'Dragon Age: The Veilguard' Game Director Confirms Exit From BioWare

Andrew Busche, the Game Director for Dragon Age: The Veilguard, confirmed he is leaving BioWare.

Busche, who pretends to be a woman and calls himself Corinne, posted to BlueSky, “Well, I suppose you’ve heard… Yes, I’ve made the decision to leave BioWare. I want to encourage everyone not to read too much into this. This was my decision so I could continue making the kind of RPGs you (we) enjoy. Thank you for the outpouring of love and support. You mean the world to me.”

He added in a subsequent post, “Thank you for entrusting me with our dear Dragon Age. It was an honor to be a steward for the franchise, and to play a part in ensuring its continuance. Biggest of shoutouts to the wonderful John Epler without whom I don’t know if I’d have had the fortitude.”

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Busche’s announcement comes in the wake of a rumor from Former World of Warcraft Team Lead Mark Kern aka Grummz and YouTuber Smash JT who shared a leaked email Busche sent to BioWare staff indicating he was leaving.

On top of sharing this leaked email, Kern also noted that BioWare Edmonton will be shut down.

He wrote on X, Corinne Busche, Game Director of Dragon Age Veilguard, has left Bioware and EA. Bioware Edmonton, the Veilguard studio, to be SHUTTERED.”

“The farewell email was shared with me and I verified her leaving with Smash JT’s contacts at EA/Bioware,” he continued. “The rumor that goes with this is that the Edmonton offices of Bioware will be shuttered in February, just before the EA TownHall for investors and gamers.”

“It's sad that after completely destroying the game with DEI trans-scars and terrible characters and writing, that the Game Director responsible for it all bails and leaves everyone else holding the bag,” he added. “These people often fail upwards through a woke studio system bent on promoting activists instead of great developers. Sad.”

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In his coverage of the rumor, Smash JT claimed, “The studio is rumored to be closed as soon as February 2025.”

He added, “A follow-up email from my source within EA adds serious fuel to this ongoing fire. Correspondence from my inside source via their anonymous email stated, ‘Hey Jeff, Corinne is indeed gone. The current rumor is that they will announce the closure of BioWare Edmonton sometime around February just before the Electronic Arts Town Hall, basically when EA talks about what is going on for the last fiscal quarter and what's next.’”

This part of the rumor has been disputed by Giant Bomb’s Jeff Grubb. He wrote on X, “Corrine Busch, director of Dragon Age, really is leaving BioWare. But I don't think EA is closing BioWare Edmonton. Was told there is nothing solid about that part of the rumor.”

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Busche’s exit comes in the wake of Dragon Age: The Veilguard performing poorly commercially.

At the end of December it was reported that Dragon Age: The Veilguard sold worse than Star Wars Outlaws in Europe. Former Games Industry Head Christopher Dring said on an episode of the GamesIndustry.biz Microcast, “Star Wars Outlaws was the 14th best selling new game of the year, but No. 45 over all.”

Next, he stated, “Dragon Age: The Veilguard, which came out at the end of October, that was No. 19 in the best selling new game chart, but was No. 68 overall.”

He would later add during the podcast, “It was Christmas and in terms of AAA blockbuster, the traditional big blockbuster Christmas games, you had Call of Duty, which did well, and you had Dragon Age, which did not. So that is disappointing in that position.”

“Dragon Age had the market to itself and it couldn’t find an audience,” he continued. “And that’s really scary as we move into the following year.”

Steam would also reveal the game was in the bottom half of its Top Sellers Chart for 2024 getting beat by the likes of Hogwarts Legacy, Elder Scrolls Online, and Final Fantasy XIV.

The game only hit a peak concurrent player count of 89,418, which it hit on its first Sunday after release back in November.

Furthermore, when asked about the game’s commercial success by Eurogamer, Busche dodged the question, “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.”

What do you make of Busche leaving BioWare after the commercial failure of the game?

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