Dragon Age The Veilguard Underperformed According To EA - Luke Reacts

[@marron5272]

Skill up said it best “the whole game feels like HR was in the room the entire time”

[@TheMetalfreak360]

Yeah. Never heard a better way to say how this game feels like. And I think that comparison is gonna be used for more games coming out in the pipeline going forward.

[@guillermovergara6566]

I love how that quote just caught on, you see it brought up in many videos regarding DAV, it's so accurate.

[@Isaygoodday5]

​@@guillermovergara6566it just speaks so clearly to the feeling people have when they hear that kind of dialogue

[@aivreescend7945]

I think the KZbinr Whitelight predates it with his Spiderman 2 review saying the dialogues were written as if HR is always in the room, none of the characters there speak like normal people

[@RockerBoy20045]

Oh god my whole life I'm going to hear that quote being requoted by someone for upvotes. FML

[@Bignuke87]

EA is moving the goalposts. Theres no way they only expected 3 million sales

[@F34RDSoldier805]

They said at one point they were expecting around 10 million because Inquisition sold 12 million, so they absolutely moved the goalpost. Maybe not at launch, but at this rate, Veilgaurd won't make nearly 10 million sales in 10 years. People are already moving on from Veilgaurd, except those who were still huffing copium in the subreddit.

[@Bignuke87]

@F34RDSoldier805 imagine telling investors in an earning call that your game missed sales targets by 90%/only met 10% of expectations 😅

[@raruterofegb]

Didn't inquisition sell like 2 or 3 millions the first month or year? Lmao they didn't even reach that and never will with Veilguard

[@joshuacook6185]

I thought it was 3 million at launch (within the month). Maybe I'm wrong idk. Not defending the game btw. I loved the others but couldn't do the inclusivity

[@FredericoASousa]

That's exactly what I thought. When the news came out I was surprised they had a more or less sensible goal of 3M (obviously, it was still way off, but it was more belivable). Knowing how high AAA budgets that also have a turbulent and drawn out game development (like DV had) demand so much money to be successful, I though they were deluded and expected 10M+. So I was kinda surprised. But after thinking about it, they for sure had a goal MUC higher than 3M, but now are saying it was that because it's much better to say they missed the goal by 50% than saying they missed it buy 85%

[@casualviewer111]

Whaaat?? Nooo... impossible... who could've seen this coming?

[@nidavelliir]

Definitely not Jason Schreier

[@blairowens8912]

The fact he switched social media platforms meant this dude really believed in it. I find that insane. These people are in some crazy bubbles.

[@thefallenvalley4340]

@@nidavelliirHe owned us chuds

[@lukeyguyy]

Jason & other media people

[@kalecraft8906]

I mean people on the internet love to tell you that Veilguard isn't really that bad. It's just kinda mid but still fun, or something. They'll then accuse you of only hating the game because creators like Luke and Skillup told me to

[@SpitfireSpud]

The "engaged" as you mentioned could also be people who tried it via Game Pass or EA Play/EA Play Pro.

[@iaqh]

Iamepass doesn't even have that much peopIe to make a significant impact.

[@ian-flanagan]

Didn’t some people also get it free with a graphics card purchase?

[@Gungrave123]

also 5h free trial on EA pass regular..

[@RusticRonnie]

@@ian-flanaganyeah, and that GPU sold more than they have engaged. So many got it free and still didn’t play it. The number should be double.

[@thefearmakerlive]

No one got it on Gamepass.

[@yuyeastray3541]

Remember the game also got a 40% off discount one month after its release, guess it didn’t make that much of difference.

[@xer_7438]

I thought that was a scam, so I avoided it and pretended it wasn't there.

[@greed-1914]

It still is discounted. I think $40 is just its new price.

[@AerynWalk]

remember Luke praised this game

[@ForgorenWolf]

christmas sale

[@r.e.z9428]

@@yuyeastray3541 Still wasnt worth the money.

[@rodrigoferreramenezes5274]

To me, the game was afraid to be mean. Like why is so hard to be a meanie here, while i can be a complete monster in Baldur's Gate 3.

[@r.e.z9428]

I wish that was the only problem but just looks at the therapy-session writing and that you answer. It's unfair to even compare BG3 because it just makes Veilguardn look so much worse on every front.

[@Simp_Supreme]

​@@r.e.z9428tbf, Mass Effect 2 (which Veilguard clearly is heavily inspired from) and BG3 basically have you playing a therapist. The difference is that I can be a massive dick in one game while the other let's me straight kill my patients 😭 Karlach has trauma from her time in Avernus? a good wallop to the cranium will fix that 😭😭😭

[@terrnoisrp8894]

@@r.e.z9428BG3 need to be the new standard for RPG games, at least if you a triple A company. No one wants to pay the same price for less quality

[@caseyblankenship987]

I agree with the above who wants to play a fantasy game with cute graphics tons of purple and non binary chest scars coming out to parents. Even the warrior armor looked like it came from a fashion show. Nothing dark or gritty or manly about the game

[@Th1sUsernameIsNotTaken]

@@r.e.z9428 comparing nearly anything to veilguard makes it look worse. Look at choices you can do in DA1 compared to it.

[@TheGrethor]

They have essentially disneyfied Dragon Age

[@MEshaoWords]

The best description 🤜🏻🤛🏻

[@whoisthis7151]

Wokeness kills everything it touches

[@eduardobenassi3072]

And it has transformers

[@GameScholarz]

Ah BioWare. How the mighty have fallen 😢

[@Sierraone1]

bioware fell 10 years ago.

