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Fact check: Dragon Age the Vielguard has been a commercial failure for Bioware.
1. Summary of the results
Dragon Age: The Veilguard has indeed underperformed commercially, reaching 1.5 million players in its first two months, which was 50% below Electronic Arts' expectations [1]. The actual sales numbers are likely even lower, around 1 million copies, as the 1.5 million figure includes EA Play subscription users [2]. This performance led to EA lowering its fiscal year 2025 forecast and caused a 16% drop in EA's stock price [3].
2. Missing context/alternative viewpoints
Several important contextual factors need to be considered:
- The game's performance, while below EA's expectations, is actually comparable to other RPGs released in 2024, such as Metaphor: ReFantazio, which also sold around 1 million copies [4]
- The game received generally positive critical reception with an 82 Metascore [2]
- The game's 10-year development cycle significantly increased production costs, making it harder to meet financial expectations [4]
- For comparison, Dragon Age: Inquisition sold over 12 million copies [1], though this comparison lacks context about the gaming market's different conditions at that time
3. Potential misinformation/bias in the original statement
The statement presents the situation without important nuance:
- EA CEO Andrew Wilson blamed the failure on the lack of "shared-world features" [5], but this claim is questionable given the success of traditional single-player RPGs like Baldur's Gate 3 [5]
- The label of "failure" appears to stem more from EA's unrealistic expectations than from actual market performance [4]
- The term "commercial failure" needs context: while the game didn't meet EA's specific targets, its sales numbers were actually in line with contemporary RPG releases [4]
This situation highlights a conflict between corporate expectations and market realities, where EA's shareholders and executives benefit from setting aggressive targets, while developers face the consequences of these potentially unrealistic goals.