Disgraced Bioware developer of underperforming Dragon Age: The Veilguard runs away

Dragon Age: The Veilguard was a product the gaming media tried to puff up, but fell short of both sales and reception, failing to achieve Baldurs Gate 3 god tier status nor Angry Joes bad ass seal of approval, once again, proving once and for all, Bioware is dead and we should stop pretending they were ever as good as Obsidian.

Mass Effect will be mid (it always was)

Dragon Age: The Veilguard game director leaving BioWare

After 18-year career at EA.

Corinne Busche, who served as game director of Dragon Age: The Veilguard since February 2022, is departing BioWare.

Whispers of her exit began circulating online last night, and were first confirmed by journalist Jeff Grubb. Eurogamer can also confirm Busche will depart BioWare in the coming weeks.

Eurogamer understands BioWare itself is otherwise unaffected by any other changes, contrary to rumour.

Busche, working closely alongside creative director John Epler, helped oversee The Veilguard's final stretch of development from early 2022 onwards, until its final release last October.

The Veilguard slogged through a mammoth decade-long development and several reboots before the version we finally saw launch arrived, steered by Busche.

Critically, The Veilguard has been received well, and commercially sales have been decent - but there's also been a suggestion that sales have not exceeded expectations. Still, Eurogamer understands The Veilguard's commercial performance was not a direct factor in Busche's departure.

Alongside her work on The Veilguard, Busche has served as a designer and design director within publisher EA for 18 years, working on numerous entries in The Sims series, including The Sims 3, The Sims 4 and The Sims Mobile.

Post Dragon Age: The Veilguard, the bulk of BioWare is now turning its attention fully to the next Mass Effect game, which is being led by a separate small team of veterans.

Eurogamer spoke with both Busche and Epler in December for our big Dragon Age: The Veilguard post-release interview. "The reality was whatever we came out with, it was never going to match the Dragon Age 4 in people's minds and people's imaginations," Epler said.

Loved the game

Wouldn't read too much into it. The game industry has a very high personnel turnover rate; creative people gets bored of doing the same thing over and over, and leave to find new projects. The average is around 5 years, and 18 years at one company is actually extraordinary.

Gee wonder why it failed. Total mystery.

The sales don't look that bad given the amount of reviews the game has on steam.

I feel this game was upfront enough about what it was (with LGBT tag as it's first tag) that only the people that were going to enjoy it's messaging got it.(Leading to overall positive reviews)

Probably given the large development time and the fact that bioware decided not to make DLC for it means it didn't meet sales expectations.

But overall I think maybe if they are going to make a more female or gay oriented games, they can still do so, they just have to keep a tighter control of the budget and maybe reduce the scale a bit.

lol :P

BioWare was always mid with trash like Jennifer Hepler writing lesbian fanfic-tier storylines.

Enjoyed Veilguard.

Looking forward to the next Mass Effect game.

Is it the Bioware of ME1-3? No, of course not. But it's good enough.

Bioware games of late have been good games, they've just sort of lacked the "x factor" of the old games. I would have really enjoyed Anthem, as it had incredible gameplay, but it was soulless for example. I enjoyed ME: Andromeda, but it lacked character and anything really memorable, despite it's excellent gameplay.

Veilguard is the first game from Bioware where you could sort of see the "new" Bioware starting to get over it's imposter syndrome of thinking it needs to be like the "old" Bioware.

Same, fun game.

Good combat, decent story....writing could have been better, but that's being nitpicky.

Pretty much this.

18 years. That's a good run.

This is true.

Actually Baldurs Gate II is alright.

Other than that...

Baldurs Gate 2 and Neverwinter Nights were cool games. But BioWare have been mid other than that.

BG2 is among the best games made, period. Come on now.

Before Bioware, wouldn't have thought it was possible to fall this freaking far. Such is the power of hiring activists to make your games.

