Second BioWare Insider Affirms Disastrous Sales And Huge Refunds For 'Dragon Age: The Veilguard'
Second BioWare Insider Affirms Disastrous Sales And Huge Refunds For 'Dragon Age: The Veilguard'
A second source from inside BioWare or EA has seemingly affirmed the disastrous sales numbers that have been floated for Dragon Age: The Veilguard.
First, YouTuber Endymion claimed the game only sold 500,000 copies total in a little over a week.
In a recent video upload he stated, “This is from my same source that I shared previous Dragon Age pre-order numbers with, which was in my video a few days back. … Apparently, according to them pre-orders for Veilguard were even less than initially thought. I told you in the last video they were roughly 115,000 total pre-orders across all platforms, that’s digital and physical by the way. And new info that my source has now told me that the numbers actually may have been too high. The number that they are hearing from people at EA now is that it was actually between 70 to 75,000 pre-orders in total before release, which is, yeah, not good at all.”
“In total, what I’m told is that Veilguard may have sold overall so far anyway in the 500,000 range, which may sound good to some, but this is completely abysmal for a game of this level,” he added.
Not only did he share that the game’s sales were only around 500,000, but he also revealed that players are “refunding the game in droves.”
Endymion stated, “As I was told by my same source, BioWare’s higher-ups believed the game would sky rocket past 100,000 concurrent players on Steam during launch. It didn’t of course. It only hit 89,000 and has dropped since. Apparently, in terms of the EA subscription service, where you pay a monthly fee to play their catalog of games, which Veilguard is a part of, this offer only ended up pulling in around 20,000 players on Origin as I’m told. Which is hardly anything for a game, that again, needs far more than this to succeed.
“I’m also told, in terms of refunds, that currently the game had at least 30,000 refunds in the past few days, which is not good for your game that has barely sold half a million copies to be hemorrhaging players like this,” he relayed.
He then shared, “So, generally speaking, Veilguard is not a commercial success. It needed to sell around the 4 to 5 million mark to make a profit at least. And, well, it’s not doing that.”
Now, a second insider has informed YouTuber Smash JT that the numbers shared by Endymion are indeed accurate.
Smash JT shared in a recent video, “Dragon Age: The Veilguard sales numbers are leaking out. Between Endymion and myself. I confirmed with a source that the numbers that Endymion had released are accurate. And holy crap are they pathetically low for a very big mass-produced, highly touted, praised to be a great classic adventure that people would love for the ages has turned into what this stuff always does: woke slop that people sniffed out immediately.”
Later in his video, Smash JT stated, “According to YouTuber Endymion, who cited his inside sources, the game had sold fewer than Star Wars Outlaws with reports indicating that only around 500,000 copies had sold so far.”
“And after hearing that news from Endymion I couldn’t help but reach out to a source at BioWare to find out if that was true. And yes, according to them this is confirmed. About 500,000 units have sold through. And they have had plenty of returns too.”
“The numbers cited by Endymion are extremely accurate signaling some seriously troubling times for BioWare and EA for a game of this magnitude,” he said. “A game that was in production and development for nearly a decade.”
Still later, Smash JT also affirmed Endymion’s source regarding the returns.
He said, “On top of Veilguard’s lackluster sales is the alarming rate of refunds. Endymion reported that at least 30,000 refunds had already been processed within just a few days post-launch. My source confirmed that that number is at least that many, which is an insane amount of returns for a game.”
If these rumors are true, it means that EA CEO Andrew Wilson has massive egg on his face as he previously claimed the game had “breakout potential.”
Wilson said during the company’s most recent earnings report, “I certainly think Veilguard has breakout potential. Again, 10 years ago, Dragon Age: Inquisition won Game of the Year and was a very strong performer for us in the conduct of our business. This is entertainment. And so while much of our business has moved to live service moment-to-moment, deliver innovation and creativity for a deeply engaged community over the course of time, this opportunity to bring in incredibly high quality, creative storytelling set in an amazing world with rich characters living out those stories you’re able to capture that moment in entertainment. Success almost certainly follows.”
He explained, “And we see that in the context of movies, and we’re seeing in the context of TV seasons, and we see in the context of video games. When we think about what we have with Veilguard right now, we have a storied studio in BioWare. We have a storied IP in Dragon Age. We have a team that took extra time to make sure the world was rich and the characters were interesting and the story was compelling. I think we are going into a market that has limited competition for this category of game given some of the moves that have happened across the broader industry.”
“And so while I think it’s too early to predict the outcome, the critical reviews have been incredibly strong. The team feels really energized by what they have delivered. And my sense is that, yes, it has breakout capabilities,” he reiterated.
Of note, EA’s Chief Financial Officer Stuart Canfield shared that the company was expecting net bookings for the current quarter to be between $2.4 billion and $2.55 billion.
That will be a number to keep a close eye on for EA’s next financial quarter to see how poorly Dragon Age: The Veilguard truly did especially since EA said it was counting on Veilguard to drive that number along with it EA Sports FC franchise.
What do you make of this second insider affirming the previous poor sales and huge refund numbers? Become a paid member to leave a comment and let us know.
Andrew Wilson isn't the type to take on risk like this. He's far too profit oriented. Something tells me that the funding for Veilgard was completely covered by DEI investors. I doubt EA gave a penny to Bioware to create this game. That's the only way it makes sense for EA to do this after the humiliation they suffered from their Star Wars games.
The modern audience better step up and start bringing in some profits for these woke companies