EA Seems To Think That Live Service Would Have Helped Xbox RPG Dragon Age: The Veilguard

Did they literally just ask a magic 8 ball if live service would of helped because that's how it seems to come to that conclusion!!

I haven't played DA: Veilguard, but I have zero hope that ME5 is going to be good.

@FarmDog08 😂 well that's an informed opinion then isn't it!!

It's a fun game. I wish more people bought it.

I suspect this would have been their take even if it matched Inquistion's numbers. EA isn't doing well and that Fortnite money would make it all go away, shame that's just not possible because Fortnite is already a thing.

This is the same company that remade Dead Space, conceded it was a success, and then put the franchise back on ice.

@BacklogBrad Agreed. I've seen a lot of nonsense about it online. But pretty much any issues I have with the game basically stem from EA trying to make it live service in the first place. Reminds me a lot of DA2, lots of ideas absolutely no time or money to deliver it.

No Andrew Wilson thinks that because they make money with their Games with multiplayer and live service. So this single player game didn't sell well because it's a single player game, it just shows how leaders in videogame industry are disconnected to the gaming community.

Hopefully it sells a little more on sale.

@Scrubchub I'm just not impressed with Bioware. They used to make very good games. I can piece together what I'll like and what I won't after almost 40yrs of gaming. The writing is on the wall.

Well they'd have lost one sale from me if they went that way.

I liked the game well enough. I prefer Inquisition, but Veilguard was still decent.

No one going to mention the elephant in the room?

The fact EA fc also didn’t do as well as expected… you know that live service football game, loved by millions, filled to the brim with micro transactions and predatory loot boxes?

What’s the excuse for that? The fact it isn’t single player game?

Same as what I posted on PS.

Being a Dragon Age game would've helped Dragon Age Veilguard.

Yes, Veilguard failed because of the lack of live service. It wasn’t the bugs, the bad writing, the virtue signaling, the dialog options bearing no resemblance to what your character actually says, or anything like that.

Nope. It was that darn missing live service. Never mind that EA’s football/soccer game was also a failure, and that was its usual connected and looty self.

Oh dear oh dear oh dear

How can CEOs be this detached from reality after witnessing the fate of Concord? Not to mention all the other live services that fell flat on their faces last year?

I just hope Split Fiction is as successful as It Takes Two to ensure they at least keep EA Originals afloat.

EA had my money for Dragon Age day one, and I loved it.
Can't see Why FC25 seems to be failing? It's constantly in the top 3 best sellers.

@Nic-Noc20th-C It's failing because it's only a success if it sells more every year!
I didn't buy it this year for the first time in as long as I can remember that probably had something to do with it haha 😂

What is the minimum number of “ha”s required to post a comment?

These people are freaking clowns.

„EA seems to think…”. This about sums it up with them.

The real problem is that both markets are saturated… a new live service fails as there are only enough players for the current games and single players are only purchased on sale as we can wait because of backlogs…

I could use the words a load of b.... But I can't finish that sentence here.

A load of Piers Morgan as he talks it anyway would that work? 😂

If your game can’t be considered a success with 1.5 million copies sold, you are spending too much money making your game. AAA needs to die. Make cheaper, uglier, better, more creative games.

The very fact that Dragon Age Veilguard was a single-player story based adventure was the only reason I bought it.

If the new game had been a live service “game” like Anthem, then I would not have bothered.

But the fact that Veilguard is a success bodes well for the new Mass Effect. It would be good to get back into that universe.

It is an unpopular idea, but I would also like to see a sequel to Andromeda, one day.

@Matthewnh I enjoyed Andromeda but would be surprised if a sequel ever came about… I will be excited by any Mass Effect game at this point…

Makes me think EA really want have their own, Destiny, to milk gamers nonstop with microtransactions and DLCs.

For every one Destiny, there are hundreds others that fail in first month. Good luck with that, EA.

I wonder, wont this come to EA Access soon? What's the going rate in regards to release > service? Isn't it roughly 6 - 12 months?

@Kaloudz yep, it’ll be added to Game Pass (via EA Play) before the end of the year. They never take more than a year to be added.

@Cakefish @Kaloudz This is another excellent example of why subscription services (looking at you game pass) is, totally, absolutely, incredibly, undeniably, bad for gaming industry.

We all know how EA works. They only care about sales, no one can truly provide argument that is not accurate.

