Dragon Age: The Veilguard is almost here, and EA says it has good reason to believe it will be a huge success.
During today's quarterly investor call, EA CEO Andrew Wilson attributed his confidence in BioWare's latest to the studio's prowess at creating role-playing games, the lack of competition in the AAA single-player space, and the good reviews.
“When we think about what we have with Veilguard right now, we have a landmark studio at BioWare, we have a landmark IP with Dragon Age, we have a team that took extra time to make sure the world was rich and the characters interesting. and the story was compelling,” Wilson said.
“I think we're entering a market that has limited competition for this category of games, given some of the moves that have occurred in the industry as a whole,” he added, apparently referencing the shift toward live service that's happening in many. AAA. studies, EA included. “And while I think it's too early to predict the outcome, the critical reviews have been incredibly strong. The team feels really energized by what they've delivered. And my sense is that, yes, it has breakthrough capabilities.”
I feel compelled to make a brief note that “incredibly strong” is stretching the reviews of Dragon Age: The Veilguard a bit. Reviews are generally positive, but our 4.5/5 star review is on the higher end of average. It's in 'Generally Favorable' on Metacritic with a respectable Metascore of 84, but it's not even close to being one of the most well-reviewed games of the year.
Otherwise, Wilson's logic seems sound. Metaphor: ReFantazio and Silent Hill 2 Remake are AAA single-player games that came out recently, but they are in very different genres than Dragon Age: The Veilguard. And it's definitely also true that BioWare is a beloved studio whose name alone will draw players to Veilguard, but as Wilson himself said, it's too early to say whether it meets or exceeds expectations.
Find out which BioWare games made our list of best role playing games.