[@Cj-xl3jv]

@@Sierraone1 Yeah absolutely, I remember seeing Anthem teasers in like 2017 and thought “oh god, this looks like a game about nothing”

[@Mookie994]

Boring game play, awful writing, awful marketing, attempts to control reviews. They did not know who is target audience so they tried to make it for old fans and to use it as a reset for settings. And it ended up being for no one. No wonder it bombed this hard.

[@TheDirtysouthfan]

1.5 Million isn't bombing that hard tbh. It's way better than SSKTJL, Concord and the other high profile failures. For all the failures of last year though, it certainly wasn't one of the worst. It had some cringy storylines, but the game ran smoothly with few bugs. You can see the team behind it still has potential, it just needed better direction.

[@Paradox-es3bl]

They didn't make it for old fans, though? That's the problem. Origins is everyone's favorite for a reason, and it's more like Snyder's BvS than "Josstice League" but they went even more Disney with this.

[@gord3588]

⁠@@TheDirtysouthfan”game had few bugs and ran smoothly” That’s kind of a low bar to set the game for. You may as well say “it boots up with no problem so already a 7/10”

[@TheDirtysouthfan]

@@gord3588 I don't mean it's 7/10, but to release a AAA game on time without any major game breaking bugs is huge. How many games over the past ~10 years have had such releases? Arkham Knight, the internets baby, had a horrible PC launch. Suicide Squad didn't even work on the first day. Skull and Bones didn't work, the Star Wars game from last year was buggy as hell, even the last few Bioware releases like Anthem and Andromeda were disasters a launch. I could go on but you get the point, it's not easy to launch a game without major game breaking bugs day 1, that feat in itself likely took hundreds of hours. Or put it like this, when it comes to coding, building the design and making it function at the most basic level is the easy part, the hard part is fixing all the bugs and making sure it doesn't crash. That easily takes up the majority of your time.

[@gord3588]

@ I understand what you mean, and it’s good that it seemed to launch fine, but it’s sad that expectations for games nowadays are low that launching something that isn’t horribly buggy is seen as above par

[@bigt72gmc]

This game was made by people that need therapy

[@ueg3618]

This game was made by people who need to be diagnosed as mental illness just like every other mental illness. There's no shame in having a mental illness. Alot of people do myself included. Takes one to know one and these people certainly fall under that category.

[@KieranHamilton-y7s]

@@ueg3618LOL not everyone s retärded just because you are

[@TheMelancholicWriter]

I just couldn’t believe when the Taash chick is obsessed with getting respected for her identity, but, then she’s racist af & refuses to accept other people’s identities! Like holy shit this game had no writers. It had tumblr fanfic kids they couldn’t stop or say no to because it’ll get turned into a phobic cancellation 😊

[@GothPaoki]

3 million expected copies?Is this the same company that expected 5 million copies from dead space remake??? They're absolutely on gaslighting mode.

[@RenegadeVash]

The original expected sales was actually 10 million which is more in line with typical standards. 3 million is the expected LIFETIME sales based on current sales projections over the next 5+ years. Based on estimates of cost they needed over 4 million minimum to break even. So by all metrics this game is a complete flop with loss of over $50 million dollars at the low end and potentially 100-200 million loss Luke is covering for them a bit in that department.

[@Chibicat2024]

@@RenegadeVash lol he is. The general budget was about 200+ millions (250 likely more). They were expecting vastly more than 5 million by now. I guess the chuds won again.

[@kieragard]

My guess is lying to shareholders since they're not gamers.

[@ProbeAway]

@@RenegadeVash the 3m referenced here was their expectation for the first couple of months, not lifetime. There’s no way they ever expected 10m in that period. Not even EA is that clueless lol

[@TheNightman.]

@@ProbeAway they released this game, they are that clueless

[@hakuhyo174]

Yet some people were arguing on this very channel saying Veilguard sold great… lol it was so obvious 😂

[@RaccoonBrigade]

I'm convinced most of those people were bots. I see no one defending this game in comments like I did around launch

[@majorgwedgie]

I think "engaged" is mostly a change in language to account for subscription players

[@TheMetalfreak360]

Yeah no doubt. They use a lot of dubious wording to be as vague as possible. Just hearing the investor calls tells you these people have no idea what people actually think. Or they gaslighted themselves to an insane degree that they believe their own farts at this point. They can just be ignoring the facts on the ground. I dunno how these people have a job tbh.

[@majorgear1021]

Engayged :)

[@Jakee2121]

Bioware died 10 years ago, It's time to finally let it go.

[@greed-1914]

Engaged is a word that an online game uses for how many people downloaded or made an account. The only "engagement" that matters for a single player game is the copies sold.

[@deathsyth8888]

The people at BioWare who worked on 'Dragon Age: The Veilguard' knew they were screwed once 'Balder's Gate 3' came out to stellar critical & user reviews and incredible sales in the multi millions.

[@p5satanael]

they were screwed before it even came out, this isn't the same situation than inquisition being saved from witcher 3 by coming out beforehand, not even close

[@Dumbledoresarmy13]

Yeah, they probably were screwed before it came out. After all, they made the first 2 Baldur's Gate games as well as Dragon Age. So, Larian stole a series out from under them while they were trying to appease EA with some live service slop design trends and HR approved writing.

