'Dragon Age: The Veilguard' Game Director Evades Question About Sales, Says Getting The Game Made Was A "Miracle"
The Dragon Age: The Veilguard Game Director, a man who pretends to be a woman and uses the name Corinne Busche, completely evaded a question about the game’s sales figures and instead claimed just making the game was a “miracle.”
In an interview with Eurogamer, Busche was asked, “How has the commercial response to the game been? I've seen stories about sales and they seem mixed - inconclusive. The game seems to be doing okay but struggling to keep pace with Inquisition before it. Has it been a success from your point of view - how do you measure that?”
Busche replied, “There's three axes we can measure this by: what the team was able to do and put together - the pride that they can take in that; every game that is made, especially in the triple-A space where you're talking hundreds of developers, timelines, is a miracle. That they executed at quality: internally we consider that a success.”
He continued, “We're very happy with the critical reception to the game. It's not common to have these challenging development cycles and have a team turn around and receive the critical reception that it did. In fact, in a lot of ways, that is the harder path to take. So yeah, we're quite proud of the critical reception.”
Finally, Busche stated, “Unfortunately on the sales side, that's not something we can really discuss, but of course as we know with Inquisition, that was a long burn to get to those total sales numbers.”
READ: 'Dragon Age: The Veilguard' Facebook Group Bans Laugh Reacts
While Busche completely evaded the question about the game’s commercial success, later in the interview, he seemed to indicate the franchise does not have a future moving forward.
When asked why there won’t be an expansion or DLC, Busche said, “The decision was ultimately made that we wanted to take the approach of making this the most complete, contained, start-to-finish story that could deliver some of those answers and present new mysteries.”
Creative Director John Epler shared a similar thought while comparing the game to Inquisition and its Trespasser DLC, “The difference in The Veilguard is the story ends pretty conclusively. There is, obviously, a secret post-credits scene, but that's less of 'here is an immediate thing that you now need to be aware of', and more 'here's a hint as to what the future will be'.”
He then added, “A lesson that I've learned: don't ever try to make a direct sequel to a game 10 years later, because, oh my gosh, that is a challenge.”
At the end of interview, both Busche and Epler were asked, “Is there a future for the series, and then secondly, if there is, what might it look like? There are those who want it to go back to its CRPG roots, and there are those who know it as a more action-like game. Which way do you turn?”
Busche responded, “There's so many stories left, so many mysteries left unsolved, so I'll leave that for what it is.”
“As for what the next iteration becomes, what that looks like, what style of game that is: well as I said, it's a franchise of reinvention. In some ways there are some parallels in that regard, to say, the Final Fantasy series,” he continued. “Of course, very different in terms of choice and consequences, and so many other factors, but there are those RPG franchises that embrace that reinvention, that when a new one gets announced, it really piques your curiosity about where are we going to go? What kind of adventure is this going to be? So again, I will remain of the point of view that it [Dragon Age's ability to reinvent itself] remains our greatest challenge and our greatest opportunity.”
Epler added, “There's lots of stories I still want to tell in this setting. There's a lot of threads that - we answered a lot of questions in Veilguard but I think we also planted a few new seeds, and new thoughts and threads. I just love the franchise. I love the storytelling and I love the characters in it, and I am just excited to, ideally, keep telling stories in this world.”
Interestingly enough, Busche’s comments about the game getting made being a “miracle” echo what Concord’s Lead Character Designer Jon Weisnewski said about the game after it was announced the game was getting shut down less than two weeks after release.
Weisnewski wrote on X, “To all the players who showed up for Concord: thank you. The positivity and constructive feedback in the face of overwhelming noise was huge for everyone at Firewalk. Building a positive community was why we did this. We saw you. Every stream, post, thread, emoji, we saw it all.”
He then added, “Firewalk is packed with tenacious fighters. Multiple acquisitions, an engine upgrade (UE 4 > 5), global pandemic, project delays… The fact we shipped at all is legendary. None of us know what’s next but I do know this team is capable of WILD ENERGY when faced with a challenge.”
What do you make of Busche and Epler’s comments?