Dragon Age: Veilguard was in my top 10 list of 2025, the gameplay was really great and very improved over Inquisition but however, Veilguard wasn't an actual Dragon Age if you played the previous games till now and for me, that hurt me personally on how bad the writing is. But yeah, it was ok at best and half the characters were a hit or a miss...but I really like Harding, I have a soft spot for Shortstacks😁

After playing Veilguard, I can tell the old-school Bioware is long gone and I noticed the hiring difference in the staffing department were doing more than just making a fun game. I have NO interest in the new Mass Effect game at all! Heck, I enjoy Andromeda to a degree and that was half the Bioware team who worked on it but now, I have no hope for the next Mass Effect game. I'm far more excited for Exodus. Seeing the director leave does nothing for Bioware as everyone is leaving to go work on the new Mass Effect. There's no DLC coming for Veilguard, so it makes sense to just leave.

Lol....

I love watching all the people ignore the obvious.

I enjoyed the game. 😌

@elderlord99: Sorry man. Some people just get tired of having the same conversation over and over and over and over and over and over and over after a while.

@judaspete: This thread was bait for that conversation. If people would acknowledge the issue we could move on.

Ignoring the elephant has become a full-time job for them, lol

It's hard to admit someone you hate is right and I think that's the issue they face. The people they despised told them exactly what would happen and it happened. The good news is SOME people in the industry are actually starting to notice so I guess that's what matters most.

They released Andromeda and Anthem too.

What a shit portfolio they have.

Even if someone found some joy in these games it can't be denied just how bad they are generally.

I enjoy Drag-On 3 and Splatterhouse reboot and I would still call them bad games. Some would even call them guilty pleasures.

At best Bioware has made three 'guilty pleasures' in a row from a developer that has a budget of 20 Drag-On 3's per game. Selling about the same as well. That's terrible for those keeping track.

Whether you're enjoying the Bioware copium or not the companies reputation is awful.

Game looks amazing on my PS5 Pro too.

@uninspiredcup: "Mass Effect was always mid...."

*Reaches for the ban hammer ...*

That is absolutely the issue. People don't like being proven wrong. Some people, anyway. It goes way beyond sticking their fingers in their ears. Freaking borderline doublethink going on.

I've literally been trying to play ME for like a decade. It's like, I really want to, but for some reason it just never gets its hook in me.

@TheEroica said:

@uninspiredcup: "Mass Effect was always mid...."

*Reaches for the ban hammer ...*

Only played those games a few years ago with the remaster, avoided ME3 but I had a surprisingly good time with ME1 & ME2.

Dare I say it made me a Mass Effect fan.

So long as it's known you're getting more a cover shooter with branching paths than a full fledged RPG with Tabletop classes and strategy I think majority can appreciate the first two games. They're very fun with tons of player freedom.

I return every couple years and find it's like fine wine for me ... Characters and story that are well written are so far and few between in video games that the ones that get it mostly right stand out big time... Let me ask you, when you play it are you doing run and gun or are you taking the time to pause the action wheel and select powers? There is a wonderful game of rock papers scissors within the gunplay that directly effects the characters you choose to accompany you.... I couldn't have possibly been more engaged with the total package....

I can objectively look at the series and see faults in 3 specifically but even ME1 when bioware was still independent, though the remastered version cleans up a lot. Mass Effect 2 is one of the highest rated games ever and for good reason.... They nailed every aspect.

you are such a tease

Move on? Are you kidding? Those are the threads that explode into pages and pages of folks repeating themselves until no one remembers what the original topic was.

And the title was Cup being Cup. I approve.

But hey, if it makes you feel better, I do think top surgery scars and that character chewing out their mom probably hurt this game's sales. Considering how many youtube videos there are dedicated to those subjects, it seems to have upset a lot of people.

Well when the subject of the thread is about the activist director who created this flop is now leaving it's not like we would be going off topic.

Anyway I hope this is a new dawn for BioWare and they can get back to making good games again.

