If there was any doubt left that Dragon Age: The Veilguard is one of the biggest gaming failures in recent memory, this should put it to rest. Four months after launch of Veilguard, Electronic Arts gave the game away for free on PlayStation Plus, hoping to reignite interest in a title that had already been rejected by most of the gaming community.
The outcome? Absolute disaster.
A screenshot from Dragon Age: The Veilguard (2024), BioWare
Despite being handed out at no cost to millions of subscribers, The Veilguard couldn’t even crack the top 10 most-played PlayStation games in March. According to True Trophies, which tracks over 3.4 million active PlayStation Network accounts, the game barely reached 15th place in player engagement. For context, it was outperformed by The Cowabunga Collection, a retro collection of decades-old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games—a humbling reality for what was supposed to be a major release from one of EA’s premier RPG studios.
This isn’t just a poor showing. It’s complete rejection. If players aren’t even willing to download a game when it’s literally free, that speaks volumes about how much of the audience has turned its back on the franchise.
The Downward Spiral of The Veilguard
From the very start, The Veilguard was on shaky ground. Hyped as a major return for the Dragon Age franchise, the game instead became one of the most disappointing releases of 2024.
EA reportedly had expectations that it would sell 10 million copies over its lifetime, yet after two months, it had only “engaged” 1.5 million players—a vague and misleading metric that conveniently avoids saying how many people actually bought the game.
A screenshot from Dragon Age: The Veilguard (2024), BioWare
In reality, The Veilguard was abandoned almost immediately after launch. The game’s price dropped to $24.99 within four months, GameStop slashed its trade-in value to a measly $22 shortly after release, and reports surfaced that tens of thousands of copies were returned—a rare fate for a major AAA release. Players weren’t just uninterested; they were actively rejecting the game.
Blaming the Wrong Things
Rather than admitting that poor gameplay, weak storytelling, and a forced ideological shift turned longtime fans away, EA tried to spin the failure by suggesting that The Veilguard flopped because it wasn’t a live service game.
That excuse falls apart instantly when you look at the broader gaming landscape.
A screenshot from Dragon Age: The Veilguard (2024), BioWare
Baldur’s Gate 3, a purely narrative-driven RPG, dominated the industry and won Game of the Year. Elden Ring, another game with no live service elements, became a massive commercial success. Gamers are still hungry for deep, well-crafted single-player experiences—they just don’t want rushed, soulless cash grabs loaded with modern ideological messaging.
EA’s claim that The Veilguard would have performed better if it had live-service mechanics is laughable. If anything, trying to force microtransactions or a multiplayer element would have made things even worse—just ask anyone who played Anthem.
BioWare’s Future Looks Grim
At this point, it’s hard to imagine The Veilguard making any kind of comeback. If PlayStation Plus can’t even salvage interest, there’s no roadmap or content update that will. BioWare is barely hanging on as it is, with the studio downsized to fewer than 100 employees following multiple waves of restructuring. Meanwhile, lead developers have quietly exited, including Veilguard’s own director Corinne Busche, who left the studio just weeks after launch.
For years, Dragon Age was one of the most respected RPG franchises in gaming. Now, EA can’t even give it away for free. That’s the harshest verdict a game can receive.
Taash in Dragon Age: The Veilguard (2024), BioWare
If there’s any lesson to be learned from this failure, it’s that players will not tolerate a franchise being completely rewritten to fit modern trends. The Veilguard abandoned everything that made Dragon Age great, and now BioWare is paying the price even on PlayStation Plus.
It’s time for EA to accept reality: Dragon Age deserved better than this—and at this point, it may be better to leave the series alone than continue down this path.
Are you surprised that Dragon Age: The Veilguard bombed on PlayStation Plus? Sound off in the comments and let us know!
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