Veilguard did flop, and as a loving fan I am concerned, please let me explain.

[Blade]

I'm surprised people still quote sites like meta-critic. Those sites have been long proven to be biased and paid to give games better reviews. Thing is, I'm a Dragon Age fan, and I'm upset. Not because of anything to do with playing the game, but because the game did flop. A whistle-blower announced that the game only sold 500,000 copies the first week and saw 30,000 refunds in a single day, but Bioware countered these claims and announced they sold 1 million copies in the first week. They did not, however, dispute the refunds though. That said, even if we dis-regard the whistle-blowers claims and go with Bioware, the game still had a budget of over 250 million, and for a game of that scale to expect to make a profit anywhere down the line, it would have had to see at least 3-5 million copies in the first week.

This means that while there may be mostly positive reviews and it seems like Veilguard did well from a review standpoint, it did not however do well from a financial standpoint and hemorrhaged money. Bioware executives weren't optimistic, and they didn't want to plan any DLC until they saw how it sold. This means that if more people don't buy the game or give it another chance, we will never see DLC and we also may never see another Dragon Age. It's a scary thought but after Anthem flopped prior to Veilgaurd, Bioware's in a rough spot financially. I personally would really like Bioware to hang around and make another Dragon Age game after this but only time will tell.

Source: https://thatparkplace.com/bioware-is-on-the-hunt-for-dragon-age-whistleblower/

There are a lot of people out there going to reddit and steam forums to express their frustration with this as well. Don't mis-interpret them and call them haters because they love dragon age just as much as you, or they wouldn't be upset. They're upset because they have similar concerns to mine but are expressing and communicating them in a less productive and appropriate manner. We need to come together as Bioware and Dragon Age fans instead of fighting in the steam forums.

[Talfrost]

Lol

[[SiN]Rabbit]

Another one of the hundreds of claims of a 250M budget that is never substantiated.

[Shad]

Originally posted by Talfrost:

Lol

lol

[cjqnsnyc]

Originally posted by SiNRabbit:

Another one of the hundreds of claims of a 250M budget that is never substantiated.

The game began production as "Project Joplin" 10 years ago. It had multiple restarts and several dev left Bioware. That 250 million estimate may not even be the full amount. The development time of the 2 previous starts and the salaries of all the staff wasn't on the house. It must be accounted for and gets folded into the projects budget. Factor in advertisement and marketing costs?

The final budget may actually be well north of $250 million.

[Drakashin]

Originally posted by SiNRabbit:

Another one of the hundreds of claims of a 250M budget that is never substantiated.

It's a easy number to assume. Given that the game has been in development for 10 years, restarted twice, staff coming and going the lowest estimate I've heard is 150M plus whatever they spent on marketing which, for a AAA studio, can double the cost I wouldn't be surprised if it's quite a bit more than 250M.

Look at Stellar Blade for example: 5 year development, 21.5 hour game length, 292 max employees (2023), 30-50M estimated cost.

DAtV: 10 year development with 2 restarts, 30 hour game length, 320 employees (2019), estimated cost (from what I've found) 150M-400M

IMO the nail in the coffin isn't even the analytics as, at this point, it depends on the person looking at the data. The nail in the coffin is that the staff has been pretty much entirely moved to the Mass Effect game and there is no plans for DLC. Do you think that EA wouldn't milk the fans for all they're worth if the game sold well?

[decizion]

9/10 from IGN lol

[[SiN]Rabbit]

Originally posted by Drakashin:

Originally posted by SiNRabbit:

Another one of the hundreds of claims of a 250M budget that is never substantiated.

It's a easy number to assume.


Look at Stellar Blade for example: 5 year development, 21.5 hour game length, 292 max employees (2023), 30-50M estimated cost.

DAtV: 10 year development with 2 restarts, 30 hour game length, 320 employees (2019), estimated cost (from what I've found) 150M-400M

IMO the nail in the coffin isn't even the analytics as, at this point, it depends on the person looking at the data. The nail in the coffin is that the staff has been pretty much entirely moved to the Mass Effect game and there is no plans for DLC. Do you think that EA wouldn't milk the fans for all they're worth if the game sold well?

30 hour? Dude, I appreciate that you gave this a modicum better attempt than the other folks did, but

1) It's not a 30 hour game

2) By the Stellar Blade math, this is like a $100M estimated cost.

It's real extra sus to hold up some math so distinctly different and go "ah, a correlation!"

Having actually played and beaten Veilguard... and now some of ME:Andromeda as well

It's very clear to me that Andromeda got far more care and attention, and budget, than Veilguard. For good and for ill.

[Yürei]

Originally posted by SiNRabbit:

Originally posted by Drakashin:

It's a easy number to assume.


Look at Stellar Blade for example: 5 year development, 21.5 hour game length, 292 max employees (2023), 30-50M estimated cost.

DAtV: 10 year development with 2 restarts, 30 hour game length, 320 employees (2019), estimated cost (from what I've found) 150M-400M

IMO the nail in the coffin isn't even the analytics as, at this point, it depends on the person looking at the data. The nail in the coffin is that the staff has been pretty much entirely moved to the Mass Effect game and there is no plans for DLC. Do you think that EA wouldn't milk the fans for all they're worth if the game sold well?

