Dragon Age: The Veilguard director Corinne Busche is reportedly set to leave BioWare. Eurogamer has reported that Busche, who served as director for Dragon Age: The Veilguard from February 2022 to the launch of the title in October of last year, is set to leave in the coming weeks.
Eurogamer went on to report that while Busche is leaving the company, the studio will be otherwise unaffected by this departure as the studio shifts focus towards Mass Effect 5. Busche joined Bioware in 2019 after a stint at The Sims developer Maxis, where she worked on various projects related to the life-sim title. Busche has been credited with helping Dragon Age: The Veilguard finally see release after a long and troubled development history.
It was additionally reported that this departure is unrelated to any commercial performance of the game. There are still questions remaining about the sales of the title, which set an all-time high for EA in concurrent steam numbers. With the game taking a decade to release, even if the game did perform well, it is questionable if the title will recoup its costs. EA is expected to release its Q3 financial report results in February 2024.
BioWare on the other hand has confirmed there are no plans to release DLC, something that would have been common for a Dragon Age game prior. This is predominantly to focus efforts on Mass Effect 5 which was confirmed to be planned years ago, but on the back burner at the studio attempted to cross the finish line here. While Mass Effect 5 has received some teasers, no full trailer or official information has been released.
The studio saw lay-offs in 2023, with around 50 employees including studio veterans like narrative designer Mary Kirby among them. This was part of an internal shake-up in EA as the publisher divided their studios between those working on sports titles and everybody else. Rumors also persisted that Bioware might be acquired, though nothing tangible has manifested from that.
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