Dragon Age: The Veilguard creative director thinks there'll come a point in the games industry "where we can't make graphics better," so the focus will be on giving players "freedom" instead

Dragon Age: The Veilguard
(Image credit: EA)

Dragon Age: The Veilguard creative director John Epler has given his thoughts on what he reckons the games industry will look like in 25 years, and he thinks there'll come a point where developers' focus will be on giving players freedom.

Speaking to Eurogamer, the BioWare veteran says that while there's a "temptation to say it's going to be a technological shift," but when it comes down to it, "at a certain point, we come to the place where we can't make graphics better." Could we reach that point in the next 25 years? Of course, we can't know that for sure at this point, but Epler suggests that priorities will be different in the future. 

"Ultimately, it's going to be about finding that balance between player freedom and authored content," he says. "To me, that's the most interesting challenge. How do you manage to allow players freedom in your world, freedom in this space?

"25 years from now, I'm hoping technology resources will make it easier to build content in ways that allow for branching but also still have that feeling of hand-touched-ness that you lose a little bit when you get to procedural content," he adds. 

For more games like Dragon Age, be sure to check out our roundup of the best RPGs. 

Catherine Lewis
Deputy News Editor

I'm GamesRadar+'s Deputy News Editor, working alongside the rest of the news team to deliver cool gaming stories that we love. After spending more hours than I can count filling The University of Sheffield's student newspaper with Pokemon and indie game content, and picking up a degree in Journalism Studies, I started my career at GAMINGbible where I worked as a journalist for over a year and a half. I then became TechRadar Gaming's news writer, where I sourced stories and wrote about all sorts of intriguing topics. In my spare time, you're sure to find me on my Nintendo Switch or PS5 playing through story-driven RPGs like Xenoblade Chronicles and Persona 5 Royal, nuzlocking old Pokemon games, or going for a Victory Royale in Fortnite.