[@johnnyzero8853]

How is it that you’re “role playing” if your character is too nice no matter what dialogue choice you pick?

[@KieranHamilton-y7s]

It wasn’t any different in Origins. Get a new narrative. They’ve all been debunked

[@Dumbledoresarmy13]

I think it still qualifies as an RPG, like, many JRPGs lack choices, or have very understated or few choices, they're mostly on rails. But the issue is its not a BIOWARE RPG. We expect their signature dialogue choices and choices that effect the world state and endings and whether our companions are buddies or hate us so much they leave the party.

[@frankieb9444]

@@KieranHamilton-y7s DA:O allows you to kill teammates you smooth brain

[@Arctis326]

You are role playing as the established Rook in this story, that has a predetermined narrative. Now it doesn’t give you the freedom of choice like like bg3 but you are technically role playing in this game

[@EdWedgie]

IS THERE A SINGLE PERSON AT EA THAT ACTUALLY PLAYS VIDEO GAMES

[@MaTtRoSiTy]

This game was such a free win too, the IP had such a massive value and was essentially a licence to print money. However yet again, ideologues infested the studio and completely destroyed the game and their colleagues future employment

[@Sunshinus]

To be fair, dragon age is one of the less mainstream franchises. Yes, it was well respected, but still somewhat niche. The real money printing machine should be Mass Effect, or rather would be if bioware didn't go to shit.

[@distruttle3045]

@@Sunshinusdragon age had one of the largest engagements and interest of the year of 2024 in gaming before it came out wdym. Also if a game is great such as wukong, bg3 etc. it will sell. Dragon age look boring and bland and like the poster said is filled with cringe ideologies

[@Gyuribacsik]

I like Veilguard. Mass effect same dialogs

[@timothymurphy7669]

​@@Sunshinus The previous entry won game of the year

[@RansomMemoryAccess]

@@Sunshinus Dragon Age is one of the less mainstream franchises? DA: Inquisition, (undeservedly) won game of the year and has alone has sold more than the entire Mass Effect franchise put together.

[@PatrickBellWebDev]

My wife got into Dragon Age Inquisition as her first game after learning to play games through Hogwarts Legacy. She was infinitely excited for Dreadwolf and then when Veilgaurd was shown, she wasn't overly stoked with the direction change. She's now 75% of the way through Veilguard and has decided to give up and play Witcher 3 instead.

[@1957DLT]

Witcher 3 is always a solid choice.

[@CherryJuli]

Me too but I gave up a few hours into the Witcher 3. It’s kinda boring. 😅

[@chilihunter7392]

I love Dragon Age: Inquisition

[@r.e.z9428]

@@PatrickBellWebDev She should try Origins and 2 as well.

[@wreckyourself1982]

@@CherryJuli If you didn't get to The Bloody Baron please give it another try, it gets sooo much better from there!

[@Murbz]

The problem is that even if ME4 is a 10/10 people are going to be cautious about it because Andromeda, Anthem and now DAV. I also don't think Bioware is going to change anything after DAV. I think they're going to soldier on and hope that by doing their own thing and ignoring their fans, things will just work out.

[@Byrvurra]

Yep you're only as good as your last game. Bioware built up its reputation over years, not because of a single game, but a single game can certainly destroy that reputation, and they've put out a couple of lackluster flops already. Bioware doesn't really deserve it's old reputation anymore and should expect to be spending the next decade rebuilding a new reputation at this point. It's going to take 2-3 solid games which resonate with players to do it.

[@CherryJuli]

I think Andromedas reputation has gotten a bit better over the years.

[@urty24]

This is 100% true. Andromeda was the last game I preordered and the reason I will never preorder a game again. I’m hoping ME4 is good but I will definitely be cautious.

[@r.e.z9428]

@@CherryJuli Not because its good, its just worse trash has come out. One thing I will give Andromeda is that it at least leaves the original trilogy alone narratively. While Veilguard takes all our decisions from Origins, 2 and Inquisition and throws them in the dumpster. They also took the lore apart and stitched it up with their awful retcons and additions. Basically , they pulled a 343 but worse.

[@madmonkeys88]

​@@r.e.z9428Andromeda was just a disappointing game in basically every field but combat, but wasn't otherwise offensive to people I believe. It was mediocre in fields that mass effect was fantastic in and let down basically everybody. But looking back on it it is a fun game for what it was, can't say the same about DAV or anthem sadly.

[@Byrvurra]

My guess is it actually sold ~600K copies. Anyways Corinne Bush was really trying to sell the idea that she left of her own accord, but this information coming out right after makes that hard to believe. At best Corinne could see the writing on the wall, and decided to get out on her own terms before everything went sideways. There's just no way DA's poor sales performance wasn't a factor in Bush's departure.

[@Behr-j8t]

Please stop enforcing delusions by calling men “her/she”. It’s over.

[@XxfieryfirexX]

It's a dude. Not "she"

[@AerynWalk]

"his" i dont give a fck about this pronounce shit! he destroyed my franchise

[@CherryJuli]

They probably asked her to leave on her own accord or they will make her leave and she chose the first option.

[@TheNightman.]

@@CherryJuli HE got fired

[@saidalamry125]

I still remember when luke refused to acknowledge that the game was a sales flop by looking at the steam numbers even though it was very clear. The game barley peaked at 90k while even aromred core 6 peaked at 140k and that game only sold 3m units after a year.