So who's to say people (with game prices being so excessive, along with other subscriptions we pay for - - hey, looking at you, again, game pass), majority are not going spend that money on game when can just wait a while instead. Not like backlog isn't reality for many, many, gamers today.

So what happens now? EA closes or condenses studios. People lose their jobs.

Next time any person what's to defend game pass - - think about that. People are and will lose jobs. Period.

Game pass is pretty much (not exact, so don't anyone out in comments world pull that on me) video game equivalent to Napster at this point.

There needs to be a Lars in development world that starts throw a fit and bring all the above to light.

@Cakefish That's exactly when I'll be playing it then 🤣 Never been into Dragon Age before but this new one doesn't look half bad. You a fan?

@GuyinPA75 I have to disagree on three counts.

#1 - Game Pass has literally given so many games a massive boost, that some may never have got, without being on the services. It's an outstanding place for indies especially and most developers and publisher's champion it.

#2 Value. I've games for 30 years and I've never played so many different games in my life (period) than when subbed to Game Pass. It's outstanding and has even led to me buying games I wouldn't normally, plus DLC.

#3 EA get paid for being a part of Game Pass, so they get a chunk upfront. But, this only lends to the whole multiplat arguement. The industry is getting overwhelmingly expensive. We (gamers) hate on developers for DLC and locked content. We hate on developers for microtransactions. We hate on developers for price hikes. It's why a lot of publishers are going multiplat (Square, for one) They (publishers and developers) need to make more money - hence why I have no problem with the likes of Xbox going multiplat for a lot of their games. We gamers can't have the cake and eat it.

@GuyinPA75 I did intentionally skip Dead Space until it came to Game Pass, though I still haven’t got around to actually playing it because as you say the backlog is very real haha! It’s hard to justify buying EA games when I know I can access them a year later at most. However, I do intend to buy Split Fiction as I don’t want to wait a whole year to dive into that (assuming it’s as good as It Takes Two was). So for my most anticipated titles I’m willing to waive my ‘wait for Game Pass’ rule.

@Kaloudz I own the three previous games on PC but could never get into the first two, they didn’t really click with me. I got much further into Inquisition, I spent about 40 hours in that one and made some real progress through the story and was enjoying it, but again my interest eventually waned and I left it half finished (unfortunately quite a common occurrence for me back in those days). I kinda want to revisit it at some point, but with so many games on my backlog it’s hard to know when I’ll get the time to take another look at it - I’d need to completely start over as it’s been so long.

The real problem is RGP’s exist on their writing, its not rocket science. From what i’ve seen the writing looks terrible, even if the gameplay and graphics are good if the story sucks then fans won’t buy it.

I very well might have bought it but the scenes i’ve seen just look cringe and thats enough to put me off. I’m predominantly an rpg player so writing and story is very important to me.

Live service doesn't fit all genres nor goals for game development. The game would need to be designed from the ground up with extensive player UAT and market research showing the willingness of people to play that in the niche it covers

@DaddyDuder great points

@Cakefish I'm almost the same as you, I own dragon Age one and dragon Age 2 but never got round to playing them. I do also have access to dragon Age 3 via EA access, but again I've never really put too much time into it. However comma since dragon's dogma 2 released, I've been in the mood for a new RPG. So perhaps as soon as veil guard is released, it will be my new go-to.

@Isolte 🤣🤣🤣

I assume they're you faves?

@Kaloudz I was more of a Mass Effect person so that’s why I think Inquisition clicked with me more as that game had a little bit more crossover with the ME formula. Though I was never able to get into ME Andromeda either - again, It was quite common for me to leave games a few hours in or at best half finished during the 10’s. I made a real effort to get better at resisting games on sales and focus more on shrinking my existing backlog through the 20’s and so far it’s working. I now only have a handful of games to get through between both Switch and Xbox (alas not including Game Pass which I consider lower priority). I have many dozens on PC sadly, but I’ve had to accept some games will never be touched - mistakes of the past back when I was younger and more impulsive, too easily distracted by generous Steam sales and also online hype around new AAA releases.

@Cakefish So, do you not see through larger games when you start them? I'm almost like that, unless it's something like Assassin's Creed or something like Final Fantasy. Something about them just steal 110% of my attention. But yeah, I prefer games that have no more than a 15 hour campaign. Anything more just feels overwhelming.

