Xbox veteran and former Gears of War executive producer Laura Fryer shared her thoughts on BioWare’s fate following the release of the controversial Dragon Age: The Veil Guard. She said the studio could face layoffs due to low sales.
The new Dragon Age initially performed well on Steam, peaking at 89 thousand online players, but excitement around the game is gradually waning. At the time of writing the news, the average daily number of gamers no longer exceeds 30 thousand and is constantly decreasing.
Everything is also unclear with regard to sales – according to Circana analysts, it is unlikely that the circulation of The Veilguard will reach the level Inquisition (12 million copies), although there is a chance. According to unconfirmed information, it amounted to only 650 thousand.
Against this backdrop, Laura Fryer, co-founder of Xbox, spoke out. In her recent video, she talked about the current situation in the industry, where studios are creating an ‘information bubble’ in the media for the sake of marketing, causing them to completely lose touch with the audience. Separately, the Xbox veteran went through Dragon Age: The Veilguard. According to her, the game had a huge budget for production alone, so it would have to sell several million copies to make a profit. According to her, the latter is unlikely.
It seems this will not be enough and I fear it will lead to more layoffs.
Layoffs are nothing new for BioWare; last year the workforce was reduced by 50 people due to “greater flexibility and speed of development.” However, so far there is no talk about it and the studio reports cheerfully on the work However, Mass Effect 5. Dragon Age: The Veilguard was left without any additions, which is unusual for the series.
We recently released our review of the new installment of Dragon Age. Short verdict – nice, but mediocre. Concept art for the game also recently appeared, showing a much darker and more mature plot.
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Source: VG Times
Christina Moncayo is a contributing writer for “Social Bites”. Her focus is on the gaming industry and she provides in-depth coverage of the latest news and trends in the world of gaming.