[@enoughisenough4-d3h]

You didn't need to look at the Steam charts to know Failguard was going to...well, fail 😂. Also, looking at the Steam Charts is not something reliable either, and in that regard I agree with Luke. Resident Evil 2 Remake got a peak of 70k players only, and it sold 12 million copies (or more?). The player peak is even lower than Veilguard. So, the Steam charts are not a given. And people will interpret them as their convenience.

[@jcflores1774]

He said it didn't flop in a way Bioware would shut down.

[@gord3588]

@@enoughisenough4-d3hagreed. It doesn’t take into account people who played on console or through another launcher

[@CherryJuli]

Well, but he was right that you can’t just look at one platform if it’s a game being sold on many platforms and also as physical copies. It doesn’t really paint a clear picture.

[@Ashbrash1998]

Can we call it a flop just because it didn't do crazy numbers? On one platform? It's not like Concord or Kill the Justice League.

[@joshuadavis2175]

The way my jaw stayed in the exact same spot.

[@theodorehodbor5080]

Honestly at this point I'm just hoping for another BG3 scenario where Bioware goes bust then like 10+ years later EA gives the Dragon Age and Mass Effect IPs to an indie studio of veteran devs that proceed to turn lead into gold with them.

[@enoughisenough4-d3h]

Hmph, even if that happens, I don't think many people would care anymore. 10 years waiting for Veilguard (and look at what we got) was enough. It's over for Dragon Age, and potentially over for mass effect. The situation with BG3 is very different because people were younger by the time BG1 and 2 were released, just like with Dragon Age Origins. Now most of the fandom for those games has gotten older. Waiting 10 years for another Dragon Age is just useless at this point.

[@FloripesTavares]

Do you really think that most people that played BG3 even know about BG1 and BG2? They werent Sales sucess lop

[@p5satanael]

dragon age veilguard damaged the franchise as a whole, it damaged the lore, it damaged the writing, it damaged how believable it is.... only way to salvage it is a straight up reboot, and NOT by bioware, definitely not and it's a diehard fan telling you this, it's THAT bad

[@enoughisenough4-d3h]

@@FloripesTavares and that may be true. But also BG3 is very disconnected from past BG games. So if current Dragon Age fans expect the miracle of another Dragon Age game in 10 years at best, then keep in mind that it will be a total clean slate, it will have nothing to do with past games, and will focus on a totally different audience. Very similar to Veilguard, and with more justification now. But this story that we have followed since Origins was killed by Veilguard.

[@ghostofalltime4934]

Yeah I like Thedas and all but you could easily just make a new fantasy setting

[@jassibella5415]

After listening reading that poor excuse for Q&A that John Epler and Corinne Busche did. Its very clear as to why dragon age veilguard flopped hard. The two of them do not have a clue and they need to be far awy from ME and never touch Dragon age again. There were so many things that got scrapped after most of the Bioware team got laid off and what was left were those to idiots. During the Q&A they either couldn't answer the questions fans had about the lore or completely made up stuff because they didn't know. EA sucks because of the layoffs but its clear the game didn't do well because the two had no idea what to do with the game and basically cut everything out from the original storyline but they fought to keep that stupid arena in the game that nobody plays.

[@JMel2012]

There's also the free character creator. I bet that was counted in the 1.5 million.

[@greed-1914]

I am certain it did. They chose to avoid the word "sold" even though that is the only thing that matters for a single player game.

[@matthewlongo6404]

Everyone told you this game would bomb. Everyone told you they don't like this crap. You didn't listen. Stop.

[@iaqh]

The game is underrated, the characters were fun, sorry if you only Iike edgy characters.

[@akiramurakami3177]

@@iaqh Good for you if you like the game. The majority of us dont. Simple

[@iaqh]

@@akiramurakami3177 1.5 miIIion isn't a smaII number

[@kellywilson137]

@@iaqh Clearly EA the publisher doesn't know DA:Veilguard like you do. You right Big Win.

[@SeventhheavenDK]

​​​@@iaqh. For gaming it is a small number. BG3 had minimum 10 million players. Also, fyi that doesn't mean the 1.5 million liked the game. I was one of those 1.5M, I even finished the game (I had to force myself) and I definitely didn't like the game. Totally the opposite, after the ending credits I was left with a sense of guilt and revulsion for having contributed to the sales of that abomination called Veilguard. Bad game overall, and worst Dragon Age ever, a total disrespect to the franchise. 🚮/10.

[@beerasaurus]

If they artificially inflated sales numbers that means they hit less then 50%

[@BaggyBitesGames]

But I was told by the internet that the game is actually great and sold well with high review scores and had good writing

[@martymcfly88mph35]

Redditors love to cope

[@r.e.z9428]

@@martymcfly88mph35 That is an understatement, even fans of the game who still had criticisms were crucified.

[@DeShawnMcDonald]

Same thing with hogwarts legacy, a certain protected class will lie and start disinformation campaigns all because for them everything most be good for their cult

[@majorgear1021]

I was told that if I didn’t buy it that I was a bigot.

