fall flat on their face. Seeing how poor sales were and the terrible critical reception, it’s very unlikely we’ll see a new Saints Row anytime soon.

6. Lost Planet 3

Lost Planet 3 is undoubtedly the black sheep of the series. It’s the only entry developed by an outsourced western team, it didn’t heavily feature mechs in combat, and was panned by critics and the fandom alike. If relegating mechs to a minor role wasn’t enough of blow to fans, the repetitive side missions, bland level design, and less fluid combat sealed the deal. At least you’re still fighting Akrids in a snowy environment, but besides that, the game is hardly recognizable from the past two entries.

7. Crackdown 3

I’m not going to pretend that the Crackdown series was a household name worthy of GOTY discussions or anything, but the first two titles showed a lot of promise for the arcady GTA/Saints Row alternative. Crackdown 2 in particular was just a ton of fun to let loose and enjoy the bonkers open-world mayhem in. And the third game had a lot of hype leading to release, with none other than Terry Crews starring as the main city-destroying protagonist. But even longtime fans couldn’t find much to enjoy with Crackdown 3. The world map lacked variety, basically feeling like the same three nighttime city blocks copy/pasted throughout. The missions and gameplay don’t do much to make up for level design either, forming a repetitive loop of basic tasks over and over again. There’s not even anything fun to collect; with ability orbs comprising the majority of world secrets. I don’t even think Crackdown 3 would be appealing if it released decades ago; it’ll be a miracle if we see another entry any time in the near future.

8. The Order: 1886

Everyone talked about the life-like graphical fidelity of The Order at the time of the PS4’s launch. It was the defacto tech demo game for the console for good reason, showcasing impressive lighting and texture details. But hardly anything noteworthy could be said about any other aspect of the game. I can’t in good conscious call The Order a bad game; it’s just that it wasn’t much of a game to begin with at the asking price. The campaign takes around six hours to complete with little more than some collectibles to warrant further play sessions. It’s not just that it’s brief though, the content is somewhat superficial with its many quick-time events and bog-standard cover shooting. It’s one of those games that’s fine to rent for the story and setting, but you’ll forget about in a couple weeks. While The Order never developed into a series, it was initially planned to be one, with a sequel on the docket until the studio, Ready At Dawn, shuttered in 2024.

9. Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days

Finally, we have the controversial cult classic, Kane & Lynch 2. This game was bound to have mixed reviews from its inception. Despite how it appears, Kane & Lynch 2 is a highly unconventional art piece of a game. The camerawork is intentionally amateurish and, at times, nauseating, in an effort to simulate cop cams or body cams. Plenty critics called out the camera as terrible and superficial, but it’s also the element that appealed to its fans the most. It’s really the five hour campaign and repetitive cover shooting that resulted in the general poor reviews and lackluster sales. And with IO Interactive moving on with their enormously successful Hitman games and upcoming James Bond title, it’s unlikely Kane & Lynch will get another opportunity to gain a following beyond that small cult classic crowd.

One of the key reasons for Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s troubled development period seems to stem from the fact that the title, originally envisioned as a single-player game, was pivoted into being a multiplayer live-service game before once again being pivoted into being a narrative single-player title.

The initial switch to multiplayer came about because of EA’s executives looking at other live-service games in the market like Overwatch and Destiny, and wanting its own IP to capitalise on the gold rush. This ultimately led to BioWare working on Anthem, which had its own troubles during development before coming out to a negative critical and commercial reception.

Before Anthem’s release, however, EA had also decided to turning Dragon Age into a live-service game. According to Schreier, creative director Mike Laidlaw made the announcement to the development team in October 2017, before also revealing that he was resigning from the company. Laidlaw’s position was then taken up by former art director Matt Goldman. Development resumed on the Dragon Age game, which was internally titled Morrison.

While Anthem was ultimately released to then flop in the market, the Morrison project was still being worked on. According to Schreier, some of the employees at BioWare started referring to Morrison as “Anthem with dragons”.

In 2020, the decision was once again made to turn the next Dragon Age back into a single-player game. However, this decision came with a caveat. Instead of giving the development team time to go back to pre-production and lay some important groundwork for the title that would eventually become Dragon Age: The Veilguard, the studio was instead forced to change the game’s core structure and figure out other aspects of making a single-player game on the fly.

