Electronic Arts chief says Dragon Age The Veilguard is the return to what made BioWare so great

Dragon Age: The Veilguard hasn't been released for a few days, but reviews are already in. We gave it a 79% rating, calling it "a gorgeous action-RPG without the storytelling nuance found in previous Dragon Age games." Metacritic also gives it an impressive 84 score.

In today's quarterly investor call, Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson said that he attributed the positive critical response to BioWare's return to form following the studio's less-than stellar response to its online shooter Anthem.

Wilson remembers Anthem with a more positive view than I do. He said that reviews at the time "heralded a world that was incredibly rich, wonderful, and high-fidelity, and traversing this world as being great, while some of the characters were super interesting." In our otherwise rather negative 55% review, we did say that the game world is "ridiculously pretty" and that it's "sublime".

He acknowledged that "the pieces just didn't come together in the way that I thought BioWare hoped" because developers were trying so many things outside of their usual experience. BioWare "returns to BioWare-type games, really returning BioWare's strengths" with Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

Wilson said, "What has happened since Anthem is that the BioWare team really rallied around the things that made BioWare and BioWare brand a favorite studio, and the kinds of games they create: incredibly rich and nuanced worlds, really powerful stories, with camaraderie, friendship, relationships, and decisions which matter in the context gameplay," he said.

"I think that Dragon Age: The Veilguard is a game that's really about returning to what made BioWare so great and giving the studio the time to really deliver on what makes BioWare so great in the context the Dragon Age universe."

It's still unclear what that is, despite Wilson’s enthusiasm. Although I can't resist noting that Wilson's comments are in stark contrast to the review of associate editor Lauren Morton, who said that the characters and story were Veilguard's weakest elements, I think that the sales will ultimately matter. The Veilguard's positive reception is yet to be translated into a commercial success.