Blaming the dragon

The CEO of EA has some interesting thoughts on what could have made the latest Dragon Age game better. What are they? Also, Nintendo revenue drops as consumers wait for the Switch 2. All this and more. Let’s go!

Rethinking Dragon Age

Electronic Arts had a bad quarter. Partially it’s due to a drop in their sports game, but CEO Andrew Wilson also blamed the response to Dragon Age: The Veilguard. The game sold 1.5 million copies in its first two months, but management felt that was low. Polygon pulls some of the quotes from their recent financial call, which have some questioning EA’s strategy going forward:

In order to break out beyond the core audience, games need to directly connect to the evolving demands of players, who increasingly seek shared-world features and deeper engagement alongside high-quality narratives in this beloved category…Dragon Age had a high-quality launch and was well reviewed by critics and those who played. However, it did not resonate with a broad enough audience in this highly competitive market.

The “shared-world features” caught the attention of many in the business, as it seems Wilson was alluding to adding live-service features to the game - the same kind of gameplay that was the downfall of games like Suicide Squad. 

As Bioware switches its focus to a new Mass Effect game, many wonder if Wilson will demand these features be added to the game. One ex-Bioware lead says he would have quit if these were mandated for Dragon Age. 

Bioware has since cut approximately half their workforce. Adding live service elements to the game likely would not have helped sell more units, and a piece from Inverse makes a solid point: “If your expectations are so constantly off the mark that entire studios need to be gutted for missing them, maybe it’s time to consider that the people setting those expectations are the problem.”

Nintendo can’t wait to Switch

Nintendo investors can’t wait for the company to switch it up. In their latest fiscal report, Nintendo stated that hardware sales fell 30.6 percent year-on-year to 9.54 million units while software sales dropped 24.4 percent. Profits also fell by 41.9 percent, and the company lowered its operating profit outlook by 22 percent. 

What all this means according to Dr Serkan Toto, a games industry consultant is that the Switch 2 “cannot come soon enough.” From his interview with Video Games Chronicle:

It is now much clearer how Nintendo overestimated the life that is still left in the Switch at the start of the fiscal year. Nintendo now revised the hardware sales forecast two times, and I expect them to miss even this lowered forecast.

A Nintendo Direct is planned for April 2, at which time the company plans to announce more about the new hardware, possibly including a date for launch. It is scheduled to his store shelves this year.

Side Quests (more stories worth reading)

🔽 PlayStation Network was down for a large part of this past weekend, preventing players from downloading or playing online games. Sony apologized and said “all PlayStation Plus members will automatically receive an additional 5 days of service.”

🚗 Publisher Take-Two says Grand Theft Auto 6 is on track to release this fall. 

🎮 Yes, Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl halftime performance was on a PlayStation controller. The goal was "to portray Lamar’s life as a video game."

⚽ Sega canceled Football Manager 25 over quality concerns for the game. Meanwhile, EA acquired a “realism” technology firm for their soccer game EA Sports FC.

⚠️ Steam now warns users if an early access game might be abandoned. 

🕹️ The Entertainment Software Association, organizers of the now-deceased E3 conference, are starting a new convention next year called iicon. 

😥 Developer Iron Galaxy layed off 66 developers in a “last resort'” effort to stay afloat.

📈 Kickstarter competitor BackerKit says it tripled its crowdfunding revenue in 2024, while Gamefound finished the year with 6 of the top 10 tabletop campaigns.

👋🏻 Capcom will shut down the servers for Resident Evil Re:Verse, the multiplayer pack-in game that comes with Resident Evil Village. 

🪙 The largest lobbying group in gaming says Trump's potential tariffs “would negatively impact hundreds of millions of Americans” and do serious damage to the videogame industry.

🎶 Composer Winifred Phillips was “blown away” after winning the Grammy for best soundtrack in a video game for Wizardry: Proving Grounds, a remake of a 44-year-old game.

🪖 Electronic Arts says their next Battlefield game is expected by the end of March 2026. Fans of the series can sign up for early access to the game. 

🦇 Developer Rocksteady is reportedly working on a new Batman game, while the Wonder Woman game that has been in development is reportedly being rebooted and is years away. 

👵 A tabletop artist transformed the Golden Girls into Warhammer 40K supersoldier figures.  

🎙️ In a recent interview discussing AI to artificially create new performances, actor Harrison Ford said “you don’t need artificial intelligence to steal my soul,” referring to voice actor Troy Baker’s performance in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. Ford continued, saying “he did a brilliant job, and it didn’t take AI to do it.”

👏🏾 Activision raised $1.6 million for Los Angeles wildfire relief.

🛧 The co-founder of Treyarch pleaded guilty to crashing a drone into a firefighting plane during L.A. fires.

📉 Paradox Interactive reported a 17% revenue decline in 2024 and that they acquired Haemimont Games to strengthen its core business.

📊 Round numbers: Farming Simulator 25 sold 3 million copies, Sonic X Shadow Generations sold 2 million copies and Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 sold 1 million copies in 24 hours. 

🕹️ After 44 years, someone beat the Donkey Kong kill screen for the first time.

👊🏼 Polygon compiled a list of video games where you destroy fascists, in case you need that right now. 

New Releases this week: 

Check out our article on 10 New Games to Play in February.

2/11: Sid Meier's Civilization VII (PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and PC)
2/12: Urban Myth Dissolution Center (PlayStation, Switch and PC)
2/14: Afterlove EP (PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and PC)
2/14: The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak 2 (PlayStation, Switch and PC)

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