@TheEroica said:

@uninspiredcup: "Mass Effect was always mid...."

*Reaches for the ban hammer ...*

Even mid developers can sometimes make something decent but anyone still harboring hope after ME3, Anthem ánd Andromeda? That's a mid-ass developer.

@Locutus_Picard said:

@TheEroica said:

@uninspiredcup: "Mass Effect was always mid...."

*Reaches for the ban hammer ...*

Even mid developers can sometimes make something decent but anyone still harboring hope after ME3, Anthem ánd Andromeda? That's a mid-ass developer.

Who's denying they're mid right now.... Mid is generous.

Nothing mid about the company that made Kotor, jade empire , and Mass Effect. Modern bioware is an ea abortion.

@mrbojangles25: "Veilguard is the first game from Bioware where you could sort of see the "new" Bioware starting to get over it's imposter syndrome of thinking it needs to be like the "old" Bioware."

This is an interesting point. It's an almost entirely different team now than it was twenty years ago, and it's probably better that they make the kind of games they want to make, instead of what us old guys think they should make. A lot of Steam reviews say, "It's not a bad game, it's just a bad Dragon Age game". That sentiment pervades many sequels that change things up a bit. I get this argument, but at the same time I think a lot of folks would lead happier lives if they could focus more on the first half of that sentence.

**sigh** We're never going to get a legit Mass Effect reboot attempt, are we?

@TheEroica said:

@uninspiredcup: "Mass Effect was always mid...."

*Reaches for the ban hammer ...*

Hold up...

But we both know he's talking about Andromeda, so we'll let him off the hook😉

I was so hyped for Veilguard. I preordered it and put 120 hours into it.

Once I finished it, I went back and just played "City Elf Warrior" intro in Origins, and quickly realized how far the franchise had fallen. So, so disappointed.

I love DA more than Mass Effect or KOTOR... or I guess I should say "loved". I don't think I can forgive BioWare for what they did to it.

It's a so-so game. It's broken if you play as a mage and get the legendary necro staff.

@TheEroica said:

@Locutus_Picard said:

@TheEroica said:

@uninspiredcup: "Mass Effect was always mid...."

*Reaches for the ban hammer ...*

Even mid developers can sometimes make something decent but anyone still harboring hope after ME3, Anthem ánd Andromeda? That's a mid-ass developer.

Who's denying they're mid right now.... Mid is generous.

Nothing mid about the company that made Kotor, jade empire , and Mass Effect. Modern bioware is an ea abortion.

Or more importantly, the company that made BG2 and Neverwinter Nights. They were a huge name in RPGS before they started making simplistic console RPGs like KOTOR or Mass Effect.

Then again, I've always thought Bioware's biggest achievement was making great engines that other companies used. Their Infinity Engine gave us Planescape Torment, one of the best RPGs of the late 90s. Their Aurora Engine gave us The Witcher, one of the best RPGs of the late 00s. Bioware didn't have the best writers, but they shaped several generations of RPGs in other ways.

It's hillarious that a YouTuber broke this news a day before gaming journalists....🤣

It is the classic Old fart syndrome. This happens with the aging generation become hostile towards the change in tastes and the shift in entertainment. The hostility heightens when they are no longer the target audience as they struggle with feeling left out. It is amusing in many ways. This forum has a "healthy" share of them.

Fine, I'll admit it, there's an elephant in the room that has to be called out: Bioware has been in a critical and commercial tailspin for well over a decade, and every attempt at reviving their reputation has been doomed to fail.

Bioware's designs peaked around 2000-2003, and their last big critical and commercial success was in 2010 with Mass Effect 2.

Every game they've made since then has flopped or been ridiculed in some way. The EA-ification was already complete with Dragon Age 2 (2011), which gamers mocked for its "press a button and something awesome happens" approach, which people felt was a betrayal of Dragon Age Origins so-called depth.