[@h2ohero739]

The "engaged" number makes me question the sales even further. If you had 1.2 or 1.4 million sales I think that would be more impressive than 1.5 mil "engaged". Beyond the financial damage, Veilguard has sunk Bioware's reputation again. It was tarnished with Anthem but this was supposed to be a return to form. The public perception at large is the game wasn't good, so this does damage to both the Bioware and Dragon Age brands. The new Mass Effect is now in question for both consumers and EA internally. Just a sad time for old school Bioware fans tbh

[@Axterix13]

Well, I think if they are pushing their subscription service and such, then it makes sense to use "engaged". But I will say that with a big caveat. If the sales were good, they'd obviously mention that. And if the impact on the subscription service was good (retention increase, high percentage of subs checking out the game, spike in new subs), that too would be mentioned. That neither of these things were mean that both were likely lackluster, and they lumped it together because 1.5m sounds more impressive than 2 smaller numbers (say 1.2m sold and 0.3m subs playing it). Plus by making it brief, they can move on to other things, things designed to make investors not worry quite so much about this massive disappointment of a game.

[@Arizona-ex5yt]

We should rejoice when bad products fail. Think of the alternative. What if this trash was a huge hit? What then? Failure is how the market course corrects.

[@lilBugger35]

I rebought Dragon Age Origins on GOG around that time. I feel like they counted that too. lol

[@GothPaoki]

It's a game about choices in which there are basically no choices..

[@MisterMonsterMan]

They were looking for 10 million + the day they green lit this in the board room. There is no way they expected it to sell less than Inquisition.

[@enoughisenough4-d3h]

Inquisition sold 10+ million in 10 years, not at launch. Don't exaggerate 😂.

[@jcflores1774]

They green lit it like 4 different times though.

[@youtubenewsreview7365]

​@@enoughisenough4-d3hMost of the sales of ANY game is at launch 😅 ...ask any game dev. First year of sales is almost all your sales

[@MisterMonsterMan]

@@enoughisenough4-d3h Sure, it also sold a heck of a lot more than 3 million in its launch window. Lets not exaggerate the other way either.

[@enoughisenough4-d3h]

@@MisterMonsterMan and I am not debating that. Failguard is a flop, nobody denies that. But the people comparing the 10 million sales that Inquisition did in 10 years (especially when that game is at 80-90% discount most of the time and was available in 3 different console generations + PC, and also had the GOTY boost to attract clueless normies) with the Failguard's 3 months is also just exaggerating for the sake of mere sensationalism. 😂 In any case, it isn't so far fetched to think EA expected less sales than Inquisition (tho not enough to be considered a flop, of course). Why? Because the last Dragon Age game happened 10 years ago. Simply because of that alone.

[@johncarver357]

a series that started as basically a grimdark fantasy, now manned by 'writers' and 'creators' that are too afraid to have the characters be 'mean' or the world 'too dark'...the jokes write themselves

[@GRiznitDShiznit]

It's sad that we gotta celebrate a once beloved franchise's downfall. It's music to my ears to hear this game fail.

[@SeventhheavenDK]

I don't celebrate it. I disliked Veilguard completely. But for me, this is not a win. A win would bad been to have a good dragon age game.

[@GRiznitDShiznit]

@ and the obvious thing to do would be to make a good Dragon Age game to begin with. The only explanation is at least 90% of BioWare team that made them great are gone. Inquisition wasn't even good, but failguard makes it seem like a masterpiece.

[@KieranHamilton-y7s]

That’s cause you’re a rêtard.

[@KieranHamilton-y7s]

@@GRiznitDShiznitThey made a good one. You just need for accept that it’s not for you. It

[@GRiznitDShiznit]

@@KieranHamilton-y7s Aw yes, unbeatable "It's good it's just not for you." Argument. By that logic there's no such thing as a bad game, and FFXIII should've been "Best Game that's just Not for You" of the year award.

[@TheDeanthedon]

Once again I will never understand how a company driven seemingly only by profits doesn’t give the consumers what they want 😂

[@r.e.z9428]

Nothing will be learned from this and the reasons for its failures will be ignored. It was the customers, EA, anything else that not the devs themselves. The developers couldn't be at fault for putting out slop, impossible. Next up on the chopping block is Mass Effect Exodus, which I have zero confidence in.

[@MajerHawk]

There’s rumors floating that BioWare will actually be dissolved so there’s that.

[@jackali5014]

@@MajerHawk good

[@TheCrimsonOne508]

@@MajerHawk Good. I don't want them touching Mass Effect.

[@garjian0]

A true return to form for Bioware.

[@Amadeus_A]

Anyone could've told you that. Anyone except Jason Schreier, apparently

[@majorgear1021]

He deleted his tweet pretty quickly

[@AleaIactaEst2015]

It's incredible to me that they actually thought this would be successful. It is as if no one, not the directors, not the writers, not EA, had ever heard of let alone played a Dragon Age game before. The writing is beyond bad with modern language and terms that do not belong in a medieval role playing game. Of course, this game is not even an RPG. There is no choice or agency, just the illusion of choice as everything leads you to the exact same place. There are no real concequesces from past game decisions and previous characters are inserted with no purpose. Even Varric is used as a shock piece to pull an M. Night Shyamalan moment. The tone is rediculously upbeat and was clearly designed as a reboot for a much younger, newer audience. The probelm is that this alienates the original fans of the series; the people that have actually waited a decade for its release. The very people that would have made this game a success...

