Dragon Age 4 has undergone more than one concept change, and it may be the last reboot the Andrew Wilson-led publisher regrets.

We’ve already heard (and written) that Electronic Arts pointed the finger at two games for underperforming. One of them was Dragon Age: The Veilguard, and both Andrew Wilson, the publisher’s CEO, and Stuart Canfield, Electronic Arts’ Chief Financial Officer, made statements about it in their quarterly reports. The bottom line is that they regretted reworking the concept to a simple single-player model, because before the last reboot there was a live service title, and before that there was another single-player adventure…

“Q3 was not the financial performance we wanted or expected. As a leader in global entertainment, we know that great titles – even when developed and delivered with polished execution – can sometimes fall short of our financial expectations. In order to expand beyond core audiences, games must directly address the evolving demands of players who are increasingly looking for shared-world features and deeper engagement along with quality storytelling in this popular category. Dragon Age had a high-quality launch and was well-received by critics and gamers, but it did not resonate with a broad enough audience in this competitive market,” said Wilson.

“Historically, blockbuster storytelling has been the primary way our industry has brought beloved IP to players. The game’s financial performance highlights the evolving industry landscape and reinforces the importance of our actions to reallocate toward our most significant and highest potential opportunities,” Canfield added. They took the live service elements out of the latest Dragon Age when BioWare flopped massively with Anthem, and Respawn showed that there IS a demand for single-player games with Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.

Although the concept of live service was not named, Wilson’s comment (“shared world features, deeper engagement”) implicitly defined it. Wilson also confirmed that live service accounts for 74% of Electronic Arts’ business. As reported in the publisher’s Form 8-K, Electronic Arts earned $7.347 billion in calendar year 2024; of that, $5.449 billion came from live services and other businesses… and it’s telling that Canfield mentioned blockbuster storytelling in the past tense.

There’s just one small caveat: Dragon Age: The Veilguard did not have a live service. But the other game that underperformed was EA Sports FC 25. The game, which used to run under the FIFA license, was the first to use the live service model…

Source: PCGamer, Electronic Arts