30 hour? Dude, I appreciate that you gave this a modicum better attempt than the other folks did, but

1) It's not a 30 hour game

2) By the Stellar Blade math, this is like a $100M estimated cost.

It's real extra sus to hold up some math so distinctly different and go "ah, a correlation!"

Having actually played and beaten Veilguard... and now some of ME:Andromeda as well

It's very clear to me that Andromeda got far more care and attention, and budget, than Veilguard. For good and for ill.

https://howlongtobeat.com/game/82090

Depends on what they completed. It can be around a 30 hr game without rushing.

[[SiN]Rabbit]

Originally posted by Yürei:

Originally posted by SiNRabbit:

30 hour? Dude, I appreciate that you gave this a modicum better attempt than the other folks did, but

1) It's not a 30 hour game

2) By the Stellar Blade math, this is like a $100M estimated cost.

It's real extra sus to hold up some math so distinctly different and go "ah, a correlation!"

Having actually played and beaten Veilguard... and now some of ME:Andromeda as well

It's very clear to me that Andromeda got far more care and attention, and budget, than Veilguard. For good and for ill.

https://howlongtobeat.com/game/82090

Depends on what they completed. It can be around a 30 hr game without rushing.

I'm feeling like "Main+" is more accurate, there.

[TheLegendOfMylos]

48.5k people playing BG3 right now. 17.8k playing DAVG

GOTY let's gooooo

[[SiN]Rabbit]

Originally posted by TheLegendOfMylos:

48.5k people playing BG3 right now. 17.8k playing DAVG

GOTY let's gooooo

It's like y'all don't know how to be happy for another's success unless you're trying to use it to crush something else

And it's pity-worthy. Wish you'd be a better person.

[Star Sage]

I mean....are there any other stories to TELL in this universe? We beat the last two arch demons, no more blights(the blight itself is a problem, but without an archdemon we CAN beat it), and other than...that scene, which I am choosing to ignore because it's BS(and the fact that the writer tried to say it doesn't mean what it OBVIOUSLY is saying is just damage control), this franchise is pretty much done. The only maybe question is who specifically made the Qunari with dragon souls into humans, and even that's an 'we don't remember' answer in one of the books, and an answer that doesn't matter since the one who did it was either killed or sealed(either one of the magisters or one of the gods)

[[SiN]Rabbit]

Originally posted by Star Sage:

I mean....are there any other stories to TELL in this universe? We beat the last two arch demons, no more blights(the blight itself is a problem, but without an archdemon we CAN beat it), and other than...that scene, which I am choosing to ignore because it's BS(and the fact that the writer tried to say it doesn't mean what it OBVIOUSLY is saying is just damage control), this franchise is pretty much done. The only maybe question is who specifically made the Qunari with dragon souls into humans, and even that's an 'we don't remember' answer in one of the books, and an answer that doesn't matter since the one who did it was either killed or sealed(either one of the magisters or one of the gods)

They still have a lot of room to explore, really. Some of the core mysteries were revealed, some of the latent antagonists were brought forth, more danger still exists.

The blight, before the gods were unleashed, was barely a fraction of its full self, and with the release of the gods it's still... just a fraction. There's grim machinations in play that clearly seek to truly free the blight, fully.

Originally posted by Orkhepaj:

clearly this new audience cant sustain aaa games
time to change the devs to produce those rpg maker coomer games what the modern audience loves the most, and let classic devs make the expensive games

The classic devs are already making the expensive games, though.

[Drakashin]

Originally posted by Star Sage:

I mean....are there any other stories to TELL in this universe? We beat the last two arch demons, no more blights(the blight itself is a problem, but without an archdemon we CAN beat it), and other than...that scene, which I am choosing to ignore because it's BS(and the fact that the writer tried to say it doesn't mean what it OBVIOUSLY is saying is just damage control), this franchise is pretty much done. The only maybe question is who specifically made the Qunari with dragon souls into humans, and even that's an 'we don't remember' answer in one of the books, and an answer that doesn't matter since the one who did it was either killed or sealed(either one of the magisters or one of the gods)

I mean one I can think of off the top of my head is why is the Maker's throne empty? Yes, Solas (or was it Corypheus) says that the 'Maker' doesn't exist, yet there is a throne in the golden city indicating that something was there and that it seems to be older than the Elven gods. They also shut down a lot of potential DLC/storylines with how they only took 3 questions that had to deal with DA:I in the world state. And DLC doesn't even have to take place after end game, they could have added a mission(s) where you take control of the Inquisitor/Morrigan to go do something related to this game's objective, or added missions to show the fate of Ferelden from DA:O or the city from DA2.

[Nitro]

9k players right now, less than a month after releasing, with a peak of 22k... 111 in the most played list... couldn't even reach 90k in the "all time online"... for a franchise like DA? Whoever calls this a success is clearly looking the world through the wrong lens (meaning they choose to believe whatever they want to believe instead of hard data)