[@superspreaders1]

I replied the very same thing when this was posted on X. I actually had people aruguing: "You have to buy a game to play it, brü!" But I've worked in retail and know how corps well stretch any number they can to make sales sound better. The trigger word for me wasn't "engaged," which I hadn't seen before your vid, but just the word "players." They would have said "sales" if it was sales. This includes the EA Player subs, promo copies, refunds, shares, etc. It means that the usual figure, "units shipped" (which itself is only just what was sent to stores) must be embarrassingly less than 1.5M. I'm guessing the true, actual sales-to-customer number at far LESS than a million.

[@Xornicus]

"Shut up meg" 😂

[@datemasamune2904]

Funnily enough, they managed the whole coming out of the closet better with Dorian. In Inquisition, he flat out said that his orientation had zero relevancy to their mission, which is why he never revealed himself as gay, until you do his personal quest.

[@TomLarsen74]

I'm really tired of narratives setup like in DA:Veilguard. Other games have shown much more thought and care in their narratives. Setup: THE WORLD IS ENDING!!!! Defeat the bad guys or APOCOLYPITIC OUTCOMES. Critical Mission: Go hang out with friends. Critical Mission: Investigate why someone is sad. Critical Mission: Work as FedEx delivering gifts between a set of villages. There is going to be a big problem if Bioware plans out Mass Effect 5 like this...

[@alderoth01]

To me, it's because they make caricatures of different communities. I'm LGBTQIA+ and NONE of the "representation" that has been made in newer games, other than Baldur's Gate 3, has been real or relatable. It's all after school specials, which never taught us anything lol. It's good to have wishful thinking about the future and to try to be a good person, but people don't use therapy speech when talking to each other. When we end up in confrontations, therapy speech is not used lol. I don't understand any of it at all, and I hope they don't screw up Mass Effect. That would be a real tragedy lol.

[@LukasJampen]

Ah yes "Dragon Age: Therapy Simulator" underperformed drastically? What a surprise, who could have seen that one coming?

[@huggysocks]

I can't wait to play as commander Sheperds therapist in the next mass effect game. You will run beside him and have to choose the right talking points while his NPC is fighting.

[@mrsev765]

I'm surprised it sold what it did. Taking a beloved franchise known for dark, gritty story and turned it into marvel vomit. The audacity of the Devs to preach morals and then trying to hide behind the "we're victims you're all just bigots" just pushed more people away. No one wanted an action focused dragon age game, they wanted strategy, to control the whole team, to make decisions the have a real effect on the world like every game previous in the series (to some extent or another) It's funny because I'd completely forgot about the game until your video popped up. What a shambles of a game, people didn't even want to pirate it despite it being readily available lol

[@Rikard_A]

1:38 If you live in the same houshold why should you buy to copies of yhe same game or the same product. You don't buy two stand mixer. 5:10 The player character is a spectator and I played a Shadow Dragon human male mage. And there is no use of the Last name Mercer or that he lived in Minrathous where my character in an Tevinter Academy for Magic or did the family Mercer hire a mage tutor and there is no Imperial chantry (In the Imperial Chantry Andraste is considered a Mage) and the narrative is so haphazardly put together with Taash as a character talk about being stuck between to cultures then suddenly say she is Non-binary. 5:52 Well I don't care for secscenes in games. The romance should be good whitch it isn't. The lighthouse is never used as part of the main story or the crossroad. Dragon Age was never a multiplayer game and that should be keept away from Dragon Age and Mass Effect.

[@jcruz2255]

"Engaged". Ouch, that bad, huh?

[@gabrielklem48]

You mean the elven gods Elgar'nan and Ghila'nain?

[@Calebyeeepp]

Yep the elven gods, Elgar’nan and Ghila’nain.

[@kstephenson5857]

Wait, the elven gods Elgar'nan and Ghila'nain? The ones released from their prisons? That Elgar'nan and Ghila'nain?

[@DavidC-fk2wg]

For me this game was done when that stupid trailer dropped that made it look like an overwatch clone.

[@jabloneynophony1875]

Saying "nearly half" is a manipulation. The writer is trying to make it sound like nearly a success. They should have wrote "not even half".

[@kosmosfan01]

Good to know in all these years since Dead Space 2 underperformed in EA's eyes, that they still have these wild expectations for their games even when the writing was already on the wall leading up to release.

[@Tomberculosis-q1i]

I think the message is clear. The sales numbers are shit because they strayed from the path that was layed before them. Diluting the formula until it becomes mush to appeal to more people doesnt work. A strong identity with clear cut goals that align with the customer's expectations is the way to make money. Things are tough people are more frugal than before. They arent willing to waste money on a game that isnt good enough and was never good enough

[@Tomtaylorross]

"engaged " is clearly about people who bought and used services like EA's game pass thing

[@Rieman6000]

Such a shame. BioWare used to be a main player in the video game industry.

[@Byrvurra]

7:40 Remember when 'ludonarrative dissonance' was the hot youtube videogame essay topic? I remember many a discussion; for a time you could not escape that term. Feels like that was like a decade ago or something.

[@jasonhare8540]

I've said it before and I'll keep saying it. What I am really annoyed about is what they did to the Qunari. They took a massive intimidating warrior race and turned them into pet goats. Absolutely inexcusable

[@chrism1966]

They should sell all BioWare titles and just stick to gambling I mean madden.

[@Crazy_Gamer_OG]

When I went to school, a 50% success rate was considered a full on *F* grade. So, an *F* grade is good now?