An internal test build of the Dragon Age game also led to quite a few causes for concern. Playtesters noted dissatisfaction with the lack of meaningful choices that players could make. This was largely because, in its previous form as a multiplayer game, the Dragon Age title couldn’t offer players too many diverging choices. This led to the game being delayed a few times, and in 2023, the team behind the next Mass Effect game was also brought in to help finish development of the title.

The addition of this team, however, led to other problems revolving around internal problems between personnel at the office. The Mass Effect directors, for instance, believed that the leadership behind Dragon Age: The Veilguard wasn’t doing a good enough job, and started excluding them from important meetings. The Mass Effect team also started making sweeping changes to the game.

This friction between the two teams harkens back to when former lead writer David Gaider spoke about EA preferring the Mass Effect franchise over Dragon Age. “It always seemed that, when the Mass Effect team made its demands in meetings with EA regarding the resources it needed, it got its way,” said Gaider. “But Dragon Age always had to fight against headwinds.”

Playtesters, as well as the leadership behind Mass Effect, also ordered a full rewrite of the story in Dragon Age: The Veilguard, complaining about the original tone of the game being too snarky. This would also lead to inconsistent tone in the game’s writing, which was another one of the criticisms that would be levelled at the RPG. Towards the end of the game’s development, BioWare was also hit with layoffs, which would have further adverse effects on the studio’s morale.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard came out on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. Check out our review for more details.

“I feel absolutely devastated for BioWare as a studio that they got such mixed reactions to the game,” Wilton Regan said of the response to The Veilguard. “I personally thought it was a really strong game. I thought it was just BioWare being more BioWare.”

“I also think a lot of people kind of wanted to see it fail, or wanted to see [BioWare] fail, either because they’re just really bad people on the internet — of which there are unfortunately many, as we have discovered.”

When it comes to the development of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, former director on the games Mark Darrah has spoken in the past about how the team behind Dragon Age at BioWare felt like it was being jerked around by EA. In a video posted earlier this month, Darrah spoke about the state of BioWare and EA in 2017, as the studio had wrapped up work on Mass Effect: Andromeda and would be moving on to Anthem.

“This was the first time where we had this leadership discontinuity, where the person in charge of a project left that project to help someone else, some other project, while the project continued to run,” said Darrah. “In the case of Mass Effect: Andromeda, I don’t think the impact to Dragon Age was huge. It wasn’t very long, but it did set this precedent as this being a thing that we could do, and it’s not a good thing to do. It is incredibly dangerous to have a project run while it’s missing some of its core leadership.”

Darrah also revealed details about working with EA CEO Andrew Wilson and former executive Patrick Söderlund. The two would assure Darrah that the Dragon Age franchise was still important to EA. The departure of Casey Hudson from BioWare, along with the ensuing time of turbulence for the studio was also discussed.

“You have to remember: I am the second most senior person at BioWare,” Darrah said. “Casey was interviewed, and hired, and prepared to be brought back entirely without me being consulted in any way. Would me have being involved in the process have changed the decision? No, I don’t think it would have, but there is an immense amount of disrespect involved in making a hire of this impact, in making a decision of this import, without involving the second-most senior person at your studio in any way.”

Dragon Age: The Veilgaurd was released back on October 2024 on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. For more details about the title, check out our review, where we game the title a score of 7 out of 10, praising its responsive combat and side content while criticising its story direction and writing.

Referring to the feelings at the time as the team working on Dragon Age being “jerked around,” Darrah also mentions a lack of support from the rest of BioWare as well as EA in late 2016. Among the problems at the time was the lack of continuity when it came to leadership for the team.

“This was the first time where we had this leadership discontinuity, where the person in charge of a project left that project to help someone else, some other project, while the project continued to run,” said Darrah. “In the case of Mass Effect: Andromeda, I don’t think the impact to Dragon Age was huge. It wasn’t very long, but it did set this precedent as this being a thing that we could do, and it’s not a good thing to do. It is incredibly dangerous to have a project run while it’s missing some of its core leadership.”

