Dragon Age Lead Mark Darrah Reveals Why The Veilguard Failed

Published Oct 9, 2026, 7:22 AM EDT James Lucas is an Executive Editor at TheGamer who has worked in professional journalism since 2018. A Newcastle University graduate with a degree in Journalism, Media, and Culture, they have written hundreds of guides, news stories, and original reports, with bylines in IGN, NME, GaymingMag, and VG247, sourcing interviews with studio heads, legendary industry figures, prominent actors, and more. An expert on FPS games, Soulslikes, RPGs, and survival horror, James has intimate knowledge of a wide variety of titles, providing in-depth coverage and exclusive profiles. Some of the games they have extensively covered include: Half-Life 3, Counter-Strike, Elden Ring, and Fallout. They pride themselves on their consistently thorough research, leveraging nearly a decade of industry experience. You can reach them at James.t@thegamer.com Dragon Age has survived Blights, civil wars, and the collapse of the Chantry, but it couldn't survive EA mismanagement. BioWare has been decimated by layoffs and, with the series ending on a whimper, it feels like the book has finally slammed shut on Thedas. There have been countless discussions, op-eds, interviews, and angry internet forums debating what exactly went wrong, but former producer Mark Darrah has an interesting insight into the bureaucracy that had The Veilguard in a chokehold. "The project ran without its most senior leadership when I was on Anthem, from 2017 until 2019," Darrah said in a new YouTube video, explaining how senior staff were stretched thin at BioWare (via GamesRadar+). "The game spent a lot of time really close to its perceived release date. The game changed release dates a lot of times, and the consequence of that is that the team always was quite close to its current release date." EA Wanted Annual Releases Crucially, The Veilguard began development right as EA was pushing for annual releases, with Inquisition, Mass Effect: Andromeda, Anthem, and Dragon Age 4 slated to come out year-after-year starting in 2013. Gargantuan RPGs with intricate party relationships, romance, political intrigue, branching stories, and world states aren't exactly easy to churn out. So, expectedly, The Veilguard kept slipping past its planned release date, but the deadline was only pushed in "little steps", which meant that BioWare never had a chance to take heed of the entire project and how it was shaping. Ignoring the vitriol from the usual corners of the internet, who complained endlessly that Dragon Age dared to have progressive politics and a diverse cast, something it definitely didn't way back with Origins (it did), the most glaring issue with The Veilguard was how disjointed it felt. Linear multiplayer-esque missions, a weird tonal clash, with assassins essentially reciting 'live laugh love' coffee mantras, companion quests completely separate to the main story, stripped back RPG systems, repetitive quest design, and the pacing coming to a halt after an intro that feels ripped from an entirely different game are all symptoms of the same underlying problem. Considering leadership was stretched thin and BioWare was never given the opportunity to step back and look at the bigger picture, it makes sense that The Veilguard became a chimera of ideas fighting for the spotlight. As Darrah said, "there was never a time when the project was way in the future and things could be brought back, looked back, burned down, and looked at in a brand new light."