The development of the fourth main entry in the
Dragon Age series, code-named "Joplin", began in 2015 with
Mike Laidlaw as its creative director. It was intended to be a smaller, more narrative-focused game set in the Tevinter Imperium region of the game's world setting, Thedas.
[18]
Problems with the development of BioWare's other games
Mass Effect: Andromeda and
Anthem led to repeated interruptions as "Joplin" staff was shifted to these games. This included putting "Joplin" on hold in late 2016 with development resuming in March 2017 after
Andromeda shipped.
[18][19] In October 2017, BioWare and its parent company Electronic Arts cancelled "Joplin" altogether, reportedly because it had no room for a "
live service" component to provide
ongoing monetization opportunities.
[18][19]
Development of the game was restarted under the code-name "Morrison" in 2018, this time with a live-service component and based on
Anthem's code.
[18][20] According to
Bloomberg News, after the success of the single-player game
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and the decision to cancel the reworking of the
massively multiplayer online Anthem in February 2021 following its lackluster launch, EA and BioWare decided to remove the planned multiplayer components from "Morrison" and to develop it as a single-player game only.
[21]Alpha-stage footage leaked in February 2023 indicated that the game would use real-time action combat gameplay, influenced by
God of War, unlike previous
Dragon Age games.
[22][23][24] Kotaku opined "it's true that Dragon Age's most dedicated fans aren't here for the gameplay—but they still deserve a gaming experience that doesn't feel like it was grafted from a completely different genre."
[22]
Staff turnover
edit
The project has been marked by a high
turnover of leading staff. Several veteran
Dragon Age staff, including Laidlaw, left the company in response to Joplin's cancellation in 2017.
[18] After the 2018 restart, Mark Darrah remained as an executive producer, while Matthew Goldman took over the position of creative director for the project from 2017 to 2021.
[25] By December 3, 2020, Darrah had resigned from BioWare, replaced by BioWare Austin studio head Christian Dailey as executive producer.
[26] Goldman left BioWare by November 2021,
[20] and was replaced as Creative Director by John Epler.
[27] Dailey left BioWare in February 2022.
[28] Corinne Busche became game director thereafter, Benoit Houle director of product development, and
Mac Walters production director.
[28] Walters in turn left BioWare in January 2023.
[29] In March 2023, Darrah returned as a consultant for the game and the
Mass Effect team joined the production of
Veilguard, according to EA
.[30][31]
In August 2023, BioWare laid off 50 people working on
Veilguard and the next
Mass Effectgame;
[32] this included Mary Kirby who was one of the series' original writers and credited with "creating Varric and the Qunari".
[33] PC Gamer commented "that's not to say there are no veterans of the good old days left, but you're looking at a very different group of people than the one that made the studio's greatest hits".
[33] In October, seven of them sued BioWare for additional compensation, complaining that BioWare's
NDAs prevented them from adding their work on
Veilguard to their portfolio.
[34]