[@RicksGolfHacks]

I remember opting for the old Necromancer dude to forego become a Lich in order to save his skeleton friend. The devs clearly never expected anyone to do that because I never saw the poor little guy again after that. May as well have selected to become a Lich. Pretty ordinary. And boy was it evident that the game had therapy talk in it…..to the point of being super annoying. Very disappointing considering how good the previous Dragon Age was. Hope they sack the Dev leads for the next one, if they even attempt another.

[@heroicgangster9981]

i wonder how the dead space remake succeeded in comparison

[@berkansaygn]

Because it is a remake.

[@NeverLucky1765]

​@@berkansaygn he means numbers wise....

[@RudalPL]

It did because it's a quite faithful remake of a good game that improved upon the original and fixed some issues that the original had. Just look what happened to the franchise after Dead Space 2.

[@filbergik]

I heard someone describe this game as an average or mid-fantasy RPG but a terrible dragon-age game, and I agree. I bought it on a sale out of curiosity, and man, did it leave a bittersweet taste in my mouth. There are a couple of good moments with some of your companions, and the ending is spectacular, but that's it. It doesn't offer enough to compensate for the slog of playing through the rest of the game and enduring its many flaws: Stillted animation, boring acting, pg-13 dialogue, unimaginative side-quests, repetitive combat, visiting the same places over and over again, barely any consequences for your choices, etc... My advice is to only get it on a heavy sale if you're really hungry for a fantasy RPG.

[@alessandrovalleri8968]

You know what? About the characters issues, that's nothing new, of course in every game they had their own problems (and may I add some were much worse than what this group of stunning and brave heroes have to face) but they never said stuff like "If I don't fix my personal issues first I won't be able to complete the mission". I want to know their struggles, I want to know and help the characters but that was insanity

[@Sammo212]

Some things: 1. I CANNOT believe they expected it do only do "50% more"...unless 2. They always expected this game to fail. The budget had to be at least what....90-100 million? There's no concrete proof BUT it had to cost more than Inquisition so I think 90-100 is an OK assumption. 3. If I give them 600,000 sold copies at full price ($70) then that's only 42 million and that's not accurate because some number didn't buy at full price, some people refunded, and I don't think it sold 600,000 total copies even pre-returns. 4. The engaged number would = anyone who touched the game, like you said, so: people who got promo copies, free codes with a product like a video card, Game Pass or other services, etc. At the end of the day EA, much like Ubisoft and other publishers and developers, are tainting their products before they are even released. DA:V getting as high Steam reviews as it does shows that even Steam reviews don't matter and are full of crap.

[@STARSBarry]

More than likely "engaged" means EA Play subscribers who never bought the game but ALSO people who downloaded and used the free DAV character creator demo app. Otherwise they would have said "played" saying "engaged" stretches this even further, hence the demo users who have not "played" the game.

[@martintemplar3620]

I've made my gaming life based on RTS and RPG games, I love games and have played basically every type, many had affinity/friendship systems and massive stakes intertwined. In around 20 years of playing I've only once felt there was a need for a moment to stop and ask me, of all people, (the player's character) if I was doing okay, and that's midnight suns, arguably it is because the campaign is very long and you deal with the shit of many of the heroes you recruit, but it's usually either ingrained in the plot or adjacent to it, you are on an end of the world scenario and you have to kill your own mother to stop it, and even then you just suck it up and be a hero, you can send the midnight suns to kick rocks too iirc because they are arguably entitled brats most of the time tbh. If an rpg ever made me be bffs with my squad to be able to complete the game, I'd hope it's satire or built into that universe's narrative and in character, other than that it would sound like absolute lunacy to me. A good example would be GoTG I guess. I ain't holding my breath for ME, at this point it's a resurrected corpse of an IP and it's their job to prove me wrong because i have a feeling it will have nothing of the trilogy's charm with 10 times as many problems and plotholes.

[@thewh00ster]

GO WOK- you know what, this is just sad, can’t even clown on it anymore.

[@luckyducky7819]

Sad for me because I was just getting into the Dragon Age franchise.

[@r.e.z9428]

​@luckyducky7819 Just play Origins - Inquisition and leave it at that. Just like we do with Mass Effect, ME 1 - 3 and that's it, Andromeda doesn't exist same with Veilguard.

[@MaxIronsThird]

@@r.e.z9428 2 is good as well, just has a lot repetitive areas, the Kunari are so bad ass in it.

[@r.e.z9428]

@@MaxIronsThird Origins - Inquisition means Origins, 2 and Inquisition and I agree. Give me repetitive assets over the botoxed stillborn slop that Veilguard was.

[@Seracen]

The fans knew, of course, but I'm surprised that they already expected to LOSE money on the game even before release (poor PR notwithstanding). Granted, all those resets couldn't have helped, but that's another issue. The whole concept of "measure twice, cut once" never seems to enter into development in the gaming industry of late.

[@sandwich6609]

They failed?? No shit.... Does EA has to say it ? This failed the moment the trailer came out.

[@madarasoun3018]

Most of us knew this. Wokies still tried to tell us it wouldn’t fail. 😅

[@DeShawnMcDonald]

​@madarasoun3018 i think it's mainly the abclgbt cult, these degenerates get so crazy and are the ones kinda running reddit. And there's an actual concerted effort on their part to lie and spin everything regarding troons or weirdos as good so when they see the thing that got made game director or the way it hijacked the lore they will support unconditionally

[@cloverraven]

its "engaged" bc of EA play subscriptions.

