Dragon Age: The Veilguard was a dud, which is hardly surprising when studio execs demanded a live-service game, only to pivot mid-development and force BioWare to conjure a single-player RPG from the carcass of a misguided MMO. The aftermath saw the studio gutted, with all of its resources shifted to the next Mass Effect; in so many words, Dragon Age is dead.

But with murmurs that Richard Garriott might get his hands on the copyright for Ultima, and other series from BioWare's past—like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Baldur's Gate—continuing elsewhere, PC Gamer proposed a question to series creator David Gaider: what if you got the IP back?

"If you'd asked me that in the past, I would have said absolutely not. That I'd done my time," Gaider said. "But I do like a challenge. So if, out of some weird alignment of the stars, somebody handed the Dragon Age franchise back to me and said, 'Breathe the life back into this baby'? That'd be a tough one, but I think it'd be an interesting thing to do. To go back to the basics of what made Dragon Age appeal to so many people in the first place. And go somewhere dark and dangerous, and do things that will make people upset. I think that's what I would want to do with it."

Gaider highlighted that the reviews for Origins all praised how in-depth and tangible the characters felt, which is something he believes should be leaned into more with future games, rather than trying to make a more "broadly acceptable" sequel designed for mass appeal. "If you're not making a game for the audience that loves those games, you're trying to make this game acceptable to some action gamer who, what, doesn't like difficulty? Who is that?"

On The Other Hand...

I'm sure the prospect of a Dragon Age game led by David Gaider that apes the grittier dark fantasy of Origins is bound to excite a disillusioned fanbase—especially after dredging themselves through the frictionless 'don't talk to me before my morning coffee' humor of The Veilguard—but it's not quite that cut and dry.

Gaider has previously said that the series isn't "a good match" for EA.

In the same interview, Gaider expressed disappointment that "nobody wants to actually commit to a project unless they think it's a sure thing, and that boils down to existing IPs, sequels, that sort of thing." He pointed out that new projects struggle to find funding, including his heist RPG, which the team have had to expand on in the hopes of getting a publisher's attention. Returning to Dragon Age and resurrecting the franchise with a back-to-basics approach might sound exactly like what the series needs, but it's also everything wrong with the industry right now.

Still, as Larian Studios proved, returning to a legacy franchise with the right creative freedom can be just as reinvigorating for the industry, as Baldur's Gate 3 set an entirely new bar for RPGs that is unlikely to be met anytime soon. But judging by the rest of the interview, Gaider's passions lie elsewhere. "Oh, what I wouldn't give to work on Owlcat's The Expanse game," he said. "The Expanse is right in there with my core interests. I've watched the show a few times, I've read the books. That'd be great. If I could find something that lit a fire under me, that'd be the ideal."

Dragon Age Like Follow Followed RPG Systems Released November 3, 2009 ESRB M for Mature: Blood, Intense Violence, Language, Partial Nudity, Sexual Content Developer(s) BioWare Publisher(s) Electronic Arts Engine Eclipse Engine Cross-Platform Play n/a Cross Save n/a Franchise Dragon Age Steam Deck Compatibility no
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