Former Dragon Age Lead Says BioWare Could Have Followed the Baldur’s Gate 3 Path
Former Dragon Age lead Mark Darrah believes the acclaimed fantasy RPG series could have evolved into something resembling Baldur’s Gate 3. Instead, BioWare pursued a simpler and more accessible design in an effort to attract a broader audience.
Following EA’s decision to close BioWare before the studio could release Mass Effect 5, Dragon Age: The Veilguard became its final game. Although some reviewers responded positively to the RPG, it did not achieve the commercial performance required to sustain BioWare after EA was acquired by a group that included Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
A Different Direction for Dragon Age
The studio’s closure leaves the future of Dragon Age open to speculation. The critical and commercial success of Baldur’s Gate 3 demonstrated that a complex fantasy RPG could reach a large audience and earn major industry recognition—the kind of success Dragon Age had long pursued.
This raises the question of why BioWare, the developer behind the first two Baldur’s Gate games, could not achieve similar results with Dragon Age, another established fantasy franchise with a dedicated fan base.
Darrah argues that BioWare struggled because it attempted to create an RPG that would appeal to everyone, ultimately producing something that lacked a clearly defined audience.
Accessibility Over Complexity
When asked why BioWare did not follow a path similar to Larian Studios by creating a deep fantasy RPG with broad commercial appeal, Darrah said the possibility was clearly visible within Dragon Age’s early foundations.
“You can absolutely see that with Dragon Age,” he said. “You can imagine a world where BioWare follows a line that leads from Dragon Age: Origins to something that looks a lot like Baldur’s Gate 3.”
Instead, according to Darrah, the series was directed toward simpler and more accessible design choices intended to reach a wider audience.
“Instead of going from Dragon Age: Origins toward Baldur’s Gate 3, you end up on a track to Dragon Age 2 and Inquisition,” he explained. Darrah described this as a path specific to Dragon Age rather than BioWare as a whole, shaped by efforts to operate within a market that its publisher did not fully understand.
An Uncertain Future for BioWare’s Franchises
With BioWare closed, intellectual properties such as Dragon Age and Mass Effect have been placed in EA’s catalog for the time being. They could eventually return under another studio, but Darrah has also acknowledged that the franchises may simply remain dormant.
For now, Dragon Age stands as an example of how a major RPG series might have developed differently had BioWare continued building on the deeper role-playing foundations established by Dragon Age: Origins.