@Kaloudz Depends on the game really. Soulslikes such as Elden Ring, Dark Souls trilogy, Lies of P, Code Vein etc. are no problem. I recently completed Nier Automata. Currently playing God of War Ragnarok and not losing any momentum (I finished the first one last year). So I can finish longer games. Which is good because I have Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, Ni no Kuni, and Okami next on my backlog!

I’ve bounced off other critically acclaimed longer games such as Skyrim, The Witcher trilogy, and Zelda: Breath of the Wild. I do intend to try to give Zelda another try one day and maybe Witcher 3 in the run up to Witcher 4.

@Cakefish Ah man!!! Nier Automata I played, but fell off once I found out that it had like 3000 endings lol. That's the only thing that puts me off games, is multiple endings. I wish they'd (developers) give us the choice to either pursue a multiple ending, or just pick a canon ending. It sucks, imo, when I have to google which ending is canon so that I can try and aim for it. I had to do that with The Witcher and it just takes me way out of focus.

Can I boldly suggest you start Ni no Kuni next. It is, without a doubt, one of the finest RPGs I've played in recent times. It's not massive, it's addictive, and the story is really, really good once you get an hour or so in.

@Kaloudz Well, no spoilers, but there is indeed a canon ending to Nier Automata. It is the fifth one (ending E). All other endings besides A-E are literally just glorified game over screens and completely inconsequential. Also A & B are endings to the first half of the story from the perspective of two different characters, while C & D are alternate endings to the second half of the story. Once you’ve seen A-D you can access the true ending E. Hopefully that makes sense!

That’s great to hear about Ni no Kuni! Duly noted! I admit I’m a bit paralysed by indecision on that one though. You see, I asked my brother to buy it for me on Switch as a Christmas pressie one year, before it launched on Xbox. So question is do I play on Switch where I already own it and can play it handheld too, or do I play it on Xbox at 4K60fps but risk having to buy it when it leaves Game Pass?

@Cakefish See, the first half of your reply just goes wayyyyy over my head. I'm more of an A to B guy. I like a start, a middle, and one end. Having to hopscotch my way through a game just to get the right story ending irritates the life out of me.

Ohh well it has been on GP for a long while now so I'd probably suggest checking out when it was added (they're usually 12, 18, or 24 month stays) so long as you have a good month (which is doable at about an hour a day) you'll be fine. I wager though, you'll do it in a week once it gets its hooks in you.

@Kaloudz haha fair enough, it isn’t a straightforward narrative structure and is so hard to explain. It’s a great game though, now one of my favourites of all time!

Yeah I did look into this recently. It first launched on Game Pass in 2022. It was going to leave in March last year but then Microsoft extended the contract at the last minute. So if the extension was one year then it’ll be leaving next month, but it could always be longer as you say! It goes on sale for £16 on the store fairly regularly for which I have enough Rewards points to cover, but I then just feel strangely guilty as the Switch version was a gift from my brother - even though there was no way I could’ve predicted a later Xbox launch 😅

@Cakefish Yeah you may as well stick to the switch version matey. If it leaves the service there's nothing worse than having to rush something, especially a game, to a deadline, is there?

But trust me, Ni no 1 and 2, well worth your time. 2 is also on GP and has nothing to do with 1, but it's also a very different type of game too (1 being RPG and 2 being hack and slash RPG) but would recommend them to anyone that likes a good 30 hour adventure in good old style fashion.

@Kaloudz ah was it only 30 hours for you? That’s reasonable. I looked it up on the HowLongToBeat website and got a little intimidated by the 56 hour average runtime it quoted. I’m fine with many longer games as I’ve already said, but it’s just a bit much when all the games on my backlog are longer currently. I looked up tips for shrinking the backlog a few year ago and starting out with the shorter games first was one of them and it worked really well for me. Almost too well as now it means all that’s left on my (non-Game Pass) console backlog are the mammoth RPGs! Now I know Ni no Kuni is not the most mammoth of the list! Thanks for the recommendation and advice on my Switch-Xbox dilemma, definitely helps me overcome my indecisiveness haha 😁

@Cakefish Oh yeah it's only about 30 hours. I think it oce compensates sometimes in HowLongToBeat for players that play slowly - a bit like how Google Maps tells you a walk from your house to the shop is usually twice as long on foot than it actually takes 😅