Mark Darrah, who left BioWare in 2020, argues the studio didn’t have enough top-tier developers in the right places—ultimately to its detriment.

In recent months, Darrah has revisited the issue on his YouTube channel, and in the video below he echoes Dragon Age creator David Gaider, who has long said the fantasy series struggled to secure the resources it needed. While Gaider contended that Mass Effect was EA’s favorite, Darrah says the reality is more nuanced. The core problem, he argues, was BioWare trying to spin too many plates at once. That led to internal “cannibalization”: talent being shuffled between projects again and again, draining the studio.

“We try to do multiple things at the same time. If you look at DICE, they basically focus on one thing at a time—sometimes it goes great, sometimes not so much. Did EA like Mass Effect more than Dragon Age? I think so. Was that why Dragon Age didn’t get the people it needed? I’m less certain. I think it’s more that BioWare’s structure and EA’s fiscal conservatism don’t mesh all that well. Inside EA, you’re better off taking it one game at a time… Battlefield 4 launched and had issues, and DICE invested the time and resources to fix it. The Sims 4 launched and had issues—the same story.”

“Those two studios had nothing else. If Battlefield 4 hadn’t worked, EA would have had to shutter the studio. If The Sims 4 hadn’t worked, Maxis would have been on the brink. If Mass Effect: Andromeda wasn’t working, there were two other projects waiting for those people. EA doesn’t like failure and wants to move on quickly—but what if there’s nothing else to move on to? Then the studio says, ‘No, no, we can fix this.’ Within EA, BioWare is better off focusing on one game at a time,” Darrah said.

He clarified that EA isn’t a “better fit” for DICE or Maxis because it supports them more; rather, it’s because shutting down an entire studio is a massive headache if the flagship project misses. He paints a picture of a multi-project studio scrambling to poach developers wherever possible. In Darrah’s view, that’s why The Sims 4 received years of updates, whereas Dragon Age: The Veilguard will not.

Source: PC Gamer