Darrah also spoke about bringing up problems that the team was facing with EA CEO Andrew Wilson and former exec Patrick Söderlund, who would assure him that the company as a whole still values the Dragon Age franchise. The time also marked a time of turbulence for BioWare with the departure of Casey Hudson’s from the studio.

“You have to remember: I am the second most senior person at BioWare,” Darrah said. “Casey was interviewed, and hired, and prepared to be brought back entirely without me being consulted in any way. Would me have being involved in the process have changed the decision? No, I don’t think it would have, but there is an immense amount of disrespect involved in making a hire of this impact, in making a decision of this import, without involving the second-most senior person at your studio in any way.”

When both EA and BioWare were focused on the development and release of live-service shooter Anthem, Darrah was once again assured by the company’s leadership that it was committed to supporting work on the Dragon Age franchise as well. “As we all know, that’s not what happened at all,” said Darrah.

Back in April, former Dragon Age writer David Gaider also spoke about EA’s lack of support towards the franchise, saying that the company preferred Mass Effect over the fantasy RPG series. In a series of social media posts, he also spoke about how the company’s marketing team was never quite sure what to do with Dragon Age.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard was released on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S back in October 2024. For more details, check out our review.

According to Gaider, EA had a preference for the sci-fi franchise rather than Dragon Age‘s fantasy settings and more strategic gameplay. He wrote about the marketing team also having the same preference since they were unsure of how to market a dark fantasy franchise like Dragon Age, while Mass Effect‘s sci-fi trappings and more action-oriented gameplay were more marketable.

“While I was at BioWare, EA *always* preferred Mass Effect, straight up,” wrote Gaider. “Their Marketing team liked it more. It was modern. It had action. They never quite knew what to do with [Dragon Age], and whenever DA outperformed ME, ME got the excuses. If you ask me, it was always just shy of the axe since DA Origins.”

With his post, Gaider was responding to a fan of the Dragon Age franchise who commented on the sense that EA seemingly had a preference for Mass Effect even from the perspective of someone outside of the industry. A follow-up question was asked about whether the marketing team’s inability to figure out how to work with the Dragon Age franchise led to each game being quite different from its predecessor.

“Maybe in part,” responded Gaider. “I’d say the biggest reason was that, while I was there, the BioWare teams were bad at overreaction. They’d take the feedback/criticism to heart – both our own and the fans’ – and generally fixed that but also over-corrected. And then there was EA’s influence on top of that, yes.”

The first game in the Dragon Age franchise, Dragon Age: Origins, was released all the way back in 2009. Several DLC releases followed, and it also received a full-fledged sequel in 2011 with Dragon Age 2. The series then went quiet for a while as BioWare started wrapping up the Mass Effect trilogy before getting Dragon Age: Inquisition in 2014.

The most recent game in the franchise was last year’s Dragon Age: The Veilguard, released in October 2024 on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. For more details, check out our review. As for some insight into some of the game design decisions that were made around The Veilguard, check out our coverage of the UX designer’s comments on changing the game’s interface due to feedback from QA teams.

Unfortunately, Dragon Age: The Veilguard underperformed in the market according to EA’s earnings report back in January. EA CEO Andrew Wilson revealed in February that he believed it was because of the RPG’s lack of multiplayer and shared-world features. According to Wilson, despite its warm critical reception, the game failed to resonate with a broader audience in the competitive market.

While I was at BioWare, EA *always* preferred Mass Effect, straight up Their Marketing team liked it more. It was modern. It had action. They never quite knew what to do with DA, and whenever DA outperformed ME, ME got the excuses. If you ask me, it was always just shy of the axe since DA Origins.

— David Gaider (@davidgaider.bsky.social) 2025-04-14T07:11:01.939Z

Maybe in part? I'd say the biggest reason was that, while I was there, the BioWare teams were bad at overreaction. They'd take the feedback/criticism to heart – both our own and the fans' – and generally fixed that but also overcorrected.And then there was EA's influence on top of that, yes.

— David Gaider (@davidgaider.bsky.social) 2025-04-14T07:57:50.921Z

Curiously, despite being a separate weapons pack, it can’t be grabbed by those that don’t already have a copy of Dragon Age: The Veilguard on PC. According to fans of the game on Reddit, the Rook’s Weapons Appearance pack includes the Watchful Blade, Watchful Shield and Watchful Maul for Warrior, the Watchful Poniard and Watchful Staff for Mage, and the Watchful Bow and Watchful Saber for Rogue.

