Sibling rivalry has been a part of the human condition since we were all living in caves hitting things with clubs (some of us still are!). This also apparently holds true at BioWare, particularly among its two divisions devoted to Mass Effect and Dragon Age.
Per PC Gamer, David Gaider, the creator of Dragon Age and former lead writer at BioWare, has posted up a storm over on BlueSky about just how bad the internal conflicts got at BioWare between both development teams.
While I was at BioWare, EA *always* preferred Mass Effect, straight up Their Marketing team liked it more. It was modern. It had action. They never quite knew what to do with DA, and whenever DA outperformed ME, ME got the excuses. If you ask me, it was always just shy of the axe since DA Origins.
— David Gaider (@davidgaider.bsky.social) April 14, 2025 at 3:11 AM
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In his posts, Gaider noted that up until he left in 2016, BioWare essentially operated as two distinct divisions, and nary the two should ever meet.
“For a long time it was basically two teams under one roof,” he said. “The Dragon Age team and the Mass Effect team. Run differently, very different cultures, may as well have been two separate studios. And they didn’t get along.”
A screenshot from Mass Effect Legendary Edition (2021), BioWare
Although apparently EA was aware of this issue, their attempts to resolve it were minimal at best. Evidently, this was driven home to Gaider when he joined the Mass Effect team to work on Anthem (calling both the game and the move a “mistake”).
Per Gaider, he was tasked with reshaping Anthem’s narrative from hard sci-fi to science-fantasy, but was constantly set upon by the Mass Effect team because they felt that his writing was “too Dragon Age.”
“I kept getting feedback about how it was ‘too Dragon Age‘ and how everything I wrote or planned was ‘too Dragon Age‘… the implication being that anything like Dragon Age was bad.”
A screenshot from Dragon Age: Inquisition (2014), BioWare
Worse still, according to Gaider, EA was clearly playing favorites — Mass Effect was the pride and joy of the company, while Dragon Age was treated like the weird kid who smelled funny and stared at you just a bit too long during conversations.
Gaider notes, “EA always preferred Mass Effect, straight up. Their Marketing team liked it more. It was modern. It had action.”
According to Gaider, this unfair treatment left Dragon Age perpetually vulnerable, claiming that it was “always just shy of the axe since DA Origins.” Apparently EA’s marketing struggled to position the fantasy RPG, favoring Mass Effect’s sci-fi action appeal.
A screenshot from Dragon Age: Inquisition (2014), BioWare
When Dragon Age outperformed Mass Effect, Gaider claims “ME got the excuses,” highlighting EA’s reluctance to fully embrace the Dragon Age franchise.
This is where I have to pause and scratch my head however. Despite Gaider’s claims, it’s hard fact that Dragon Age: Inquisition sold over 10 million copies. Was this in spite of, rather than due to, EA’s marketing efforts? It seems a bit hard to believe.
What isn’t as far-fetched, though, is Gaider’s belief that this favoritism influenced Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s development.
“It sure explains why Veilguard plays more like a Mass Effect game, too,” he said.
A screenshot from Mass Effect Legendary Edition (2021), BioWare
At the same time, however, Gaider seems to be glossing over Mass Effect: Andromeda and how much of a disaster that game was. It would be hard to imagine the EA execs demanding more of the same from the Veilguard team.
Nevertheless, Gaider describes EA’s CEO Andrew Wilson as even deeper in denial over why Veilguard bombed, apparently attributing the games pathetic run to a lack of live service features. Both Gaider and PC Gamer seem amused by this assertion. I just read it and want to weep. Of course, Veilguard received criticism on everything from its voice acting to its gameplay and forced identity politics that seemed utterly unmake the former dark fantasy RPG.
Taash in Dragon Age: The Veilguard (2024), BioWare
Eventually Gaider had enough and left BioWare in 2016. I am grateful to him for giving us some darn good Dragon Age games, but up until this point I had considered them more to be “Mass Effect with dragons” than coming from wholly separate teams in the way he described. While this is an interesting look at Bioware in its heyday, the unfortunate truth is that today, BioWare is on life support, having tanked both of its signature IP’s in a way that would make the folks at Lucasfilm blush.
Nothing about what Gaider has said, nor EA’s string of bombs since then, has me hopeful for their upcoming Mass Effect 5 game.
Is there any hope for Mass Effect of Dragon Age at BioWare? Sound off in the comments and let us know your thoughts!
Gaider tries to present himself as a victim (typical leftist). After defending the wokeness in Veilguard, his excuse for the game’s failure is the “Mass Effect gameplay”. Sure, buddy.
The woke always present themselves as the “real” victims.
Here comes the excuses for Veilguard’s complete failure.
At the risk of being the unpopular opinion, both series aren’t anything special. Mass Effect was liked because, at that time, there wasn’t anything quite similar to it. DA, however, competed with many dark fantasy series that were created at is time.
However, in favor of Dragon Age, it had consistently more good games than ME. In fact, I can only think of Veilguard as outright crap. ME2 felt too much like a mission pack, everyone knows the BS that was ME3’s ending the first time it came out, and the less said about Andromeda, the better.
So I don’t see this supposed favoritism aside from the fact ME was more “original” at the time. Right now, however, both series are in the dumpster, exactly like everything EA makes.
Looks like everything Gaider touches turns to sh’t. Like every typical leftist degenerate.