[@RudalPL]

The best part will be when some of executives will come to conclusion that they haven't done anything wrong. It's just the players that are not interested in Dragon Age franchise and/or the genre in general so the best course of action will be to return to live service games. Sometimes I wish that the whole industry would collapse so we can have room for new studios and talent to spring out with interesting ideas and actual new games. I'm getting a bit tired of seeing all the remakes and resurrections of old franchises that don't lead anywhere.

[@tman3479]

This game’s development had layoffs, creative visions shifting, and even a wholeass name change. The creative director just left only a few days ago and now we see everything. Not only that, but I fully believe everything in the game was simplified just to fit into the frostbite engine.

[@charliebrenton4421]

Next video, Luke gonna spend 10 minutes explaining that water is wet. Stay tuned!

[@corypham8089]

Im honestly shocked they even sold as much as they did. The only reason why they even got as much as they did is because of the dragonage name

[@cmormino4578]

The “I would’ve bought it if it was good” button

[@scratchbone1092]

Unsurprising. All the marketing and the silence during the years prior to release just allowed them to do whatever they wanted and have no one singing in their ears. I don't think it is a bad game, but it is the weakest Dragon Age. It did not really show anything interesting during marketing, nothing else than a polished, lighthearted RPG. 90% of the people waiting for a new game really wanted anything else to be stellar. I don't know what will become of Mass Effect Next, but I doubt it will be great or released anytime soon... ooof

[@grimreaperx89ify]

This game felt like it was for a niche market. It was not meant for the fans of the last 15 years which was really heartbreaking.

[@AquilesX11]

They made a mockery of their previous games what did they expect ?

[@traviskurtz1244]

It’s crazy how idiots say that transphobia doesn’t exist. Yet when a game comes out with a trans character comes out, ppl hate it due to same…..

[@wiegomyegoo7703]

@@traviskurtz1244nobody wants that shit , deal with it 🤷🏼‍♂️

[@dangeki5902]

Well as someone not blatantly transphobic here I just think even ignoring that the game is still awful. Also I think it may be hard for writers to write in trans characters without it being the most cringe thing.

[@traviskurtz1244]

@ the fact that you think you’re “not” transphobic, shows that ur very transphobic. Do better. Its 2025

[@Riri_734]

Never been to therapy before but DATV makes me want to avoid therapy even more now.

[@superninetails56]

1:46 I think by engagement they mean services like EA play/gamepass.

[@darrensteele3365]

Engaged could mean wishlist.

[@yorhaunit8s]

People keep telling Veilguard is "friendship power simulator" or something, but even My Little Pony has more engaging conflicts between friends, with real problems, disagreements and approaches to solving it. It's just bad writing in Veilguard.

[@VampirezZ4]

Dragon Age Veilguard performed below expectations?!? In other words, the sky is blue.

[@SuperAerie]

Kinda depends on where you live. Havent seen a blue sky in months, lots of grey though

[@kaikira9519]

I played the entire game as i was a fan of the series. It kinda of felt like a spinoff game. Like it just felt very.........one note

[@SaintxNio]

I enjoyed my time with it but even I will admit the official reveal trailer was very telling that BioWare shifted tone in the wrong direction with DA.

[@Rontti_]

This really is a great turn of events. Makes me sad but also happy to see garbage writing causing games to fail. Because that tells studios people do care about good stories, and not whatever brainrot dialogue this game had. Playing this game was just insufferable

[@edwardbrennan3963]

I'll help out EA and buy a copy!..... once its like

[@FrancisYorkMorganFBI]

fc 25 not fully delivering is not suprising. these games are usually played by casuals and normies that don't read industry news. most of them probably looked up fifa 25, saw nothing and moved on. i doubt they knew that EA lost the fifa license.

[@js100serch]

Well, Luke kinda, sort of acknowledged the real problem with the game and the industry as a whole, those were good points, but he didn't commit, didn't go there.

[@dieyng]

What a surprise. Both Bioware and the gaming press were practically straight up lying, telling us how successful the game was.

[@markomejac8172]

Do not forget many paid and sponsored KZbinrs and Twitch streamers that spread false and misleading information to benefit themselves!

[@bitze865]

The best summary I've heard was "it feels like it was written with hr in the room"

[@pedrofraga4366]

Never forget Luke’s video where he was so impressed with the game right before it launched. Sorry to be THAT guy but whatever

[@Jerh1985]

Not just some times but somethings are never worth talking about. If you have trauma over pointless piddly stuff keep it to yourself. If your overly sensitive and worry about everything that is a you problem. If you are terminally ill or lose a family member I'm with you, if you lose all your possession from a natural disaster I'll help you recover. If your feeling hurt because daddy didn't hug you enough or you can't control you impulse so are self destructive then suck it up buttercup. At some point we just need to own up that we are not special that you likely just need thicker skin as you are not owed anything. Given that they decided to put some of this stuff in a game, you've got to be kidding me.

[@reinhard98]

Let's not forget that the game is on EA play PRO, you don't need to pay the full price to play the game

[@majorshepard2]

Yeah. You just need to pay a monthly subscription for dogshit games that a sane person would never pay a cent.

[@aleks9919]

I personally loved it and spent over 100 hrs in this beefy game!