Making the DLC even stranger is the fact that it was previously released for the Xbox Series X/S version of Dragon Age: The Veilguard back in January. The latest release is specifically for PC through Steam, Epic Games Store and EA’s own digital store. Players have also noted that the PS5 version of the RPG doesn’t have a similar DLC yet.

Former lead UX designer from the studio, Bruno Porrio, had also revealed details during GDC 2025 about the development of Dragon Age: The Veilguard earlier this month. In a talk, Porrio spoke about the challenges in designing the game’s interface, since older iterations of the game caused confusion for the QA team. This confusion largely stemmed from the “primers” and “detonators” system that BioWare has been using in its titles over the last decade.

“So much confusion around detonation,” Porrio said. “There was a lot of confusion, and players weren’t really utilizing the detonations.”

Dragon Age: The Veilguard has seemingly underperformed according to the projections set by EA. Back in February, CEO Andrew Wilson revealed that he believes the cause of the game’s commercial failure stemmed from it not featuring any online shared-world components.

“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 EA CEO Andrew Wilson. “Dragon Age had a high-quality launch and was well-reviewed by critics and those who played; however, it did not resonate with a broad enough audience in this highly competitive market.”

While BioWare has moved on to working on what will be the next Mass Effect game, the studio has apparently been restructured. In an update, BioWare’s Gary McKay had revealed back in January that a new Mass Effect game is being developed by a team made up of veterans from the original Mass Effect trilogy.

“Now that Dragon Age: The Veilguard has been released, a core team at BioWare is developing the next Mass Effect game under the leadership of veterans from the original trilogy, including Mike Gamble, Preston Watamaniuk, Derek Watts, Parrish Ley, and others,” wrote McKay in January.

“Given this stage of development, we don’t require support from the full studio. We have incredible talent here at BioWare, and so we have worked diligently over the past few months to match many of our colleagues with other teams at EA that had open roles that were a strong fit.”

Dragon Age: The Veilguard is available on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. Check out our review for more details.

Porrio talks about the combat system by describing the “primers” and “detonators” concept that BioWare has been using for quite a few games now, including Mass Effect Andromeda and Anthem. As part of the system, players can “prime” their targets up by using various abilities; these opponents can then be “detonated” by using another ability that causes massive single-target or area damage.

He spoke about the QA testers on Dragon Age: The Veilguard being confused by some of the concepts in the game’s combat, some of which came down to how the developers had been designing the game’s interface. The original plan, according to Porrio, was: “‘okay, if we’re not obtrusive, players are not going to be overwhelmed.'” However, this ended up not working out, and players stopped noticing things on the top left and top right corners of the screen.

“So much confusion around detonation,” Porrio said. “There was a lot of confusion, and players weren’t really utilizing the detonations.”

Dragon Age: The Veilguard was released back in October 2024 on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. As its name might imply, the game is a follow-up to the Dragon Age franchise, the last game having come out all the way back in 2014 in Dragon Age: Inquisition.

While there was a fair bit of immediate success for Dragon Age: The Veilguard on release, with SteamDB indicating an all-time peak concurrent player count of almost 90,000 players, popularity of the game has fallen off quite a bit since then. At the time of writing, the RPG still has a relatively healthy player base, with a 24-hour peak of around 2,655 players.

Ultimately, EA revealed back in January that Dragon Age: The Veilguard had underperformed according to the publisher’s expectations. In an earnings report, EA revealed that around 1.5 million players had played Dragon Age: The Veilguard as of December 2024, missing projections by around 50 percent.

EA CEO Andrew Wilson believes that the lack of success of Dragon Age: The Veilguard can be attributed to the fact that it is a purely single-player title with no online features. During a quarterly earnings call, Wilson said that the game needed some “shared-world features” in order to attract an audience that seek online games.

“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. “Dragon Age had a high-quality launch and was well-reviewed by critics and those who played; however, it did not resonate with a broad enough audience in this highly competitive market.”

For more details about Dragon Age: The Veilguard, check out our review. Also check out our thoughts on what happened with the RPG.