Mass Effect 3 (2012) crashed and burned at launch, destroying a lot of the goodwill that series had built up. Dragon Age Inquisiton (2014) sold well, but was accused of being an empty repetitive single player MMO.

People were hoping Mass Effect Andromeda (2017) was Bioware's chance to earn back its credentials as a good developer. It failed, and lots of fans finally accepted Bioware was dead.

Anthem (2019) was also supposed to put Bioware back on the map. It failed.

So Veilguard (2024)...got a small amount of hype for potentially being Bioware's return to form? Really? Didn't you people learn anything from a decade of diminishing returns? It was obviously going to be a lukewarm hit, just like everything else they've made in ages.

Yeah me too. It's so weird to me how people will continue to put effort into hating the things that aren't up to their liking, instead of putting energy into praising the things they do love.

Avowed, AC Shadows... All I see is hate. Vile and misanthropic hate.

Is it the internet? Or have people always been this grumpy?

@R4gn4r0k: Both. People has always been this grumpy and the Internet allows for more folks to bond on the hate train. Because I am stable person, I typically avoid games, shows, movies and things I know I would not won't like. I can't imagine spending my time campaigning against a game I have no interest in. That is like me creating threads after threads about Stellar Blade. 😂

I am looking forward to the next AC and Avowed.

@R4gn4r0k: My opinion is kind of like Pedro's. There have always been a lot of grumpy people, but the internet provides a place for them to congregate and teach each other how to get better at being grumpy. It's been kind of a train wreck in slow motion for about 30 years now. I first noticed it when my dad got into talk radio, then cable news spred it further, then the internet really helped cultivate the phenomenon. Now social media has caused us Millennials to turn into Grampa Simpson yelling at a cloud about ten years ahead of schedule.

Anyway, to get myself back on topic, I'm kinda interested in Veilguard but in all honesty will probably never get around to it. Origins was good, but didn't grip me like it did for a lot of folks, and Inquisition is sitting in my backlog untouched. Like some have said, after experiencing Fallout 2 and Planescape, Bioware writing always felt a bit trite.

It's funny how certain games with gay characters get a free pass (Last of Us, Baldurs Gate 3 etc) and yet others get shat on by the woke folks.

Can you guys/girls pick a damn lane and stick within it. You make hypocrites of yourselves all the time.

Dragon Age failed, and they say well we all know why, Baldurs Gate 3 wins GOTY and not a peep from the woke folks, heck you can even do some beastilality, but not a peep ftom the woke folks lol.

For the record I didn't buy nor am I defending any of these games, just wish the woke folks would be consistent in their argument.

No, they literally can't. That would mean death.

They just move on to the next trending outrage and farm it and move on to the next.

They can't even be bothered to return to old points and defend failures (i.e. The Last Descendent losing 90+% of it's playerbase; hot babes couldn't save that game I guess...).

@mrbojangles25: Maybe they found out the hot babe's were lesbians 🤣🤣🤣

Hah! I did the same thing. I didn't finish DA 1 because it's pretty clunky to play, but it holds up well enough. Really good story, though. Somehow I missed the Daelish origin, so I played that and got a fresh experience from an old game :D

I also went back and played the ME series start to finish.

I think it is important to judge games in their own right, as a standalone product. You can color your final opinion by adding in the context that, yes, this is part of a larger series; but games evolve and change so it's important to keep that in mind.

There are some things the original DA does better. There are some thing Veilguard does better. It's also why I consider DA3 the best in the series, even though DA1 holds a special place in my heart.

Likewise, I think ME Andromeda has the best gameplay in the series, and a fun sandbox level design. But the characters are not as memorable as the original series.

Also it's funny because I remember all the Baldur's Gate 2 fans, all the Neverwinter Nights fans, and the Planescape fans and so on....they all complained about how "casual" Dragon Age 1 was when it came out.

I'm not shocked, below average game with below average sales be propped up with paid for reviews.

I don't think " hot babes" guarantee success however I do think ugly ones will guarantee failure.